Page 5 - 1977 NAB CalendarMaritime Life in early Australia Part One

PORT ADELAIDE

JANUARY
This picture was painted in 1847, only about five years after the beginnings
Port Adelaide’s settlement coincided with the height of the canal-buildinq of the Port Adelaide settlement, yet the extent of development that had
era in Enqland, and early planners envisaged a network of canals linking taken place is evident from this bustling scene. The Commercial Inn and
the port with Adelaide. Excavation for Port Adelaide’s first canal began in the shop of R. Venn, the butcher on the right, appear to be attracting good
1847. It extended from the river to the corner of present-day Commercial business, while the first Customs House, with its royal crest, introduces a
Road and St. Vincent Street, and although it was to have followed the line more dignified note on the left.
of Commercial Road to Adelaide, it was never completed. It is probably
this canal which is shown in Gill’s watercolour, spanned by Port Adelaide’s Samuel Thomas Gill, who was born in 1818 and died in 1880, recorded
first bridge. The canal may have followed the course of an existing creek, much of Australia’s early development in his drawings and watercolours.
or the two may have become confused in early records. He arrived in Adelaide in 1839 and shortly afterwards set himself up as an
artist. This watercolour is full of the vitality and humorous detail for which
The area was later filled in, and the bridge was removed. Today, the last his work is noted.
section of Port Adelaide’s busy Commercial Road follows the line of this
watercourse.

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