Adelaide Steamship Company

The Adelaide Steamship Company was an Australian shipping company, later a diversified industrial and logistics conglomerate. It was formed by a group of South Australian businessmen in 1875. Their aim was to control the transport of goods between Adelaide and Melbourne and profit from the need for an efficient and comfortable passenger service. For its first 100 years, the company's main activities were conventional shipping operations on the Australian coast, primary products, consumer cargoes and extensive passenger services. In the 1930s and 1940s, the company diversified into the airline operations, towage, shipbuilding, and the shipping of salt, coal and sugar. Adelaide Airways was formed in 1935, and purchased West Australian Airways before merging with Holyman's Airways to form Australian National Airways (ANA) in 1936. ANA was sold to Ansett Transport Industries in 1957. In 1964, the interstate fleet merged with McIlwraith, McEacharn & Co, and the partnership developed the world's first purpose-built container ships. In 1973, the company ceased its shipbuilding operations, and in 1977, in its 103rd year of operation, sold its shipping-related businesses and ceased its connection with ship owning and operating. It did, however, retain its interests in tugboat operations.