Welcome

The Honourable Sir John Cox Bray, KCMG, JP - the first native-born Premier of South Australia. The earliest of the diaries kept by a passenger on the City of Adelaide was kept by Sarah Ann, his sister, during the maiden voyage. Sarah was travelling with her parents and…

The arrival of His Excellency F. A. Weld and his party aboard the City of Adelaide on 31 July 1869 caused a minor flurry among the social circles of Adelaide. He had just been appointed Governor of Western Australia and was travelling on the clipper from England to…

A comparison of the Qantas 747-438 'City of Adelaide' (call sign VH-OJE) with Devitt and Moore’s 'City of Adelaide'. Clipper ships were the 747s of the 1860s. Devitt and Moore’s best time to Adelaide was 77 days but the trip once took 105 days. Qantas can carry passengers…

The clipper proudly bore upon her stern the coat of arms for the City of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, the city she was built to serve and after which she was named.

During the City of Adelaide's 1866 voyage Frederick Norman Scarfe (former Mayor of the Town of Kensington and Norwood) was clearly returning from Britain. He and his wife Mary Trevenen had set up home in Adelaide’s early eastern village of Norwood in the early 1850s.

Due to the rugged terrain in the Flinders Ranges, donkey teams were often used to transport wool and copper to the clippers in Port Augusta harbour.

As the working proprietor, Henry Martin was the driving force in establishing the Blinman mine. Henry Martin took a quarter share in the City of Adelaide seeing an excellent chance to exercise a level of control over the use of a ship and its freight charges.

Joseph Nancarow aged 38, with three of his daughters - Jane (13), Edie (6) and Myrtle (4) - shortly after the death of his first wife. In the 1860s, the decline of mining in Cornwall left many miners unemployed. Many Cornishmen like Joseph Nancarrow migrated to South Australia…

The clipper proudly bore upon her stern the coat of arms for the City of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, the city she was built to serve and after which she was named.

City of Adelaide at Port Augusta c1883. "Much rivalry there was too between the ships, as to which should get her hatches battened down first, complete her crew and clear away for the February wool sales. And men in those days were not always easy to procure, for…

After her maiden voyage to Adelaide, the local newspaper provided an eye-witness description of the interior of the City: "Mirrors and pianoforte add to the general effect; while a visit to the state-rooms, of which there are six on each side, show at a glance that nothing is…

Henry Cruickshank Fletcher (1820-1912) was born Henry Cruickshank Flett at Strathness on the Orkney Islands in Scotland. Fletcher’s Slip was an important asset to the people of South Australia. It was the site of the first slipway, enabling full repairs and maintenance of the local ships and ships…

City of Adelaide at Port Augusta c1883. "There one could see at times quite a clump of pretty little clippers lying in the stream between the mangrove-clad shores, waiting for the camel trains to come in from Pekina and Coonatto and Mount Remarkable.

Clipper ships in the Port River in 1884 as seen looking south from Cruickshanks Corner near the present location of the Birkenhead Bridge.

Having been married only a few weeks earlier, George 26 and Annie Wilcox 24 boarded the brand-new ship in August 1864 to sail for South Australia and to set up home in Gawler. Arguably, there were no passengers who can be more closely identified with the City of…

When Archdeacon Woodcock travelled on the City of Adelaide from London to arrive home at North Adelaide in October 1866, he was completing a return trip to England prescribed by his panel of three doctors. In the 19th century era when the clipper was making her trips to…

James and Caroline McLauchlan with five of their nine children (c 1889). In 1874, when 21 years old, James migrated to Adelaide on board the City of Adelaide. He kept a diary which begins with his departure from Dundee, Scotland, and continues until Kangaroo Island.

The 'City of Adelaide' was slipped at Fletcher's Slip in 1874 after grounding near Grange and in 1877 after losing her rudder. Fletcher’s Slip was an important asset to the people of South Australia. It was the site of the first slipway, enabling full repairs and maintenance of…

(Later Sir) Tom Cockburn-Campbell was a 19 years old youth when he migrated to Australia in the saloon of the City of Adelaide on her maiden voyage in 1864. After a brief stop-over in Adelaide, he made his way on towards Queensland by coastal vessel.

"We are sorry at having to report that, driven by the severe westerly gale, which lasted during Sunday night, Messrs. Devitt and Moore’s register liner, the fine favourite ship 'City of Adelaide' has gone ashore on Kirkaldy Beach, between Henley Beach and Semaphore."

