First act for South Australian ports

This act sets out all the issues for the management of maritime matters in the colony, including the discharge of ballast, issues with sunk or stranded vessels, penalties for damaging or destroying buoys, discharge of crews and absconding crews and pilotage. The definition of a vessel is given, and pilotage, wharfage fees are all addressed in the act. It is the first act for the management of the port, put in place a little over 12 months of the founding of the colony.

Captain Thomas Lipson was the colony's first Harbourmaster and the act provided his terms of reference.

This act was replaced by the act of 1851 which also addressed the issue of safety, establishing a Trinity House Board for the establishment and management of lighthouses and beacons. Acts governing the management of the South Australian ports continued to be updated throughout the next 160 years until in 2001 the government surrendered its ownership of the major ports' facilities to a private consortium, Flinders Ports.

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