Shipwrecks at Garden Island on Port Adelaide river's North Arm a unique collection of maritime archeology

The Santiago (main image), Garthneill (formerly Inverneill) and Dorothy H. Sterling (formely Oregon Pine) were among the shipwrecks that made up the Garden Island maritime heritage train in the North Arm of the Port River at Port Adelaide.
Images courtesy South Australian government environment and water department

The abandoned wrecks of the Garden Island ships graveyard in the North Arm of the Port River at Port Adelaide became unburied archaeological treasures. They made up a unique collection of craft that plied South Australian waters when the maritime industry dominated transport, trade and employment.

From 1909 to 1945, the Port River’s North Arm became the final destination for many vessels that had outlived their usefulness – casualties of technological change, the 1920s/30s Depression, two world wars, or from disrepair and accidental damage. Instead of scuttling the obsolete vessels in deep water, the South Australian Harbors Board decided it was easier and cheaper to beach and further dismantle the stripped hulks at Garden Island.

The 25 vessels known to have been abandoned in the North Arm were a varied group of dredgers, barges, pontoons and ferries as well as sailing ships and steamers. Many ended their working lives in the port as store ships or tenders. One even became a footbridge and another a floating grain mill.

Historic wrecks that line Garden Island, making up the maritime heritage trail, are partially shielded by mangroves and washed by the tide. Tours of the ships graveyard heritage trail in canoes, boats and dinghies were regularly available from the Garden Island ramp. Among the ships in the graveyard were:

• Dorothy H. Sterling, built in Portland, Oregon, in 1920. It arrived in Port Adelaide with a cargo of timber during the Depression in 1929. It was seized for unpaid harbour dues and systematically dismantled. In 1932, the gutted hill was towed to North Arm and abandoned as a source of free firewood.
• Garthneill, in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1895. It ran the grain trade between Europe and Australia, as well as other trades and routes. In 1921, it became Australia's only floating grain mill. It was abandoned at Garden Island in 1935.
• Lady Daly,  built in Williamstown, Victoria, in 1876. The schooner worked the South Australian coastal trade for more than 50 years before being abandoned at Garden Island in 1929.
• Santiago,  built in Methil, Scotland, in 1856. The barque arrived in Australia in 1900 and was converted to a coal hulk in Port Adelaide in 1901. It was abandoned in the North Arm in 1945 and stayed relatively intact.
• Mangana,  built in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1876. It traded between Tasmania and mainland Australian ports and later to Sydney and Noumea. In 1901 it was hulked in Port Adelaide and then abandoned at Garden Island in 1931.
• Other vessels at Garden Island were Enterprise, Flinders, Gem, Glaucus, Grace Darling, Juno, Killarney, Moe, Sarnia, Seminole, Stanley, Sunbeam, Thomas and Annie, unidentified iron pontoons 1 and 4, unidentified wooden barge, iron barge./dredge and unidentified iron dredge.