Sydney Ferries and the Harbour – From the Rose Hill Packet to the Manly Ferry, the Greycliffe, the Rodney and the Kuttabul – 1789 to Today

If you grew up in Sydney you've probably got a ferry memory tucked away somewhere. The Manly ferry rolling through the swell at the Heads, the deckhands throwing the ropes at Circular Quay, a trip to Taronga Zoo when you were a kid. For most of Sydney's history the harbour wasn't something you looked at from a balcony. It was the main road, and ferries were the buses.

This page follows Sydney's ferries from a clumsy convict-built boat in 1789 to the catamarans of today. Along the way it stops at the big days on the harbour, good and bad: the wreck of the Dunbar, the Greycliffe and Rodney disasters, the night the Japanese midget submarines came in, the opening of the Bridge, the 1988 tall ships and the 2000 Olympics.

Ferries crowd Circular Quay around 1900, when the harbour was still Sydney's main road. J. W. Lindt, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Rose Hill Packet – "The Lump" – 1789

Sydney's first ferry was built about a year and a half after the First Fleet arrived. In 1789 the settlement at Sydney Cove needed a way to get people, stores and mail up the river to the new farming settlement at Rose Hill, which we now call Parramatta. Convicts laid her down in May 1789 near where Customs House stands today. The carpenter in charge was Robinson Reid from HMS Supply. Wikipedia's article on the boat says she was launched in September and commissioned on 5 October 1789.

She was meant to be called the Prince of Wales, but the convicts called her the Rose Hill Packet, and she ended up with the nickname "The Lump". The local timber was the problem. The red gum the builders had to work with split and warped as soon as it was cut, it blunted and broke their tools, and some of it sank like a stone. They had to use green timber and lots of it, and one account said she looked like "a mere bed of timber". She had a single mast and oars, and passengers sometimes had to help with the rowing. The Timeline of Sydney Harbour Ferries says a return trip to Parramatta could take a week. The packet service had stopped by 1800.

The Dictionary of Sydney says her passengers were mainly people from the colony's administration, local residents and merchants, and that she brought much-needed produce from the Parramatta farms back to Sydney Cove. I've written before about the plaque in Alfred Street that marks where she was built. The link is under My Earlier Posts at the bottom of the page.

The Watermen and Billy Blue

Once the packet was gone, getting across the water was left to small boats. Around 1800 a number of little passage boats, each rowed by one man, were carrying people about the harbour. Lighter sailing boats and rowing boats worked across to Manly Cove and up and down the river.

The best known of the early watermen was Billy Blue. The Dictionary of Sydney says he was a convict who came out on the Minorca in December 1801. In the first decade of the 1800s he was rowing passengers between the north and south sides of the harbour. He was later made a water bailiff and lived in a watch tower, keeping an eye on the boats on Port Jackson. Blues Point is named after him. Wikipedia says he was thought to be Jamaican and that by about 1830 he was running what is thought to be Sydney's first regular ferry service, from Dawes Point across to Blues Point.

In the 1830s a man called Barney Kearns ran a small sailing ketch between Balmoral and Balgowlah, which cut out part of the long bush track to Manly. From Balmoral, passengers still had to walk over to Milsons Point and get a waterman to row them across. That service didn't last long.

Steam Arrives – The Surprise and the Sophia Jane – 1831

Steam came to the harbour in 1831, and two boats can claim the honour. The Surprise was the first steamship built in Australia. Wikipedia's Sydney Ferries article says she was launched in 1831 and began regular, timetabled trips to Parramatta on 1 June 1831. She didn't make money, and she was sold to Hobart in 1832.

The other was the Sophia Jane, an English paddle steamer launched on the Thames in 1826. She arrived in Sydney on 13 May 1831 under Captain Edward Biddulph. She came out under sail with her paddle wheels stowed, but she got steaming before the Surprise did, and her Wikipedia article calls her "the first steamer to turn a paddle-wheel in Sydney Harbour". She was tried on the Parramatta run but her draught was too deep, so she ended up in the coastal trade to Newcastle and later Wollongong. On 12 June 1831 she towed the ship Lady Harewood down the harbour, the first time steam power had been used for that job in Australia.

