1
https://web.archive.org/web/20110406151600/http://images.slsa.sa.gov.au/mpcimg/02750/B2584.htm
3https://archive.today/20121127140348/http://images.slsa.sa.gov.au/mpcimg/18250/B18019.htm 4])
*1904 Adelaide Steamship Company building constructed in Melbourne
*1911
SS Yongala lost without trace (discovered in 1958)
*1912
SS Koombana
SS ''Koombana'' was a late Edwardian-era passenger, cargo and mail carrying steamship. From March 1909 to March 1912, she operated coastal liner services between Fremantle, Western Australia and various ports in the northwest of that state. ...
lost without trace
*1914–1918 World War I – several ships were requisitioned
*1915 Took over Coast Steamships Limited
*1920 Liquidated and reconstructed
*1920
Amalgamated Society of Engineers v Adelaide Steamship Co Ltd
''Amalgamated Society of Engineers v Adelaide Steamship Co Ltd'', commonly known as the ''Engineers case'', . was a landmark decision by the High Court of Australia on 31 August 1920. The immediate issue concerned the Commonwealth's power under ...
(The Engineers' Case)
*1933 First
John Martin's Christmas Pageant
The National Pharmacies Christmas Pageant is a parade held annually in the South Australian capital of Adelaide. Established in 1933, the event is staged annually on the second Saturday of November, typically from 9.30am except 2020 and 2021 wh ...
*1935 Formed Adelaide Airways Limited
*1936 Purchased
West Australian Airways
West Australian Airways was an Australian airline based in Geraldton, Western Australia. Established on 5 December 1921 as Western Australian Airways by World War I pilot Norman Brearley, it was the first airline in Australia to establish a sch ...
*1936 Merged with Holyman's Airways to form
Australian National Airways
Australian National Airways (ANA) was Australia's predominant aerial carrier from the mid-1930s to the early 1950s.
The Holyman's Airways period
On 19 March 1932 Flinders Island Airways began a regular aerial service using the Desoutter Mk.I ...
*1939 Currie St (Adelaide) building changed significantly (Images
1https://archive.today/20121127050720/http://images.slsa.sa.gov.au/mpcimg/12500/B12331.htm 2])
*1939–1945 World War II – several ships were requisitioned
*1940s Diversified into towage, shipbuilding, and the shipping of salt, coal and sugar.
*1957 Sold Australian National Airways to
Ansett Transport Industries
*1964 Interstate fleet merged with
McIlwraith, McEacharn & Co to form Associated Steamship Limited
*1964 The world's first purpose-built container ship was constructed
*1965 Acquired 40% interest in
Bulkships
Bulkships was an Australian shipping company.
History
Bulkships was founded in 1958 by the Adelaide Steamship Company, Howard Smith and McIlwraith, McEacharn & Co as a bulk carrier operator.[Tooth & Co
Tooth and Co was the major brewer of beer in New South Wales, Australia. The company owned a large brewery on Broadway in Sydney from 1835 until 1985, known as the Kent Brewery. It was historically one of Australia's oldest companies, having be ...]
acquired
Penfolds
Penfolds is an Australian wine producer that was founded in Adelaide in 1844 by Christopher Rawson Penfold, an English physician who emigrated to Australia, and his wife Mary Penfold. It is one of Australia's oldest wineries, and is currently p ...
*1977 Bulkships sold; ceased connection with ship owning and operating
*1980 Acquired a substantial interest in
David Jones Limited
David Jones Pty Limited, trading as David Jones (colloquially DJs), is an Australian High-End department store, owned since 2014 by South African retail group Woolworths Holdings Limited.
David Jones was founded in 1838 by David Jones, a Welsh ...
*1980 Adelaide Steamship Company building in Melbourne destroyed
*1981 Acquired Tooth & Co (via David Jones (Properties) Pty Ltd)
*1981 Acquired
Georges (store), Georges (via David Jones)
*1982 Acquired
Buckley & Nunn
Buckley & Nunn (also known as Buckley's) was a department store in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It first opened its doors in 1851 as a drapery store and, in its heyday, competed creditably as a department store with Myer (1900). It occupied ...
(via David Jones)
*1983 Sold Tooth & Co brewing interests to
Carlton & United Breweries
Carlton & United Breweries (CUB) is an Australian brewing company based in Melbourne and owned by Japanese conglomerate Asahi Breweries. Its notable brands include Victoria Bitter, Carlton Draught, Foster's Lager, Great Northern, Resch's, Pu ...
