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Mosquito Fleet Docks at the SA Maritime Museum

Media Release - February 2007
images to accompany release

Ketches are integral to the heritage of South Australia’s maritime foundations. They are one of the last links to the days of working, trading and travelling under sail. For over 100 years these small craft, dubbed the Mosquito Fleet, plied South Australian waters doing the work of present day land rigs and bulk cargo handling vessels. These vessels and the stories that go with them are explored in a new permanent exhibition, The Mosquito Fleet, on now at the South Australian Maritime Museum.

Ketches linked the city and country, they carried farm products, grains and minerals to the city and took anything from groceries to machinery to rural ports. The fleet of coastal traders peaked in the 1880s and 1890s when more than 70 ketches and schooners traded out of Port Adelaide. They were dubbed the Mosquito Fleet because they buzzed across the shallows to jetties that dotted the southern coast.

At their height in the 1880s and 1890s, ketches played a pivotal role in intra-colonial trade and communication. Sixty years later, as the Second World War drew to a close it was clear that ketches had endured beyond the introduction of steamships and railways. However, the introduction of bulk handling and containerisation signalled the end of an era for the ketches that were once the only viable trading link between Adelaide and the smaller regional centres.

The identity of the Mosquito Fleet and its distinct maritime community is celebrated in this exhibition. The contrast of the rough and ready sailor alongside the majesty and romance of the ketch fleet adds to the awe of these vessels and their permanent place in the maritime landscape of South Australia. Original photographs, drawings, embroideries, letters and poems showcase the romance and nostalgia that bred a culture of sailor art amongst those who worked the Mosquito Fleet.

Features of the exhibition include an original life buoy from the ketch Annie Watt, beautiful brass navigation instruments from the Leillateah, an engraved tobacco pipe from 1892, and the leather jacket worn by Albert ‘Scug’ Cutler, fanatical Magpies supporter and last skipper of the iconic ketch Nelcebee.

At the heart of this exhibition lies the replica ketch, Active II, a favourite with museum visitors. To go aboard Active II is to go on a journey to a time when sea trade and travel dominated South Australian life. As trucks now travel the roads so did ketches ply the seas. The work was hard and the pay poor. Visitors can become a crew member and find out all about life and work onboard. They can steer themselves out of a frantic storm or just listen to the busy sounds of a ship on the move. While children explore the vessel and cramped living quarters of the crew, adults can linger in the Captain’s cabin to the sounds of a languid, if not satirical, verse penned by ketch Captain John Anderson in 1914. On the wharf opposite Active II you can even try your hand at lifting cargo.

What    The Mosquito Fleet exhibitio

Cost     Museum Admission: Adult $8.50, Child $3.50, Concession $6.50, Family $22.0

When  Museum Open: 10am – 5pm everyday (closed Christmas Day)

Media Contact: Lee Tillett, Marketing Co-ordinator
Phone: +61 8203 9868, Mobile: 0419 860 106, Email: ltillett@history.sa.gov.au