City of Adelaide Clipper

The Hon. J.A. DARLEY (15:54): I recently had the opportunity to view a film on the recovery of the clipper ship City of Adelaide at Port Adelaide where the ship is located. The most important historic ship in Australia, the City of Adelaide was specifically designed and built to carry immigrants to Adelaide. It undertook 23 return journeys between London and Adelaide between 1864 and 1887, carrying up to 300 passengers and freight each trip. It is of international significance and is now located in Port Adelaide.

The remarkable campaign to save it from being broken up in Scotland, the massive engineering and logistical operation to transport it to Adelaide and its ongoing restoration and public display has been and continues to be undertaken by volunteers. Their objective is to preserve the City of Adelaide and make it the centrepiece of a seaport village, a maritime version of Ballarat's well-known Sovereign Hill.

Currently, the restoration focus is the repair of the saloon deck, which housed first-class passengers in 14 cabins. Construction of two replica cabins is also now underway. Serving as a passenger ship, cargo carrier in the North Atlantic, and isolation hospital in Southampton, a Royal Navy drill ship, renamed as HMS Carrick, and Navy Reserve clubrooms on the River Clyde, it ended its life virtually derelict in Scotland and facing deconstruction.

Saved by Adelaide volunteers and recovered after a campaign that started in 2000, the vessel arrived in Port Adelaide in February 2014. The engineering task of planning, lifting and moving the 545-ton load from Scotland to Australia was formidable, but successfully achieved. Engineering firms from across South Australia made an invaluable contribution.

The vessel was renamed from Carrick back to its original name, City of Adelaide, at a special ceremony in London on 19 October 2013 by His Royal Highness the late Prince Philip, as it was being transported from Scotland to Adelaide. The enormous ship is undergoing preservation and limited restoration by volunteers. It is a major tourist attraction sitting on a barge in Dock Two and next year will be moved onto adjoining land provided on a peppercorn lease by the South Australian government. It has already attracted tens of thousands of visitors since its arrival in 2014.

Daily tours are conducted by volunteers, providing a unique experience of being inside an original, authentic 1864 sailing ship. A quarter of a million descendants in Australia can trace their heritage as passengers and crew of the City of Adelaide, making it an iconic part of our social history and of great educational value. The City of Adelaide is five years older than the only other remaining composite vessel in the world, the famous Cutty Sark in London. Composite ships with a wooden hull over iron frames were relatively rare, being the transition from wooden sailing ships to iron steamships.

The ship is owned and the project is managed by the Clipper Ship City of Adelaide Limited, a volunteer run not-for-profit organisation. The majority of the income has come from privately raised funds, including from corporate organisations, community groups and individuals. The volunteer group proposes to develop the remainder of Dock Two with its seaport village and other activities so that it provides a sustainable income source to fund the ongoing restoration of this most important vessel.