The Sophia Jane, the first paddle steamer to work in Australian waters. She reached Sydney in May 1831. Unknown artist, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

After that the experiments kept coming. In October 1832 the Experiment ran to Parramatta driven by horses walking a treadmill. She lost money straight away and was sold. She came back in April 1835 with a 12 horsepower steam engine under the shipping man John Edye Manning. In 1833 the Australian Conveyance Company put the steamer Australia on the Parramatta run. It did well enough to pay a 38 per cent dividend in 1836, and with the Experiment it gave Sydney its first regular ferry service.

Across the Harbour – The North Shore Steamers

Cross-harbour steam took a while to settle down. The timeline lists a punt called the Princess working between Dawes and Blues Points from about 1841, which failed after fifteen months. In 1844 the Waterman's Company tried the paddle steamer Waterman on the Balmain run, but she wasn't reliable. In 1845 the brothers Thomas and James Gerrard put the little steamer Fairy Queen on between Windmill Street and Blues Point, and that's counted as the first reliable cross-harbour service.

The North Shore Ferry Company was formed in 1861, backed by James Milson and Francis Lord, and its first boat was the Kirribilli. The Dictionary of Sydney points out that fewer than 1,000 people lived on the north side then. The company became the North Shore Steam Ferry Company in 1873 and a limited company in 1878. In 1879 it brought out the Wallaby, Sydney's first double-ended screw ferry and the second in the world. A double-ender has a wheelhouse and propeller at each end, so it never has to turn around in the narrow bays. That basic design has stayed with Sydney ever since.

The Wallaby of 1879, Sydney's first double-ended screw ferry. She is shown before she was given enclosed wheelhouses. Unknown photographer, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The North Shore really took off once the transport links joined up. In 1886 a cable tram started running from Ridge Street in North Sydney down to Milsons Point. The main ferry wharf moved there, and it became the busiest wharf on the harbour. In 1893 the North Shore railway from Hornsby reached Milsons Point, so people from as far out as Hornsby could catch a train to Milsons Point and a ferry across to Circular Quay.

Out west, the Parramatta River Steam Company was formed in 1865 by Charles Edward Jeanneret, at first with Jules Joubert. Jeanneret had a monopoly on the Parramatta services by 1875. Building wharves cost a lot, so boatmen waited along the river and rowed passengers ashore for a fee. Over in Balmain the Perdriau family formed the Balmain Steam Ferry Company in 1882. In 1892 a rival, the Balmain New Ferry Company, brought out The Lady Mary, the first of the Walter Reeks designed "Lady" ferries.

The Manly Ferries – "Seven Miles from Sydney"

The Manly run has always been the one people love most. It started with Henry Gilbert Smith, who wanted to sell his land around The Corso and needed people to come over and see it. Wikipedia's Manly ferry article says that in 1853 he chartered the wooden paddle steamer Brothers to bring people over. The Sydney Ferries article gives the date as 1855 and the boat as the Huntress. The timeline says the paddle steamer Victoria began daily trips in 1856 and was the first regular Manly ferry. In 1859 the Phantom, the first big double-ended ferry on the run, was put on by a partnership of Smith and S. B. Skinner.

The Port Jackson Steamship Company Limited was formed on 23 January 1877 by a group including John Randal Carey, who later founded the Daily Telegraph. Its first purpose-built Manly ferry was the Fairlight of 1878, a paddle steamer rated for 950 passengers that worked the harbour until 1914. The 1883 paddle steamer Brighton was 67 metres long, the biggest ferry on the harbour at the time, and a favourite with passengers.

The paddle steamer Brighton at the Manly wharf at Circular Quay, around 1890. She was the biggest ferry on the harbour when she arrived in 1883. Unknown photographer, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

In 1892 the company announced a fare rise, and some Manly people got so fed up that they started their own line. The Manly Co-operative Steam Ferry Company ran chartered steamers at sixpence a trip. The Port Jackson company dropped its fare to threepence and the Co-op matched it. Neither could make money at that price, and in 1896 they merged. The Co-op had ordered the Manly (II), designed by Walter Reeks. She was the first double-ended screw ferry on the Manly run and one of the fastest boats ever to work it. Reeks also designed the steel Kuring-gai of 1901, and she set the look of the Manly ferries for the rest of the century. In 1907 the company became the Port Jackson and Manly Steamship Company Limited. It coined the famous line about Manly being "Seven miles from Sydney and a thousand miles from care".

