Sailing Ketch Memorial Print Page

The memorial commemorates sailing ketches which traded from 1850 to 1930 and at Port Wakefield from 1849 to 1857. 

In 1849 the copper company established a shipping place for ore at the mouth of the Wakefield River and called it Port Henry.  When the township was surveyed by the government the name was changed to Wakefield.

Small sailing barges landed cargoes of coal and carried copper ore to Port Adelaide, or to large sailing ships anchored off shore.  The port had to be dredged but such was the production of copper at Burra that within six months an estimated 7000 tonnes of copper had passed through the port. 

Port Wakefield was never suitable as a port due to tidal conditions, and consequently with the decline in copper the port declined although it did remain as a port for wool and wheat well into this century. In 1909 300,000 bags of wheat were exported through the port.

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Dedication