*1985 Acquired
John Martins
*1989 Industrial Equity Limited purchased from
Brierley Investments
GL Limited is an investment company listed on the Singapore Exchange. Founded as Brierley Investments in 1961, it was formerly listed on the Australian, London and New Zealand exchanges.
History
Brierley Investments was founded by Ron Brierley i ...
*1990 Wine interests sold to
South Australian Brewing Company
The South Australian Brewing Company, Limited is a brewery located in Thebarton, an inner-west suburb of Adelaide, South Australia. It is a subsidiary of Lion, which in turn is owned by Kirin, a Japan-based beverage company. It manufactures ...
*1990 Share price crash
*1991 Adsteam commenced liquidation of assets
*1991
National Foods
Bega Dairy & Drinks is a subsidiary of Australian diversified food company Bega Cheese, having been purchased from the Japanese company Kirin (who owns Lion in Australia) in November 2020. While owned by Kirin, it was known as Lion Dairy & D ...
floated
*1993
Woolworths floated
*1993 Adsteam Marine created as the last remaining operational division of Adelaide Steamship Company.
*1994 The
Australian Taxation Office
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is an Australian statutory agency and the principal revenue collection body for the Australian Government. The ATO has responsibility for administering the Australian federal taxation system, superannuatio ...
ruled to disallow IEL $524m of deductions regarding the Woolworth float
*1994 "Adelaide Steamship Company (via ASIC) vs former Adsteam directors and auditors" commenced
*1995 David Jones floated
*1997 Adelaide Steamship Company renamed Residual Assco Group
*1997 Adsteam Marine floated
*1999 Liquidation of assets completed – Residual Assco Limited delisted – "Residual Assco has no operating businesses but remains active while several IEL tax disputes wind their way through the courts."
*2000 "Residual Assco (via ASIC) vs former AdSteam directors and auditors" reached settlement
*2001 Adsteam Marine acquired tug operations of
Howard Smith Limited
Howard Smith Limited was an Australian industrial company. Founded in 1854 as a shipping company, it later diversified into coal mining, steel production, stevedoring, travel, railway rolling stock building, sugar production and retail. Its divi ...
for A$500m
*2006 Adsteam Marine acquired by
AP Moeller-Maersk
*2007 Residual Assco's annual report notes that the group holds $429 million "on deposit pending resolution of the outstanding matters between IEL and the ATO"
*2007 IEL given leave to challenge the ATO ruling
People
Throughout its history, many people have been involved with, played significant roles in and/or been associated with the company:
*
Robert Barr Smith
Robert Barr Smith (4 February 1824 – 20 November 1915) was an Australian businessman and philanthropist in Adelaide, South Australia. He was a partner in Elder Smith and Company from 1863 (now now Elders Limited).
Early life and education
Smi ...
(1824–1915) – founding director. Brother-in-law of founding director Sir
Thomas Elder
Sir Thomas Elder, (5 August 1818 – 6 March 1897), was a Scottish-Australian pastoralist, highly successful businessman, philanthropist, politician, race-horse owner and breeder, and public figure. Amongst many other things, he is notable fo ...
, with whom he was partner in
Elder Smith and Company. (Barr Smith married Elder's sister Joanna.)
[van Dissel, Dirk (1976)]
'Smith, Robert Barr (1824–1915)'
. Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 6, Melbourne University Press, pp 153–154. Retrieved 9 July 2009.
*
Tom Elder Barr Smith (1863–1941) – director (eldest son of Robert Barr Smith)
* Sir
Tom Elder Barr Smith (1904–1968) – director and deputy chairman (1960–1968) (son of Tom Elder Barr Smith)
*
William Beardmore, 1st Baron Invernairn
William Beardmore, 1st Baron Invernairn DL (16 October 1856 – 9 April 1936), known as Sir William Beardmore, Bt, between 1914 and 1921, was a British industrialist, founding the eponymous William Beardmore and Company.
Background and education ...
(1856–1936) – shipbuilder
*
William Berry (1857–1928) – completed his qualifying sea service with the company and went on to become their chief engineer
* Neil Leslie Branford – Chief Accountant of
John Martins, AdSteam
Company Secretary from the mid-1980s to early 1990s
[
* Sir ]Ron Brierley
Ronald Alfred Brierley (born 2 August 1937) is a New Zealand born investor and corporate raider, chairman and director of a number of companies in Australia, New Zealand and the UK.
He founded R. A. Brierley Investments Ltd (BIL; renamed ''Guo ...
