1860s ship will return to Adelaide

One of the oldest clipper ships in the world will be returned to South Australia from Scotland.

The City of Adelaide was built in 1864 and carried passengers from the UK to South Australia, but since 2000 it has been rotting on a slipway in Scotland.

A local action group has visited the clipper several times and this week learnt the Scottish Government had accepted their bid to move it to Adelaide.

Peter Christopher from the City of Adelaide Action Group says it marks an important phase in the state's past.

"It's bigger than a jumbo jet," he said.

"To actually be on board and realise that a couple of hundred people spent three or four months on this ship coming to or from Australia is something that will be really meaningful.

"It will allow, for example, young kids and others to actually go on and actually touch, walk on a ship that was built in 1864, that carried perhaps their ancestors to South Australia."