Government paid A$850,000 to move her (from Scotland to Oz) and now seems to have lost interest…

South Australian Transport Minister Stephan Knoll has given the owners of the 1864 wooden clipper ship City of Adelaide until March to move her from Dock One to another part of the harbour known as “Dock 2” in Port Adelaide. It’s situated on the northern side of the Tom ‘Diver’ Derrick Bridge over the Port River and is difficult to access from the historic part of Port Adelaide. City of Adelaide Preservation Trust director Peter Christopher replies that he would rather the 176ft (54m) ship be moved to a regional city or interstate than to such an “inaccessible” location. The group led a 14-year campaign to get the ship’s hull returned to Port Adelaide, with a steel cradle paid for by firms in South Australia costing A$1.2m and with the South Australian Government coughing up A$850,000 for the cost of the shipping from the UK. She arrived on her barge at Dock One in 2014, where a group of volunteers takes visitors

Volunteers organise tours of the famous old clipper

on tours while trying to raise funds for her restoration. Able to carry 300 passengers at a time in specially constructed temporary cabins the ship brought thousands of migrants to South Australia in the 19th century but was taken out of trade in the 1920s and by the end of the century was left to rot on the banks of the river Clyde in Scotland.

The ship needs to be moved to make way for 750 home sites which are going for sale next to Dock One. Managing director of developers Starfish Developments Damon Nagel  says more than 400 jobs are at stake. He said the State Government sold his company the Dock One land with the understanding the City of Adelaide would be moved “months ago”. “You could argue Port Adelaide isn’t actually the greatest suburb in Adelaide and it needs development to get going and this ship is single-handedly stopping it,” Mr Nagel said. “People… buy down there because they want a view of the water and the other side of Dock One. “It’s just not appropriate for a ship of that size to be in that residential environment.” He said the ship and related “paraphernalia” on the dock were at “ground zero” of the development, stopping initial works for stormwater, sewerage and power going ahead.

Google image of the ship’s position

 

“The trust owners are being difficult in the sense they’ve got an unbelievable offer from the Government,” The Adelaide group has been told “Dock 2” was the only site the Government had to give away in Port Adelaide, and they were handed a March deadline to move the ship during meetings on December 21, 2018, and on January 4 2019. Mr Christopher said the clipper could move to the offered site in the long-term, “subject to a number of conditions, including a road being put in so people could find it”. “Dock 2 is virtually inaccessible,” Mr Christopher told ABC Radio Adelaide. “It’s an industrial wasteland. Nobody could find it even if they had a map to show them there. “So if the ship were to go there in a temporary situation, it would just be lost.” He said the trust was against being forcibly moved by March, and said the Government had shown a “lack of interest” in the historic boat. Port Augusta in SA’s north has previously expressed interest in the vessel.

Video on CofA‘s history and return to Oz

[/fusion_youtube]