|
|
| |
Trolleybus termini
Largs |
|
Burnside |
| |
Semaphore |
|
Erindale |
| |
Beaumont |
|
 |
| |
Adelaide’s first settlers arrived in 1836 at ‘Port Misery’, which was replaced by nearby Port Adelaide in 1840.
The Port developed as a thriving village. Its privately owned wharves and cargo sheds served the ketches which sailed all around the South Australian coastline, and the interstate and overseas cargo and mail steamers. Fine commercial buildings were erected.
A horse tramway was opened to Albert Park in 1879. Electric trams ran between Port Adelaide, Largs, Semaphore, Albert Park and Rosewater from 1917 to 1935.
By the 1920s and 1930s the State Government had taken over the private wharves and rebuilt them.
From 1938 to 1963, in the heyday of the Port, trolley buses linked Port Adelaide with Semaphore, Largs and Adelaide. Trolley buses went to town every three minutes. Today there is a half hourly off peak diesel bus service.
Larger ships calling only at Outer Harbour, and the introduction of containerisation from the 1960s has brought great change, The Port’s future is now in new urban living, entertainment and tourism based on its museums, period buildings and history. |
|
St. Vincent Street
St Vincent Street 1920.
Postcard |
| |
|
|
Sunbeam Trolleybus in St Vincent Street 1960.
JC Radcliffe |
| |
|
|
St. Vincent Street was a bustling commercial centre in the 1950s and 1960s, but by 2000, other suburban shopping centres were competing for much of the retail trade. Weekend traffic is quiet, but heavy trucks dominated much of the weekday traffic until 2008 when the Port River Expressway bridges were opened.
M Billett |
| |
|
| |
|
|
Jervois Bridge
Jervois Bridge 1918.
Archives |
| |
|
|
Jervois Bridge 23 March 1960.
JC Radcliffe |
| |
|
|
The old Jervois swing bridge built in 1878 to carry trains later carried trams and trolleybuses. In the mid-1960s a new fixed bridge was built, and motorbuses now use it. High density houses have since been built on the bank near to the bridge.
M Billett |
| |
|
| |
Commercial Road
Sunbeam trolleybus 512, with the railway bridge seen in the distance is turning at the Black Diamond Corner from Commercial Road into St. Vincent Street. Ð 1960
JC Radcliffe |
|
Birkenhead Bridge
When the trolleybuses could no longer use the Jervois Bridge, gantries were erected on the Birkenhead Bridge. Its bascule opening made this difficult.
M J Church |
| |
|
|
When the bridge was open, the hinged overhead wires were slack. Careful alignment was essential at closing. The only other example was in Chicago.
M J Church |
| |
|
| |
 |
| |
The first trolleybuses were housed at the northern end of Hackney tram depot beyond the tramway ‘truck shop’ (seen here), in an area previously used by the Permanent Way Department. Sheds to accommodate double-deckers, originally for the 1925 Garford motorbuses, had been erected against Botanic Drive.
Leo Rowe |
|
Space for trolley buses was initially provided at Port Adelaide by converting the original 6-track 1917 tram depot and by adding a tin shed on its north side – Port Depot, 1950.
Leo Rowe |
| |
Port Adelaide depot (at rear) was completely rebuilt in 1956-7. The Leyland trolleybuses (431-435) in the foreground, and whose chasses had been brought very economically when sent ‘on spec’ to Australia on the end of a Sydney order in 1937, were hard to keep running due to lack of parts.
D A Colquhoun |
|
A new bus depot was opened at Hackney south on the site of the old ‘Southern Annex’ tram depot on October 18 1955. A forest of trolleybus poles can be seen. Servicing stopped at Hackney North depot and its wires were removed.
J C Radcliffe |
| |
The new Port Adelaide and Hackney South depots were similar and featured raised servicing roads. Seen here at Port depot are (from left) AEC Regal VI diesel, Sunbeam trolleybus, AEC Regal IV diesel (700 series), and AEC Regal III diesel (bodied by Chas Hope, Brisbane).
J C Radcliffe |
|
|
| |
|
| |
 |
| |
A mounted constable is returning to Thebarton Barracks as Adelaide-bound workers walk, travel by the new AEC trolleybuses or on the Findon tram (at left) up Port Road near West Terrace to North Terrace. 1938. D A Colquhoun collection. |
|
Entering West Terrace from Port Road, prior to turning into Hindley Street. 1963.
M J Church |
| |
|
|
Returning into Port Road from West Terrace on the way to Semaphore. 1963.
M J Church |