– New Zealand investor, corporate raider, and chairman and director of a number of companies in Australia, New Zealand and the UK. He founded Brierley Investments
GL Limited is an investment company listed on the Singapore Exchange. Founded as Brierley Investments in 1961, it was formerly listed on the Australian, London and New Zealand exchanges.
History
Brierley Investments was founded by Ron Brierley i ...
in 1961 and purchased his first shareholdings in Industrial Equity Limited (IEL) in 1964. IEL purchased Woolworths in 1989, and later in 1989 Brierly sold IEL to the AdSteam Group.
* George Calder (1839–1903) – mariner
* David Charleston (1848–1934) – marine engineer and unionist who worked for the company after migrating to Australia in 1884
* Bruce Corlett – Chairman of Adsteam Marine Limited
* Charles D'Ebro
Charles Abraham D'Ebro (1850–1920) was a London-born architect who designed many important buildings in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia during the late Victorian and early Edwardian periods. Many of these buildings are now preserved under heri ...
(1850–1920) – architect who in 1904 designed the Adelaide Steamship Building in Melbourne
* Deloitte Haskings & Sells and Deloitte Ross Tohmatsu – Adsteam auditors (?-1990)[
* Frank Duffy (1852–1936) – High Court Judge involved in the decision of the '' Engineers' Case''
* Sir Walter Gordon Duncan (1885–1963) – Director between 1932 and 1960
* Francis Vivian Dunstan – father of ]Don Dunstan
Donald Allan Dunstan (21 September 1926 – 6 February 1999) was an Australian politician who served as the 35th premier of South Australia from 1967 to 1968, and again from 1970 to 1979. He was a member of the House of Assembly (MHA) for th ...
; former Premier of South Australia; manager of the company's Fiji office from 1916 until the family's return to Adelaide in 1933
* Sir Thomas Elder
Sir Thomas Elder, (5 August 1818 – 6 March 1897), was a Scottish-Australian pastoralist, highly successful businessman, philanthropist, politician, race-horse owner and breeder, and public figure. Amongst many other things, he is notable fo ...
(1818–1897) – founding director. Brother-in-law of founding director Robert Barr Smith
Robert Barr Smith (4 February 1824 – 20 November 1915) was an Australian businessman and philanthropist in Adelaide, South Australia. He was a partner in Elder Smith and Company from 1863 (now now Elders Limited).
Early life and education
Smi ...
, with whom he was partner in Elder Smith and Company. Elder never married, but Barr Smith named his first-born Tom Elder Barr Smith.[Gosse, Fayette. (1972]
'Elder, Sir Thomas (1818–1897)'
, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 4, Melbourne University Press, pp 133–134. Retrieved 11 July 2009.
* Alexander Forrest
Alexander Forrest CMG (22 September 1849 – 20 June 1901) was an explorer and surveyor of Western Australia, and later also a member of parliament.
As a government surveyor, Forrest explored many areas of remote Western Australia, particu ...
(1849–1901) – negotiated in 1893 the contract with the Adelaide Steamship for serving Western Australian ports
* Clayton Frederick – Chief Executive Officer between 1993 and 2004, during Adsteam Marine's expansion to become Australia's largest towage operator
* James Gosse (1876–1952) – director and chairman
* Michael Stevenson Gregg – director (?-1990)[
* Robert Holmes à Court – Australia's first billionaire; a feared corporate raider of the 1980s who set up Bell Resources, a company 20% owned by the AdSteam Group][
* Sir Ivan Nello Holyman (1896–1957) – merged Holymany's Airways with AdSteam's Adelaide Airways in 1936, and initiated moves which led in November 1936 to the formation of ]Australian National Airways
Australian National Airways (ANA) was Australia's predominant aerial carrier from the mid-1930s to the early 1950s.
The Holyman's Airways period
On 19 March 1932 Flinders Island Airways began a regular aerial service using the Desoutter Mk.I ...
* Henry Keep (1863–1905) – shipping agent for AdSteam in Fremantle, 1893–1897
* Michael James Kent – director (?-1990)[
* ]Herbert Lloyd
Major General Herbert William Lloyd, (18 November 1883 – 10 August 1957) was an Australian Army officer who served in the First and Second World Wars.
Early life and career
Herbert William Lloyd was born in South Yarra, Melbourne, the son ...