The Kuring-gai at Circular Quay sometime between 1901 and 1923. Walter Reeks' design set the pattern for the big Manly ferries. William Joseph Macpherson, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The company then built six similar steamers, the "Binngarra" type: Binngarra, Burra Bra (1908), Bellubera (1910), Balgowlah (1912), Barrenjoey (1913) and Baragoola (1922). Two Scottish-built ships, Curl Curl and Dee Why, came out in 1928 under their own steam. They were the biggest and fastest ferries on the harbour until 1938. On her trials Curl Curl reached 17.6 knots, and she's thought to be the fastest single-hulled ferry the harbour has had.

The Scottish-built Manly ferries Dee Why and Curl Curl on the harbour in the late 1930s. Henry King, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Then in 1938 came the South Steyne, built by Henry Robb at Leith in Scotland and launched on 1 April 1938. She's 67.23 metres long and could carry 1,781 passengers. Her Wikipedia article calls her the world's largest steam-powered passenger ferry. She took 64 days to steam out from Leith and arrived in Sydney at midday on 9 September 1938. Between 1938 and 1974 she crossed between Circular Quay and Manly more than 100,000 times and carried more than 92 million passengers. In the war her white paintwork was painted dark green so she'd be harder to see at night.

The South Steyne at Manly Wharf on 25 January 1952. Harry Freeman, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Baragoola, the last of the six Binngarra-type steamers, coming in to Manly in 1950. She worked the run until January 1983. Unknown photographer, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Manly boats had their own disasters. On 16 November 1936 fire destroyed the timber upper works of the Bellubera while she was moored at the company's Kurraba Point depot, and two crew members died. She was rebuilt at Cockatoo Island and was back in service in October 1937.

The Bellubera burning at the Kurraba Point depot on 16 November 1936. She was rebuilt at Cockatoo Island and ran again from 1937. N. Herfort, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Sydney Ferries Limited and the 1920s Peak

On 14 December 1899 the North Shore company was incorporated as Sydney Ferries Limited, and in the new century it swallowed nearly everyone else. It took over the Parramatta River company in 1901, the Balmain New Ferry Company in 1917 and the Watsons Bay company in 1920. Wikipedia's article on the company says it commissioned 27 large ferries of its own between 1900 and 1922. Most were the "K-class", named with Aboriginal words beginning with K: Kookooburra, Kirrule, Kubu, Kanangra and the rest. By the 1920s it had a near monopoly on the harbour, except for the Manly run and a few small launch services. Several sources call it the largest ferry operator in the world by fleet size and passengers.

K-class ferries of Sydney Ferries Limited at Circular Quay early in the twentieth century. Unknown photographer, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Dictionary of Sydney says that by the late 1920s more than 50 ferries were working the inner harbour runs, with eight bigger boats on the Manly run. The busiest route by far was Circular Quay to Milsons Point. Before the Bridge, according to the Wikipedia article on the Kuttabul, fully loaded ferries were leaving each side of the harbour every six minutes in peak hour. In 1922 Sydney Ferries Limited brought out the two biggest ferries the inner harbour has ever had, the steel twins Kuttabul and Koompartoo, built at Walsh Island in Newcastle. The Kuttabul was rated for 2,250 passengers, which is still a record for a Sydney ferry. Because they had 18 watertight compartments they were considered unsinkable, and they didn't have to carry life-saving equipment.

The Kuttabul when new in 1922. Twenty years later she would be sunk by a Japanese torpedo. Unknown photographer, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

There were vehicular ferries too, carrying carts and cars across from Dawes Point to Blues Point and from the point where the Opera House now stands across to Milsons Point. On 24 September 1916 the vehicular ferry Kedumba took Jessie the elephant across the harbour from the old Moore Park Zoo to the new Taronga Zoo, and regular ferries to the zoo started after that. The company also went into the day-trip business. In 1906 it bought the Thompson estate at Clifton Gardens, with its hotel, dancing pavilion and skating rink, and built a swimming enclosure with room for 3,000 spectators.

