Northline opened the doors of their Kingston Avenue depot on Adelaide’s city fringe in 1983 and began servicing the long-haul freight market from Adelaide to the Northern Territory, quickly moving their first consignment for Speedy Wheels, who are still a customer today.
In the same year, an Adelaide pick-up and delivery business, Local Line, was formed and became part of the team as one of Northline’s first contractors. Northline and Local Line grew up alongside each other for the next few years until Local Line merged with Northline.
Northline’s Adelaide branch continued to go from strength to strength. The team grew through sporting networks with recruits from local rugby and cricket clubs, working the busy night shifts at Richmond and later Edwardstown depots.
Fast forward to 1988, when Northline acquired a small family-run business, Victor Harbor Transport, which helped to grow their short-haul reach. At this time, Victor Harbor was booming, and new homes were popping up at a rapid pace. Victor Harbor Transport was later returned to the family’s ownership.
While Northline’s agent model worked well, picking up a contract with multinational consumer goods giant Unilever in 1993 in Adelaide was the real game changer.
This contract sparked multiple shifts for Northline. Their once fully agent-driven company began to expand into warehousing and saw significant growth in its warehouse footprint to accommodate Unilever and sister company DiverseyLever.
As more warehousing space was required (to fulfil their customers’ needs), Northline relocated their Edwardstown and Richmond operations to Dry Creek in 1987 and Cavan in 1993 when new, larger linehaul operators were brought in as partners, as the size and scope of the company’s contracts grew.
In a blink of an eye, Northline was in its early 30s and the Adelaide depot was awarded Branch of the Year in 2015/16.
Then, construction began on their state-of-the-art transport and logistics facility on Gallipoli Drive in Regency Park. Partnering with the Gibb Group, Northline brought together road and rail by opening the facility alongside Kilburn railhead. This strategic placement streamlined service for Northline’s customers and was the first intermodal cargo link operation in South Australia.
Today, the six-year-old depot at Regency Park is still the first and only facility in South Australia to have direct access to rail via a cargo link.
They are also well on their way to becoming a more environmentally responsible site with a solar system installed in 2023.
