6 / 25
with the solid ground near Alberton. Tiio
road was 92 chains in lengtli, 35 ft. in
breadth on tl>e surface, and was formed by
excavating tlie ground on each side and
raising what was virtually an embankment
one foot above the highest tide which had
occurred after the establishment of the
colony. About the middle of June in the
same year the wO'ik was begun, and it was
expected that it would be finished in six
months. At the same time the announce
ment was made of the construction of a
wharf at the termination of the road. Tha
opening of theroad,which costabout£14,00(1
to construct, was timed for January
22, 1840, but, as previously mentioned, it
WU3 not until October that the completion
of the whole scheme made it possible for
the landing of goods to take place. The
work was carried out by the South Austra
lian Company, who brought metal in theii
own vessels from Kangaroo Island with
which to ballast the new roadway. Al
though the colony had not then been de
dared four years, a procession of 450 ve
hicles and 600 equestrians accompanied the
Governor to the Port. On arrival a royal
salute was fired by the sappers and minem
and replied to by the vessels in the river
The Governor was then conducted by Mr
D. Maelaren, Manager of the South Austri.
lian Company, to the new wharf, and after
prayer had been offered by the Colonial
Chaplain, Rev. C. B. Howard, His Excel
lency said—'T now declare this landing-
place to be a part of the new Port. I will,
if you please, give this wharf the name of
the gentleman under whose management it
has been constructed. We will call
it the Maelaren MJiarf. We will
now proceed to land the first
bale of goods upon it." A small
barque, callefl the Guiana, was lying along
side, and two boxes of tea and spices were
hauled up from the hold and deposited on
the wharf amid great applause. The Go
vernor's flag was struck, the Union Jack
run up, a salute fired by the sapi)ers, and
then the company adjourned for dinner in
the Company'vs warehouses. These had three
floors, with a frontage of 60 ft. to the road
and 90 ft. to the river. Tliey could stow
1,500 tOTis of goods.
From this time onward the building up
of the Port has been literally proceeding,
the deepening of the stream yielding the
spoil to reclaim the swamps. The boun
daries in the forties were on the north the
Korth-pai-ade, on the South St. VinCent-
street, on the west Mundy-street, and on
the east Commercial-road. Excavating for
the constriiction of the embankments caus
ed the Port to be surrounded on three
sides by ditches, and as on the fourth there
was the river it was possible for a
boat to almost circumnavigate -the set
tlement. A wooden bridge in a line with
the North-parade spanned the creek which
ran up Commercial-road, and the buildings
were mostly grouped at the north-eastern
corner of the town and along St. Vincent-
street As land within the restricted area
became valuable outside districts sprang
up.
A few of the fast-vanishing landmnrlcs
in the sliape of old houses remain to shov.-
the origina-1 street levels. These ancient
residenc-es would be as accessible from tho
pavement by way of the chimney, seeing
that the footpath makes a halfway com
promise bettveen the floor and the roof.
Yet at one time these identical dwellings
were entered from the street by steps, and
precocious youths of the forties were known
to defy parental capture by jumping from
the humble cottage threshold into a foot
or so of water which surrounded the
house The primitive Town Fathers were
perennially perturbed about the lowlyir.g
lauds, and the first work undertaken after
the formation of the Corporation was the
filling in of the St. Vincent-street ditch.
One of the winter lagoons recorded 350 by
180 ft., and to remove the fever-threatening
water, amongst otlier tilings, a steam
pump was jiroposed. Legislation was
sought to compel owners to drain
or fill up and fence the submerged allot
ments. Steady advancem-c-nt was made
with the work of reclamation. In 1877 it
is recorded that a well-known two-,story
shop, erected not many years after the es
tablishment of the Port, and occupied by,
among others, the late iMr. Sawtell, was
level with the footpath, whereas when
erected it was feet higher than the level
of the town. So much attention had to
be paid to the raising of the streets that