Jessie the elephant coming off the vehicular ferry on her way to the new Taronga Zoo in 1916. Unknown photographer, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The vehicular ferry Kalang coming in to Jeffrey Street Wharf at Kirribilli on 2 January 1930. The Koompartoo and Kuramia are behind her. Unknown photographer, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Greycliffe Disaster – 3 November 1927

The worst day the harbour has ever had came on a calm, clear Thursday afternoon. The little wooden Watsons Bay ferry Greycliffe, built at Balmain in 1911, left Circular Quay at 4.15pm on 3 November 1927 with 120 passengers. Many of them were schoolchildren going home. She called at Garden Island to pick up dockyard workers and headed off for Nielsen Park, Parsley Bay and Watsons Bay. On roughly the same course was the Union Steamship Company's 7,585-ton mail liner Tahiti, outward bound across the Pacific.

About halfway between Garden Island and Bradleys Head the Tahiti's bow hit the Greycliffe on her port side. The ferry was pushed along, rolled over and broke in two, and the liner went straight through her. People sitting outside had a better chance. Those inside the two cabins were trapped. Forty people died, and Wikipedia calls it the deadliest incident ever on Sydney Harbour. Seven of the dead were under twenty. One was Millicent Bryant, who only months earlier had become the first Australian woman to get a pilot's licence.

The Watsons Bay ferry Greycliffe in the 1920s. Unknown photographer, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Debris on the water after the Greycliffe was run down by the Tahiti in November 1927. Unknown photographer, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The inquiries went on for years. Witnesses, including other ferry captains, mostly agreed that the Tahiti was going too fast and that the Greycliffe had turned sharply left into her path. The final appeal in 1931 found both masters had contributed, and that the Greycliffe's navigator was twice as much to blame as the Tahiti's pilot. I've written a full page on the Greycliffe, with the victims, the rescue and the long court fight. The link is at the bottom of this page.

What was left of the Greycliffe after it was towed to Whiting Beach near Taronga Zoo, November 1927. Unknown photographer, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Bridge Opens – 19 March 1932

The Sydney Harbour Bridge was opened on Saturday 19 March 1932. Just as the Premier, Jack Lang, was about to cut the ribbon at the southern end, Francis de Groot rode up on a horse and slashed it with his sword, declaring the bridge open in the name of the people of New South Wales. He was arrested, the ribbon was tied back together, and Lang opened it properly. The celebrations included a procession of passenger ships sailing under the bridge. Estimates of the crowd that day run from 300,000 to a million people.

Opening day of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, 19 March 1932. Hall and Co., public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Manly ferry Bellubera out on the harbour for the Bridge opening, 19 March 1932. Unknown photographer, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

For the ferries it was a body blow. Commuters from the North Shore could now get into town by train or tram without changing to a boat. The Dictionary of Sydney says patronage dropped to 14 million passenger journeys a year and the fleet was halved within twelve months. The vehicular ferry services stopped less than two weeks after the opening. The big Milsons Point boats, Kuttabul and Koompartoo, were suddenly redundant. They were laid up and later used for concert and showboat cruises. The vehicular ferries Koondooloo and Kalang were fitted out as showboats too, and the Kalang ended up with three decks.

The Koompartoo, with her sister Kuttabul behind, at McMahons Point on Bridge opening day. Both boats were made redundant overnight. Unknown photographer, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Depression and then the war helped the ferries hang on. People couldn't afford cars, and in the war petrol was rationed while coal for the steamers was relatively cheap. In the 1930s the varnished timber of the Sydney Ferries Limited boats was painted over in green and gold, and some of the steamers were converted to diesel.

The Rodney Capsizes – 13 February 1938

In February 1938 the American heavy cruiser USS Louisville was in Sydney for the 150th anniversary of the First Fleet. On the afternoon she left, Sunday 13 February according to Wikipedia's article on the disaster, thousands of Sydneysiders turned out to wave her off. Scores of small boats followed her down the harbour. One of them was the Rodney, a new wooden ferry built in 1937 for Charles Rosman's fleet, with Rosman himself at the wheel. His passengers had paid a shilling each.

