Queries Received Concerning Jetties

My 2005 article My love of jetties, some of my jetty work , Granite Island jetties & a list of S.A. jetties built from the 1800s to early 1900s resulted in a few queries and responses., as shown below: –

“When was the (Port) Minlacowie jetty demolished? Some websites (and I understand info on the cairn on the beach) suggest 1971, but I’m sure it was there for longer.”

Below are photos of the Port Minlacowie jetty site, the cairn on the beach at the site, and the old jetty itself: –

Our response was “We would be interested to hear whether your suggestion is correct. According to “The Jetties of South Australia”, it was in 1971 that the Harbors Board “decided to completely remove the jetty” but that’s not indicative of the actual time of the demolishing of it. Portions of the demolished jetty were said to have been used for the restoration of the Port Rickaby jetty, which occurred in the early 70s.”

Below are photos of Port Rickaby jetty: –

“Do you have information on who built the jetties? I believe my ancestor John Tate (Tait) may have been responsible for many of them, including Kangaroo Island, as that is where he met his wife.”

Our response was “There may be some info re some of the jetties. Neville Collins has written a very good book that has been revised. That would be a good starting point. Otherwise, we may be able to check on particular jetties of interest. Do you suggest starting with KI?” followed by “We have looked at Neville Collins’ book “The Jetties of South Australia – Past and Present”. A quick scan reveals that a J.TAIT was one of the builders of the Penneshaw jetty on KI. The book says that the jetty was built by J.Tait and T.Durham. We would need to scan the whole book to find any reference to a John Tate/J.Tait.”

Below are photos of Penneshaw jetty – 1. Taken through the ferry window 2. A much younger version of myself in earlier days: –

“I’m interested in the Mulgundawa jetty which has a (r) next to it. I guess it was built, as my ancestor was the person who was contracted to overseer the works – Samuel Carvosso. Is this jetty still there? I’ve never seen signs to it and we do go occasionally on the road from Wellington to Strathalbyn.”

Our response was “Mulgundawa/Mulgundawar jetty was demolished over 109 years ago (prior 1913).”

“Can you help me find more details about the jetty which was built in Coobowie, Yorke Peninsula, it was made of stone, and ketches sailed over from Adelaide to Coobowie delivering goods and uploading farming products-salt, wool etc. I am looking for photographs of the jetty, when it was new, and also when it was in use.”

Our response was “Neville Collins’s book The Jetties of SA says the causeway was 222.5m long and the jetty was 29m long.. it was demolished in 1953. Up to 2005 at least, two poles joined by a single timber brace could still be seen. That was the end of the stone causeway.”

“I’m related to the Tait’s and have been working on their history as it relates to my grandfather. My grandfather Walter Croft worked on Jetty maintenance around the state during the 1930’s through to the early 1950’s. He was a nephew of both John and William Tait and Charles Tait was his half-brother. Each of these gentlemen had contracts to either build or repair major Jetty infrastructure around the state.”

We were asked to pass these details on to another relative of the Tait family, which we did.

Below are photos of Port Broughton jetty: –

According to https://archival.collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/prg/PRG796_JTTait_serieslist.pdf , “John Taylor Tait was born in the Orkney Islands, Scotland, on 17 March 1852, second son of Peter Tait, carpenter and shipwright, and Margaret Inkster. He arrived in Geelong, Victoria, with his parents and brother James aboard the James T. Foord on 22 December 1852. ….. John Taylor Tait won tenders for construction of the BHP company’s jetty at False Bay in 1900 the Murat Bay screw pile jetty in 1902 and additions to Port Broughton jetty in 1903 before he moved briefly to Middle Park, Victoria, in 1903. …… Between 1903 and 1909 John Taylor Tait and his brother Will undertook a considerable number of works on Kangaroo Island including extensions to Hog Bay jetty, a new jetty at Kingscote and the St Alban’s lighthouse tower. The brothers raised the Point Lowly lighthouse in Spencer Gulf in 1909. ….. His last public works consisted of a wharf at Osborne in 1919, the Haycock jetty at Normanville in 1921 and finally the ferry point landing at Tailem Bend in 1924.”

Point Lowly lighthouse

Ian Croft tells me, “The Taits worked in other places as well. John also worked on the wharves at Port Pirie; I think he was a supervisor for Wishart when the Port Germein jetty was constructed, and also the Largs jetty. This afternoon I was working on correspondence between my Grandfather and Mr E. Price, the supervising engineer for the Harbors Board. One of my brothers has a commemorative clock given to C A Tait by the people of Antechamber Bay after his stint there. Peter Tait was at Penneshaw up until the early 1920s. John also raised the
height of the lighthouse at Point Lowly* by 22 feet, without the light going out! The whole story is more complicated than it appears. Wishart went into partnership with someone who had a major interest in theJarrah forests of the Southwest. That enabled him to get large timbers at a good price and also, I think, gave the Tait brothers a good price. It is interesting that Wishart , the Tait brothers, and Dalgetty were all from the same small area at Stromness in the Orkneys.”

* (See the photo of the lighthouse at Point Lowly above. According to Wikipedia, “The structure was raised by 7.6 metres to its current height in 1909”.)

The commemorative clock given to C A Tait by the people of Antechamber Bay after his stint there:

Further, Ian reports, “the correspondence between my grandfather and the Engineer for Construction for the Harbors Board is that my grandfather worked for several stints on maintenance on the same jetty at Port Germein, that his uncle John had built. Wishart and his partners (brothers and other family members) were highly mobile across Victoria, Western Australia and South Australia.”