Sometimes the final miles can take the longest to travel. A full decade after being carried by heavy-lift ship over 10,000 nautical miles from Scotland to her namesake port city, City of Adelaide, the oldest surviving composite clipper ship in the world, has finally been moved ashore to its final berth at Dock Two at Port Adelaide. The 160-year-old clipper ship will become the centerpiece of a proposed new maritime heritage precinct, showcasing the Port’s colorful and important role in the development of South Australia.

More than 250,000 Australians can trace their ancestry through the clipper ship as it worked the Britain-Adelaide migrant route.

Constructed in Sunderland, England, and launched in 1864, to carry passengers and goods to South Australia, the 600-tonne City of Adelaide made 23 return voyages from London and Plymouth to Adelaide between 1864 and 1887. The City of Adelaide was one of the fastest clippers on the London-Adelaide run.

The campaign to rescue and return the clipper ship City of Adelaide to Australia has stretched on for almost fifteen years. After lobbying, fundraising, and careful engineering, the historic clipper was saved from the scrapyard in Scotland and transported home by heavy-lift ship in 2014, only to become entangled in negotiations over where the ship would best be preserved within Port Adelaide.  While discussions were ongoing, the City of Adelaide was moved on to a barge in 2019 on the Port River where it has been open for daily tours.

City of Adelaide Clipper ship moves on to land

Thanks to Dick Kooyman for contributing to this post.