The Rodney had 150 people aboard, within her licence of 211. But as she drew alongside the cruiser, people rushed up to the top deck, which was only meant to take 60. About 100 were up there. Between Garden Island and Bradleys Head the ferry turned to pass behind the Louisville's stern, the crowd rushed across to the other side, and in the cruiser's wash she rolled over and sank in a couple of minutes in 15 metres of water.

The Rodney, top deck crowded, moments before she capsized. Unknown photographer, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The police launch Cambrai had the police band aboard, and sixteen of the bandsmen jumped into the water to pull people out. The Manly ferry Barrenjoey and about 20 launches came to help, and seven sailors dived off the Louisville. Survivors were landed at the Man O'War Steps. Nineteen people died: 17 women, one man and a seven-year-old boy. Seven of them were trapped inside the cabin and weren't recovered until the ferry was raised. In May 1939 the High Court found she had capsized through negligence, and Rosman lost his master's ticket for three years. The Rodney was refitted and renamed Regis, then Regalia, and kept working for decades.

Ferries and small boats rescue the Rodney's passengers, 13 February 1938. Sydney Morning Herald staff photographer, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Rodney being raised from the harbour floor in February 1938. Unknown photographer, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Midget Submarines and the Kuttabul – 31 May and 1 June 1942

The old Kuttabul was taken over by the Royal Australian Navy on 7 November 1940 and moored at Garden Island as floating accommodation for sailors waiting to join their ships. On the night of 31 May 1942 three Japanese midget submarines, M-14, M-21 and M-24, came into the harbour. Each had a crew of two. The anti-submarine boom net between Georges Head and Laing Point was only half built, with 400-metre gaps either side.

M-14 got caught in the net and her crew blew her up. M-24 got in, and Wikipedia's article on the attack says that at about 10pm she followed a Manly ferry through the net. Just before 11pm a searchlight on the American cruiser USS Chicago picked her up and the Chicago opened fire, but she slipped away. The Garden Island floodlights stayed on until 12.25am in spite of a blackout order, and about five minutes later M-24 fired her two torpedoes at the Chicago. Both missed. One ran aground on Garden Island without going off. The other went under the Dutch submarine K-IX and exploded against the breakwater where the Kuttabul was moored.

The old ferry broke in two and sank. Nineteen Australian and two British sailors asleep aboard were killed, and ten were wounded. Because the torpedo hit after midnight, the men are recorded as dying on 1 June. M-21 was found in Taylors Bay and depth-charged by the patrol boats, and her crew took their own lives. M-24 vanished. Her fate was a mystery until November 2006, when a group of amateur divers found her on the sea floor off Bungan Head on the Northern Beaches.

The wreck of HMAS Kuttabul at Garden Island, photographed on 10 June 1942. Unknown photographer, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

On 1 January 1943 the naval base at Garden Island was commissioned as HMAS Kuttabul, in memory of the ferry and the men who died in her. One of her wheelhouses was saved and is now at the Australian War Memorial, alongside a midget submarine pieced together from the wrecks of M-14 and M-21. Before it went to Canberra, the centre section of that submarine was taken on tour through southern New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia to raise money for the Naval Relief Fund and other charities.

School children and service personnel look over part of one of the midget submarines on display in Melbourne in November 1942. Unknown photographer, no known copyright restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

After the War – The 1951 Government Takeover

After the war the slide sped up. The timeline says Sydney Ferries Limited's patronage fell from 17.2 million in 1945 to 8.9 million in 1951. That year the company told the state government it was going to stop running ferries altogether. On 1 July 1951 the government bought fifteen ferries and the Balmain workshops for a nominal sum, £25,000 according to the timeline. They went to a new Sydney Harbour Transport Board, which contracted the Port Jackson and Manly Steamship Company to run them. Most of the big old timber K-class steamers were broken up within a few years. The company kept going in the lighterage and showboat business with the Kalang.

