Port Giles is a port on
Yorke Peninsula in the Australian state of
South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
located in the gazetted locality of
Coobowie __NOTOC__
Coobowie is a town in the Australian state of South Australia near the south-eastern tip of Yorke Peninsula. Coobowie was proclaimed in 1875. Coobowie comes from an Aboriginal word meaning "wild fowl water". At the 2011 census, Coobowi ...
between the towns of
Stansbury and
Edithburgh.
Port Giles a port facility consisting of a large jetty equipped for bulk handling of grain which is operated by
Flinders Ports
Flinders Ports Pty Limited is a company incorporated in 2001 that manages seven of South Australia's ten ports fronting the Great Australian Bight, Spencer Gulf and Gulf St Vincent. It is the state's largest port operator, employing more than 800 ...
, and a similarly large grain storage facility operated by
Viterra
Viterra began as a Canadian grain handling business, the nation's largest grain handler, with its historic formative roots in prairie grain-handling cooperatives, among them the iconic Saskatchewan Wheat Pool.
Viterra Inc grew into a global agr ...
. It was opened by the then
Premier of South Australia,
Steele Hall in 1970, and led to the closure of many of the smaller ports on the peninsula. Port Giles can handle
Panamax
Panamax and New Panamax (or Neopanamax) are terms for the size limits for ships travelling through the Panama Canal. The limits and requirements are published by the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) in a publication titled "Vessel Requirements". ...
size ships or larger.
Port Giles was purposely built to be able to handle bulk grain, and load it onto larger modern ships. Many of the other ports were not deep enough for larger ships, and could only be serviced by small
ketches and coastal
steamships. They only handled grain in bags, not in bulk.
The port is occasionally open for keen anglers to catch fish from the jetty, which provides habitat for multiple species.
See also
*
List of ports in Australia
This is a list of ports in Australia. It includes all gazetted ports, harbours, havens, roadsteads and marinas.
This list is complete with respect to the 1996 Gazetteer of Australia.Gazetteer of Australia (1996). Belconnen, ACT: Australian Surv ...
References
{{Yorke Peninsula, state=collapsed
Ports and harbours of South Australia
Yorke Peninsula
Gulf St Vincent