(1883–1957) – board member of several companies, including the Adelaide Steamship Company, from 1946 to his retirement
* George R L Macdonald – company secretary (1990–1994) and corporate lawyer
* Malcolm McEacharn
Sir Malcolm Donald McEacharn (8 February 1852 – 10 March 1910) was Mayor of Melbourne from 1897 to 1900. He was a well-known Australian shipping magnate in the early part of the twentieth century and successfully stood for the Division of Me ...
(1852–1910) – shipowner and partner of McIlwraith, McEacharn & Co which merged with the Adelaide Steamship Co in 1964
* Andrew McIlwraith (1844–1932) – shipowner and partner of McIlwraith, McEacharn & Co which merged with the Adelaide Steamship Co in 1964
* Hugo Muecke (1842–1929) – director of many companies, including the Adelaide Steamship
* Guy Packard (1884–1963) – Manager and later Director; also had financial interests in Australian National Airways
* Daniel Poole DCM & Bar
Bar or BAR may refer to:
Food and drink
* Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages
* Candy bar
* Chocolate bar
Science and technology
* Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment
* Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud
* Bar (u ...
(1882–1959) – recommended for the VC during World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
; worked for both McIlwraith, McEacharn & Co and Adelaide Steamship Company
* Robert Dalrymple Ross (1827–1887) – Chairman of the company during the 1870s and 1880s
* Ken Russell (Kenneth William Russell, ?-1999) – Chairman (?-1990)[
* David J Ryan – held various senior positions in the company from 1997 to 2002; foundation Managing Director of Adsteam Marine Limited
* Charles Seymour (1853–1924) – seaman, journalist and militant unionist who worked for the company in the late 1800s
* John Spalvins (Janis Gunars Spalvins) – Managing Director (1977–1990)][
* Andrew Tennant (1835–1913) – founding director][Combe, Gordon D (1976)]
'Tennant, Andrew (1835–1913)'
. Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 6, Melbourne University Press, pp 255–256. Retrieved 9 July 2009.
* Alfred Wells
Alfred Wells (May 27, 1814 – July 18, 1867) was a U.S. Representative from New York.
Biography
Alfred Wells was born in Dagsboro, Sussex County, Delaware on May 27, 1814. He pursued classical studies, and later studied law in the offic ...
– designer of original company building at 17 Currie Street, Adelaide
* Robert Wright – executive director, 1991–1995
Company Archives
The archives of the Adelaide Steamship Company are held by the Noel Butlin Archives Centre at the Australian National University in Canberra.
See also
* Mosquito Fleet (Johnstone River, Queensland)#The Adelaide Steamship Company
*Timeline of Australian history
This is a timeline of Australian history, comprising important legal and territorial changes and political events in Australia and its predecessor states. To read about the background to these events, see history of Australia. See also the li ...
References and notes
*Clarke, Frank, Graeme Dean and Kyle Oliver (2003)
''Corporate Collapse: Accounting, Regulatory and Ethical Failure''
2nd Edition. Published by Cambridge University Press. . .Front matterIndex
/small>
Further reading
;Shipping
*Mann, J.W. (1965). ''Well afloat in changing time'' delaide Steamship Co. Port Melbourne Quarterly, V.16, April–June 1965.
* Page, Michael (1975)
''Fitted for the Voyage: The Adelaide Steamship Company, 1875–1975''
Published by Rigby, Adelaide SA. .
* Parsons, Ronald (1975)
''The Adelaide Line: A Centenary History of the Adelaide Steamship Company Ltd., 1875–1975''
Published by rhParsons, Magill, SA. . .
* Stapleton, A. (1975). ''"Festina Lente": the Adelaide Steamship Company's 100 years of service'', Cargo Handling and Shipbuilding Quarterly, V.14, September 1975 .
;Australian corporate governance
*Clarke, Frank and Graeme Dean (2007)
''Indecent Disclosure: Gilding the Corporate Lily''
Published by Cambridge University Press. .
*Government of South Australia, Auditor-General's Department (1993
''Report of the Auditor-General on an investigation into the State Bank of South Australia : pursuant to Section 25 of the State Bank of South Australia Act 1983 (as amended), volume 6 The management of credit: case studies, Chapter 9: Case Study in Credit Management: The Adsteam Group''
External links
Australian Light Horse Studies Centre
{{Business in Australia, state=collapsed
Australian ship owners
Defunct shipping companies of Australia
Shipbuilding companies of Australia
Maritime history of Australia
Corporate raiders
Companies based in Adelaide
Legal history of Australia
History of Port Adelaide
Transport companies established in 1875
Australian companies established in 1875