The historical farming equipment displayed at our Visitor Information Outlet is a Tabletop Trolley, which belonged to John Grundy (1864-1931). He was a farmer and carrier and is buried in the Port Vincent Cemetery.
It is called a trolley because the front wheels are smaller than the rear, enabling better manoeuvrability. It was used to carry loads of 5 or 6 tons of farm produce using a team of draught horses. The horses pulled the trolley, carrying bags of grain from farms to the Port Vincent wharf.
The goods were loaded on to ketches and transported across St Vincent’s Gulf to Adelaide, a journey of less than 65 kilometres. Passage by sea was used due to the lack of railways, and the roads back then were long and dusty.
The draught horses were generally the famous Clydesdales, bred to specifically pull heavy loads. They were used right up to the 1950’s, when motorised trucks gradually took over the task.
Trolleys were also used to load fencing materials, super phosphate and other goods, which were delivered by ketch or steamers. All the supplies, groceries and hardware for the stores in Minlaton and Curramulka came across from Port Adelaide on these vessels. Steamers ceased running in January 1949 and ketches in 1970.
By 1970, the Port Vincent wharf was no longer a commercial hub for shipping due to the transition to bulk grain handling.
THE LONG LADDERS
In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s grain bags were stacked manually and stored in warehouses up to 15 metres tall. There were no forklifts so the ladders had to be strong and sturdy enough to handle the immense combined weight of a worker and a 100kg sack of grain.
The workers walked the ladders to the designated height on the pile. The base of the ladder had to be set securely on the floor or on a lower row of bags. By the mid 1910’s ladder stacking was supplemented and eventually replaced by mechanical grain loaders.
In 2006 Dale and Robyn Gerke gave the ladder (displayed on the wall behind the trolley) to John Francis who kindly donated it to the Port Vincent community in 2026.
Reference: Port Vincent – Port to Pleasure Resort – A. Jones
