Port Adelaide is a port-side region of Adelaide , approximately 14 kilometres 8. It is also the namesake of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield council, a suburb, a federal and state electoral division and is the main port for the city of Adelaide. Port Adelaide played an important role in the formative decades of Adelaide and South Australia , with the port being early Adelaide's main supply and information link to the rest of the world.
Its Kaurna name, although not officially adopted as a dual name , is Yertabulti. Prior to European settlement Port Adelaide was covered with mangrove swamps and tidal mud flats, and lay next to a narrow creek. The entrance to this creek, the Port River, was first reported by Europeans in It was explored by Europeans when Captain Henry Jones entered in At low tide the channel was surrounded by mudbanks.
Colonel William Light began closely exploring the area in late while deciding on a site for the colony of South Australia's port. By this time it had acquired the name "the port creek". This opposition was largely based on the distance between them.
The division of power in the colony meant that the final decision was Light's alone. He kept Adelaide and the port separate principally due to the lack of fresh water at the port. The effective foundation day of Port Adelaide was 6 January The new port was used for shipping later that month, and passengers began disembarking the next.
At this point the site was known as The Port Creek Settlement. When founded, the port's land was just higher than the surrounding tidal flats; at high tide the port could be rowed around. They had to land at Holdfast Bay until the port was charted. By it had acquired the name "Port Misery"; the name was widely used in news reports.