In 1865, the year of the second voyage of the City of Adelaide to South Australia, the colony's leading photographer of the time, Townsend Duryea, took a series of photographs that captured the development of colonial Adelaide. He climbed on to scaffolding surrounding the newly completed tower of…

After her maiden voyage to Adelaide, the South Australian Register newspaper provided an eye-witness description of the interior of the City: "The main saloon is a handsome appointment decorated with white and gold, and furnished with settees, tables and sideboard of solid teak. Mirrors and pianoforte add to…

The City of Adelaide at Port Augusta (third ship from right) in 1884. Upon arrival in South Australia, she would frequently unload migrants and manufactured goods at Port Adelaide through August and September, then move to Port Augusta to pick up copper ore and wool in October. On…

Matilda Methuen arrived at Port Adelaide in 1864 on the maiden voyage of the 'City of Adelaide'. She had travelled to South Australia expressly to marry her cousin Peter Waite. Exactly two weeks later, on the 21st November, the couple were married at the Woodville home of Robert…

Because his wife’s health was not strong, George Goyder sent his wife and nine children on a holiday trip back to England abord the City of Adelaide. Six weeks before the family was due to leave on the return trip, Goyder’s wife died in Bristol.

Current Status - as of 29 June 2010

The Scottish Minister for Culture and External Affairs, Fiona Hyslop, has asked Historic Scotland to fully evaluate four options for the ‘City of Adelaide’:

Removal to Sunderland
Removal to Adelaide in South Australia
Retention in a different location in Scotland
Managed (archaeological) Deconstruction of the vessel

Historic Scotland has commissioned consultants, DTZ, to prepare an Options Study. DTZ subsequently submitted a first draft of the report on 31st May. Historic Scotland are expecting to receive the final report soon and will then make a recommendation to Ministers.

Minister Hyslop recently visited the Scottish Maritime Museum at Irvine, but is unlikely to comment on the ‘City of Adelaide’ ahead of receiving a recommendation from Historic Scotland.

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Fast Facts

The world heritage passenger ship City of Adelaide is the older of only two surviving composite clipper ships in the world - the ‘Cutty Sark’ is the other.
The City of Adelaide is in remarkably sound condition.
Preservation rather than restoration is the goal for the City of Adelaide.
Transportation options are readily available and feasibility studies have verified how easily the City of Adelaide can be moved.
Tenders have been called to demolish the City of Adelaide because the owners of the slipway where the historic clipper sits have served notice on the museum to vacate the site.
Burra Charter (1979) principles suggest that Sunderland, UK, or Port Adelaide, South Australia, are the most appropriate places to present and interpret City of Adelaide.
The primary goal is to prevent the City of Adelaide being destroyed in the United Kingdom. Bringing the ship back to Port Adelaide is the secondary goal.
The Clipper Ship City of Adelaide Ltd. is a non profit organisation.
The organisation enjoys the support of many eminent Australians and Britons, as well as support from all sides of politics.
The City of Adelaide is the only surviving sailing ship built to give regular passenger and cargo service between Europe and Australia, she represents a whole foundation era of Australian social and economic history.
Approximately a quarter of a million Australians can trace their roots to passengers who arrived on the City of Adelaide.
The City of Adelaide is a vital icon of the making of modern Australia and of the relationship between Britain and the Australian colonies. It is an extraordinarily important part of our common heritage. It must not be demolished.

Welcome to the website for the splendid clipper ship City of Adelaide.

The City of Adelaide and Cutty Sark are the last two composite clippers that survive in the world today. The Cutty Sark is famous for carrying tea from China and wool from Sydney, Australia, to Britain. The City of Adelaide is famous for being specially designed as a passenger ship and is nearly six years older than the Cutty Sark. The City of Adelaide would also carry imported trade goods into South Australia as well as carry South Australian exports such as copper, wool and grain to Britain on the return voyages.

Over a quarter of a century the City of Adelaide carried emigrants from, in particular, England, Scotland, Germany and Ireland to South Australia. Today, the descendants of her passengers can be found throughout Australia. As the only surviving sailing ship built to give regular passenger and cargo service between Europe and Australia, the City of Adelaide represents a whole foundation era of Australian economic and social history. It is difficult to imagine a more vital icon of the making of modern Australia, and of the relationship between Britain and the Australian colonies.

We wish to bring the City of Adelaide back to South Australia and display her as part of a heritage, sense of place, sense of time, experiential, not-for-profit Seaport Village in Port Adelaide.