The ‘Unidentified Pontoon’ has been Identified

As I wrote at The Breaking up of the Karatta & the Loch Tay at Port Adelaide’s Jervois Basin’s ship-breaking area (a member-only blog), “According to the Jervois Basin Ships' Graveyard Maritime Heritage Trail, (on the list of vessels) ….They also list a ‘Fish Market Pontoon’ and an ‘Unnamed Pontoon’ as being part of the Trail. I was able….  to photograph most of the remains of vessels still evident in the Jervois Basin’s ship-breaking area today (6/11/25), including one of those pontoons: -

 

Note that this pontoon has been described as both ‘Unnamed Pontoon’ and ‘Unidentified Pontoon’.

I was able to take more photographs of the pontoon during a kayak paddle in the Jervois Basin on 2^nd February 2026: -

When I posted these on Facebook , my colleague Chris Frizell commented, “The pontoon was used as part of the Harbours Board dredging program. The suction dredge “South Australian” was a cutter suction dredge, and used large pipes to transfer the silt to either barges or to shore for reclamation. The pontoons were used to float the large pipes. A large part of the peninsula was reclaimed using this method.”

Chris’ comments suddenly turned a ‘boring pontoon’ into a ‘shipwreck story’ for me. The suction dredge South Australian now sits in 20m of water off Glenelg, having been scuttled as a dive wreck in 1985.

Chris’ comments had also revealed the identity of the ‘Unidentified Pontoon’. Perhaps the history books (online pages) can now be updated.

The dive wreck South Australian is also known as just “The Dredge”. I wrote “The South Australian (a.k.a. The Dredge) & the Glenelg Barge” for the May 2008 issue of Dive Log Australasia magazine. Some of those details were repeated in my blog post The Wrecksite of the Dredge (aka the South Australian).

I personally will now hold the pontoon in higher regard.