Port Noarlunga - Holidaymaker’s Paradise, in the Adelaide Coast region of South Australia

The bluffs and headlands of the Fleurieu coast are parted by long and attractive sandy beaches, and at Port Noarlunga you can throw in the mouth of the Onkaparinga River, the jetty, its long reef and marine park to back up its 1920’s claim to be the Holidaymaker’s Paradise. Two centuries ago, the French navigator Nicholas Baudin must have liked what he saw here too because he named the cliffs rising north of the jetty as Picturesque Pointe. We know it as Witton Bluff. The sailing brig David Witton ended up stern first against the rocks below in an 1839 storm and broke up.

A tall cairn of rounded sea pebbles creates a striking monument overlooking the beach. It was raised by the members of a city cycling club who knew Captain Collett Barker came ashore near here in 1831. Trying to fill in the gaps between Flinders’ voyage and Sturt’s epic Whaleboat trip down the Murray, he ventured upstream as far as the hills where Old Noarlunga sits in the river horseshoe. Within two weeks, Barker was speared to death after he swam the mouth of the Murray.

High on the cliffs south of the Port Noarlunga beach, local history researcher Vanessa Catterall joined us. Barker was in Kaurna aboriginal territory here, and he used their name for the river below. His map calls it Ponkepurringa Creek. (The derived Onkaparinga means women’s river). Vanessa talked about are of the first of the new British province’s country towns.

“A few kilometres up the estuary, the South Australian Company offered lots for sale in 1839 in their proposed market town of Noarlunga. The idea was that down here the river port would take its produce.” Even with greater river flows than today, the mouth proved impenetrable for coastal ketches, and so a novel solution emerged to get the flourbags from Noarlunga’s mill and its district’s wheat and produce to export markets.

“Barges would bring it down to where the road bridge now crosses the river, and there it was transferred onto small horse-drawn rail trucks.” There’s a wide barrier of sandhills that still exist today, and so how did they get through, I asked. “They dug a cutting through to the first jetty,” responded Vanessa.

Later, during the holiday heyday of the town, the estuary gained rowboats for hire and a kiosk by the bridge. On the last bend to the ocean, a quaint footbridge took campers across the stream. It was replaced by a sturdier wooden model in the 1970’s. Of course, Port Noarlunga is now a southern suburb sprawling over the undulations, but come down towards the river flats and the signs are still evident of the village that grew to water the day tripper trade. And every self-respecting town had its own Institute, and the 1924 architecture is now appealingly painted as the façade of the local cultural centre. It is a feature in an early 1920’s oasis of old shops that are attractively refurbished to invite us to linger.

If you really want to find your way round the old area, you’ll need to buy a copy of the “blue book”, a Port Noarlunga history by Lita Martella, long time resident and former shopkeeper. We were lucky enough to be shown around. There’s an early piece of the old port behind the brightly painted surf shop. “Round the back you can see a wall of the old barn,” she said. Her photo collection shows it with a large “Amgoorie Tea” sign painted on the roof. Over the road, she pointed out a shop which was first called the Newee Barn and then the Terminus Café, because the Briscoe’s Bus from Adelaide stopped there to offload hordes of thirsty beachgoers. The hotel on the same intersection has a claim to fame, as well. “It boasted the first open air beer garden in the state,” Lita confirmed. “They called it the Frangipani Gardens.” We joked that a lot of people would remember having a shandy there.

Back on the foreshore, there is an instantly recognizable landmark - a grand white residence high on a sandhill overlooking the jetty. Most of us have called it “The Whitehouse” forever, but it was officially named “Fancourt” when it was completed in 1935. It’s a distinctive piece of the era, with its hexagonal chimneys and tower designed by architect John Glover, who went onto become a Lord Mayor of Adelaide. The owner was businessman Hugh Corpe, who became an integral part of the local community, throwing an annual Christmas party for the whole Pt Noarlunga Primary School and donating a surfboat to the Surf Lifesaving Club tucked below the dominating house. Mrs. Frieda was club patron for more than thirty years.

Out on the beach, the Aquatic Centre students were enjoying a glorious day for learning skills and safety - not to mention having an idyllic time of it on surfboards, in sailboats and underwater snorkeling. They came from all parts of the state to this perfect natural classroom at Port Noarlunga.

With an unusually low tide, they were lucky enough to see the old port jetty, or two stumps of its piles, at least. It was shorter than the present one, reaching out to the calling sailing ships and steamers. As the port-trade moved away, it served fisherman and the growing campers and day trippers. The Elliot Ness style cars heading for this Holidaymakers Paradise were so thick that they appointed a special constable to direct them. And they were headed for the new jetty, built in 1921.

The Postcards crew had a lucky day, too, hitching a ride in an Aquatic Centre rubber duck to the exposed reef running parallel with the shallows. It was easy to see the gap was narrow between the end of the jetty and the black and encrusted rocky reef. Until a 1987 storm ripped the seaward end away, the pleasure jetty terminated over the reef itself, and old photographs reveal that it was teeming with people in a warm weekend. Perhaps that storm was Nature’s way of protecting this delicate environmental strip in the sea. We watched a young sealion lazing just off the reef. What a view he must have beneath the waves with more than 200 marine species living in these rich temperate waters.

It was not always as calm when the sailing ketches found their way round the reef in the nineteenth century, seeking the first jetty of this regional port. The early twentieth century summer holiday haven is now hidden in suburbia, but its charms are as obvious as ever along the shoreline of Port Noarlunga.

Details
Photographs with thanks from:
“An Endearing Coastal Town Pt Noarlunga”
Lita Martella

Available at:
Noarlunga Library
Pt Noarlunga Post Office
McLaren Vale Fleurieu Visitor Centre
The Tuck and Tackle Deli, Pt. Noarlunga

Heritage Research and Walks
Vanessa Catterall
Ph. (08) 8384 7918