The City of Port Adelaide was a local government area of South Australia centred at the port of Adelaide from 1855 to 1996.
Early years The council was established on 27 December 1855 when the Corporate Town of Port Adelaide was proclaimed as a new municipality centred on the township of the port of Adelaide, which had been opened some years prior in 1837. From 1884 to 1900 the adjacent district councils of Portland Estate, Birkenhead, Queenstown and Alberton, and Rosewater, and the Corporate Town of Semaphore, were amalgamated with the Town of Port Adelaide, dramatically increasing its size. On 23 May 1901, Port Adelaide was proclaimed a city by Governor Tennyson and became the City of Port Adelaide.
From the late 1830s to 1945, the area surrounding Port Adelaide was subdivided into many small district areas as owners bought, subdivided and sold areas of land. As the areas became smaller, and more landowners named their own estates, the number of these early "suburbs" reached 90.
Modern Name Early Subdivision Name Alberton Albert Town, Glebe Birkenhead Bridgetown, Bridgewater, Davies Town, Sandwell Ethelton Ethelston, Thornton Exeter Bath, Clifton, Davies Town, Fisherville, Freshwater, Greenwich, Staplehurst Gillman Newhaven, North Arm, Northarmton Glanville Port Bridge, Waterville Largs Bay Eastbourne, Ferryville, Guilford, Harveyton, Hastings, Newport, Shoreham, Ward Town, Margate Largs North London, Swansea, Largs Bay Estate Osborne Brooklyn, Mascotte, Midlunga, Blackpool, Austral-Brindisi Estate Ottoway Guildford Park, Hardwicke, Norbiton, Sassafras Estate, Whiteville Outer Harbor Eurimbla, Harbour Park, Portsmouth Peterhead Farnham, Gold Diggers Village, Hamley, Sandwell Port Adelaide Greytown, Moilong, Newhaven, Portland Estate, Portsea Rosewater Bayswater, Paddington, Dockville, Perth, Yatala, Rosatala, Kingsnorth, Greytown, Kingston, Kingston East, Kelmscott, Rosewater East Semaphore Alderley, Clairville, Clifton, Freshwater, Kew, New Liverpool, Plymouth, Scarborough, Weymouth Semaphore South Davington, Saint Margaret's, Thornton, Whitby Taperoo Draper, Gedville Estate, Koolena, Kooraka, River View, Silicate, Silicate Beach Wingfield Brooklyn, Dundas, Hull, Millicent, Myrtlehome, Newark, Norahville, Rosslyn, Wicklow
1940s to 1996 By the 1940s the number of suburbs was becoming a problem, so the Port Adelaide Council moved to reduce the number of local district areas to 18, in 1945. The boundaries and names of the suburbs were further stabilised when postcodes were introduced to Australia in 1967.Couper-Smartt, 2003:167
In March 1996 the City of Port Adelaide merged with the City of Enfield to form the new City of Port Adelaide Enfield.
Mayors of Port Adelaide (Corporate Town of Port Adelaide) Captain French; first mayor of Port Adelaide J. W. Smith "for five or six years" F. Reynolds 1864 J. M. Sinclair 1866–1869 John Formby 1869–1871 J. M. Sinclair 1873–1876 David Bower 1877–1878 Theodore Hack 1879–1880 Henry W. Thompson 1881–1882 George Bollen 1883 Thomas John King 1884 Theodore Hack 1885 Sidney Malin 1886 J. Cleaver 1889 Charles Tucker 1891 Bernard Sigrist 1894 C. R. Morris 1895 T. Grose 1899 (Greater Port Adelaide formed from union with Semaphore) J. W. Caire 1900 J. C. G. Jurs 1901 R. S. Guthrie 1902 J. W. Caire 1904 John Sweeney 1905 A. W. Brown 1908 W. T. Rofe 1910 E. Branford 1912 J. H. Clouston 1912 John Sweeney 1916 R. H. Smith 1918 Lewis 1920 J. Anderson 1920 H. Slade 1922 A. O. R. Tapp 1925 F. J. Brown 1927 A. J. W. Lewis 1930 J. Gibb 1933 Harry William Bray (1934–1937) Ralph Wright (1937–1940) Alfred Lowrie Good (1940–1943) William Henry Gilbert (1943–1946) George McBeth MacKay (1946–1949) Harold Joseph Moore (1949–1955) Percy William Whicker (1956–1964) Anna Moir Rennie (1964–1969) Harold Charles Roy Marten (1969–1987) Ronald Bruse Hoskin (1987–1989) Julie Barbara Dearing (1989–1991) Robert Arthur Allen (1991–1995) Johannes Gerardus Pieters (1995–1996)
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