AUSTRALIA's First Screwpile Project "PORT VICTOR - South Australia"

In 1861 the decision was made to extend the tramway to Victor Harbor and to develop the harbour in the lee of Granite Island. Prior to this cutters and ketches serviced the community by beaching at low tide for loading and unloading, 1854 saw a small jetty built beneath the Bluff. In 1857 Captain Bloomfield Douglas, Colonial Harbourmaster was commissioned to accurately survey and identify the best places for moorings.

In 1862 something better was needed so a report was made on the requirements for a cargo jetty and facilities. July 1862 saw the commencement of a new jetty and pier. The presence of limestone created difficulties and delays due to the limestone reef. Contractor Mr Gouge declared himself bankrupt, but the government insisted on the work going ahead and the jetty was completed in June 1864. The tramway extension to Victor Harbor was opened on 4 August. This time the port was defined by the eastward side of Granite Island, the jetty itself and a stretch of the mainland: it was formally named Port Victor and the jetty named Victoria Pier. It was described as constructed entirely of colonial gum but that was not quite true. The pier consists of 89 bays each 20 ft. long, a total length of 1,780 ft. Each bay is supported by 3 piles at each end. The construction of the pier took the best part of two years and at a cost of AU$15,700.00 in todays money (8,800 pounds back then). The railway continued to the jetty end and cranes placed for loading and unloading cargo. Extensions to the jetty were completed in 1875. It continued across to Granite Island, becoming the current causeway as well as continuing along the eastern side of the island to a wharf known as the "Working Jetty". Even this did not solve all the problems at Port Victor, as larger vessels could not tie up to the Working Jetty. Goods still needed to be lightered out to larger ships out on their anchorage. The jetty was used predominantly by the smaller coastal vessels.

Again the call went out to improve to port facilities. Despite the establishment of Port Morgan on the Northwest Bend of the River Murray which included a direct railway to Port Adelaide which incidentally transported a good proportion of the river trade away from Goolwa and Victor Harbor, there were still sufficient goods coming from the lower reaches of the river and adjacent districts, to warrant further extensions to Victor Harbor. The possibility of a canal from Goolwa to Victor Harbor was discussed but discarded.

By 1881, a breakwater and inside this a screwpile jetty had been constructed. Breakwater granite was blasted from Granite Island in seven blasts totalling 192,000 tons.

For the screwpile jetty holes were blasted into the limestone and the special steel piles were screwed into the rock. Any cavities were then filled with concrete.

These latest harbour works were among the largest undertaken by the government at a cost of AU$218,000.00 in todays money or 122,171 pounds as it was back then. The first vessel to use the new screwpiled jetty was SS Penola on 3rd November 1881. Penola loaded 260 bales of wool in five hours a clear indication of the value of the facilities. Shortly after that the horse tramway was converted to a steam railway so increase delivery capacities and speed.

The Port of Victor Harbor had reached its peak and subsequently entered a steady decline. Increasingly the railways of Morgan and Milang delivered paddle-steamer cargo directly to Port Adelaide wharves, taking trade away from Port Victor, its decline continued. The Western Australian gold rush in the 1890's required timber for mine props. Broken Hill Proprietary Ltd also used lots of local timber. Hardwood telegraph poles and railway sleepers were exported. More telegraph poles were imported and large cylinders for the Murray Bridge construction were freighted from Port Adelaide, taken to Goolwa by rail, then by paddle-steamer to the bridge works. Between 1868-1919 a total of 2314 ships loaded cargo at Port Victor, of these 177 were overseas vessels. 

The railway had additional advantages for Victor Harbor. Tourists and holiday makers came and it became the State's premier holiday resort. A number of grand mansions and boarding houses were built.

The ports name Port Victor, was changed back to Victor Harbor in 1921. There was no longer the need to clearly distinguish it from Port Victoria on Yorke Peninsula. There was no longer a distinction between Victor Harbor and Port Victor, one in the same.

Victor Harbor still had one last fling. In 1923 several ships from the Royal Australian Navy visited, and in March 1924 the famous British battleship HMS Hood, together with six other Royal Navy vessels anchored in Encounter Bay. Some say, irrefutable proof of the excellence in Victor Harbor as a deep-sea Port. There was a further flurry in the 1930s when Royal Australian Navy vessels visited, but its days as a working port were over. The final nail was when lifeboat and rocket equipment were removed in 1935 as part of an overall South Australia's lifesaving services reduction.

As the sign above states: in1878 the jetty at Beachport was constructed using screwpiles. Considered one of the most beautiful jetties in South Australia, the Beachport Jetty extends over the waters of Rivoli Bay and offers beautiful sightseeing over the bay. Locals fish for Mullet, Salmon, Whiting and Mulloway off the jetty. As the second longest jetty ever built in South Australia the Beachport Jetty used to span over 1.2kms but now the jetty is reduced to 772 metres.

All in all a fascinating tail of what we believe is the first major screwpiling project done in Australia. We would do things rather differently nowadays but I can for the life of me understand why hi-capacity screwpiles are not used more in marine environments. We'd welcome the opportunity to prove that point!

For more information on screwpiling visit Screwpile Australia at FEG or call +61 (0)8 9371 7711.

Please Note: Management at Screwpile Australia thanks now retired screwpiling contractor Mr Paul Lewenhoff for the great images taken on his round Australia travels. And special mention goes to the State Library of South Australia for the use of the historical texted contained herein. We have relied on those facts with thanks, gratitude and appreciation.