Ship-in-a-bottle Model
A Long Relationship with Bickfords
As was common in the days of sail, the Adelaide newspapers of the time would provide details of the passengers who had arrived on a newly arrived ship as well as providing Shipping Intelligence Reports. These Shipping Intelligence Reports would detail the precious cargoes that were important for the economy of the young colony of South Australia to grow. In the days before modern telecommunications, these newspaper reports were very helpful in informing people waiting for goods from overseas that a ship had arrived carrying goods destined for them.
So it was that the day after the clipper ship City of Adelaide arrived in Port Adelaide on Monday the 7th November 1864, the Tuesday edition of the South Australian Register newspaper listed the goods carried on the ship's maiden voyage. In addition to 100 tons of coal were goods for the South Australian Government, the South Australian Bank, Elder Smith and Co., and John Alexander Holden (later to become General Motors Holden). Also amongst the names was A. M. Bickford for whom three casks had arrived.
'A.M. Bickford' was Anne Margaret Bickford who had arrived in South Australia from England with her husband William in 1839. Soon after their arrival, William opened an apothecary on Hindley Street. This developed into a thiving business. By the time of William's premature death in 1850, Bickford’s was a major manufacturer and supplier of pharmaceutical and chemical products in South Australia and Australia. Anne then carried on her husband’s successful business before partnering with her two sons to form A M Bickford and Sons in 1863, the foundation of the household name today. In 1874, the company began producing premium cordials and aerated drinks following the acquisition of the South Australian Cordial and Aerated Water Factory.
Where once Bickford’s products were carried inside the City of Adelaide, now the ship will be carried inside Bickford’s bottles!
Ship in a Bottle
Rob Morrison has developed a simple paper pattern which you can cut out and assemble to make your own City of Adelaide ship-in-a-bottle. Fittingly, it is designed to go inside a Bickford’s juice bottle. The paper pattern and instructions on how to construct the model can be obtained from the Bickfords website.
Bickford's Australia is proud of its history and proud to support the cause to bring the City of Adelaide ship to South Australia. Bickford's spokesman, Rhys James Hillman, said: "The City of Adelaide ship was fundamental in providing goods and materials used by the Bickford's family in the early days of the Bickford's company operations. ... We believe in the importance of young people understanding SA's history and being proud of the state's origins. The ship in a Bickford's bottle generates curiosity in the ship's history."
About Rob Morrison
Rob is a freelance Science Communicator and broadcaster, and holds the position of Professorial Fellow at Flinders University.
Rob has written 34 books on science and natural history, and is co-author of 13 more, as well as dozens of articles. A science and environment broadcaster for forty years on television and radio, he co-hosted the long-running national television program Curiosity Show, which screened in 14 countries. He appears with Deane Hutton in “Ask Deane and Rob” on The New Inventors.
Rob was for ten years the environment and science correspondent for Channel Ten TV News and produced the science segments on NEXUS, the television program of the Australia Network, Australia’s Asia Pacific Service, which screens in 43 countries.
He has won many national and international awards, including the Michael Daley Award for Science Journalism, two Eureka Prizes, including the Australian Government Eureka Prize for the Promotion of Science, and the inaugural SA South Australian Government award for Excellence in Science Communication. In 2004, he was awarded the Order of Australia for Science Communication and Conservation.
For six years Rob was president and Chair of the Royal Zoological Society of SA, responsible for Adelaide and Monarto Zoos. He is currently Patron of National Science Week SA, Chair of SciWorld, South Australia's interactive science and environment centre, National Vice-President of the Australian Science Communicators, a member of the Board of the Australian Science Media Centre, and Chair or a member of many Boards and Councils of environment and conservation organisations.
Rob was the South Australian Senior Australian of the Year for 2008.
He is also related to George Woodroffe Goyder (1826-1898), who became the South Australian Surveyor-General in 1861 and is best remembered for establishing 'Goyder's Line of rainfall' to distinguish land suitable for agriculture in South Australia. When Goyder was sent to survey the Northern Territory, he sent his wife and their nine children - aged from 1 to 14 - to England on a holiday on the City of Adelaide. Sadly, his wife Frances died during the holiday in England. Their story can be read here.
