Greg Twelftree, Chairperson, Port Victoria and Wauraltee 150th celebrations committee, Yorke Peninsula Country Times

South Australian author and journalist Max Fatchen wrote: “It’s not hard to imagine the square-rigger days when the sou’wester sweeps up Spencer Gulf, hustles past Wardang and sends whitecaps racing and fishing boats rolling at their moorings by Port Victoria jetty. Wheat stacks and wagons, streets bustling with sailors and farmers, ketches shuttling from the wharves to the great ships offshore … these put this port into the literature of the sea, into books by Villiers and Eric Newby.”

On the first weekend of March, visitors will gather in our small fishing village to celebrate its 150th anniversary — a time to honour our forebears: farmers, Aboriginal people, lumpers and stackers, women who worked like navvies, and the sailors who crewed the ketches and mighty windjammers.

From the 1870s to 1949, farmers toiling in the dry, dusty paddocks of Koolywurtie and Wauraltee would glance seaward as 100-metre long, four-masted barques filled the horizon.

Gustaf Erikson’s ships had arrived to collect bagged grain for Europe.

Clydesdales continued pulling the ploughs, and sou’westerlies, pushing vessels along at eight knots, dried the farmers’ sweat and kept the flies away.

In 1949 the Pamir and Passat sailed for England via Cape Horn, loaded with local barley and wheat. It became known as the last Great Grain Race, the final time sailing ships carried grain commercially from Port Victoria.

Today, we honour that legacy.

The ploughs, horses, dinghies and bustling jetty traffic have gone.

The jetty no longer carries the weight of Jimmy the draught horse as he is led westward by “Froggy” Hart pulling a trolley laden with bags of wheat. Instead, the planks are splashed with squid ink and flapping garfish.

Yet, this magnificent jetty must endure, so future generations can celebrate Port Victoria’s 200th — and perhaps see a 300-tonne barque berth against it once more and the irrevocable romance continues.

In 2029, the 80th anniversary of the Great Grain Race will bring more Tall Ships. Stay in touch if you’re interested.

This article appeared in Yorke Peninsula Country Times, 17 February 2026.
Related story: Port Vic turns 150