The Manly company lasted longer. Its best year was 1946, with 13.5 million passengers, but after that better roads, the upgraded Spit Bridge and the family car kept eating into its trade. The Barrenjoey was rebuilt with diesel-electric engines as the North Head in 1951, and the job nearly broke the company. The last coal-fired steamer on the harbour, the Kubu, was retired in 1959.

The 1910 Lady Chelmsford near Cremorne Point in 1970. The timber Lady boats ran on for decades after the government took over. John Ward, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Hydrofoils – 1965 to 1991

In the 1960s the Manly company went looking for something new. It put profits from offshore oil-rig supply work into a hydrofoil service, and on 7 January 1965 the Japanese-built Manly, a 75-seat PT20, started running. She did Circular Quay to Manly in 15 minutes, against 35 for the big ferries, at a higher fare. Bigger Italian-built Rodriguez PT50s followed: Fairlight in 1966, Dee Why in 1970 and Curl Curl in 1973. Palm Beach came second-hand from Macau in 1975 and Long Reef arrived from Italy in 1978. Two 235-seat boats, Manly (IV) and Sydney, came in 1984 and 1985.

The hydrofoils were popular, but they didn't add many new passengers. Mostly they took people off the old ferries, and they kept breaking down. In March 1973 the Curl Curl was even tried on a run up the river to Gladesville, but it didn't last because the wash damaged the river banks. The last hydrofoil service ran on 18 March 1991.

The hydrofoil Curl Curl up on her foils between Manly and Circular Quay in 1979. Graeme Andrews, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Brambles, Public Outrage and the Freshwaters

By the early 1970s the Manly service was at its lowest point. Brambles bought the Port Jackson and Manly Steamship Company, mostly for its share of an offshore supply business. Fares went up and services were cut, and in February 1974 Brambles announced plans to drop the big Manly ferries. There was a public uproar. In August 1974 the South Steyne was damaged by fire while waiting to be surveyed, and she never ran for the government. The state's Public Transport Commission took over the Manly service at the end of 1974. Manly patronage sank to about five million a year in 1976.

The fix was the Freshwater class. The first, Freshwater, was launched on 27 March 1982 and went into service in December 1982, followed by Queenscliff (1983), Narrabeen (1984) and Collaroy (1988). They're 70 metres long, carry 1,100 people and displace 1,140 tonnes, which makes them the largest ferries ever to run on the harbour. The old Baragoola made her last trip on 8 January 1983, and the North Head, built as the Barrenjoey in 1913, finished in 1985.

A Freshwater class Manly ferry on the harbour in 2019. MDRX, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Freshwaters have had their moments. In March 1983 the Freshwater ran aground at Manly after a computer failure. On 30 March 1985 a man hijacked her and threatened to shoot passengers unless the captain took her out through the Heads. A police officer boarded and fired three warning shots, and it turned out the "gun" was an empty vodka bottle under his jacket. In February 2001 the Collaroy ran aground on Manly Point, which kept her out of service for months and cost $2 million to repair.

The Collaroy aground at Manly on 26 February 2001, with an anti-pollution boom laid around her. Robert Fildes, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Catamarans – First Fleets, JetCats, RiverCats and Emeralds

The inner harbour got new boats too. From 1968 a modern series of Lady-class ferries arrived, starting with the Lady Cutler. Apart from the unpopular Kooleen of 1956, they were the first significant new ferries on the harbour since the early 1920s. Then in 1984 came the First Fleet class, nine 400-seat catamarans built at Carrington Slipways at Tomago near Newcastle and named after the ships of the First Fleet: Sirius, Supply, Alexander, Borrowdale, Charlotte, Fishburn, Friendship, Golden Grove and Scarborough. They were meant for the Parramatta River but made too much wash, so they ended up on the harbour runs. They're still working, after a life-extension rebuild that started in 2020.

The First Fleet class catamaran Supply. Coolsoap8, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The wooden boats' time ran out in a hurry. On 22 January 1984 the Karrabee, built in 1913, came third in the Great Ferry Race and then sank at Circular Quay. Everyone got off moments before she went down. The pumps had been blocked with rubbish left over from maintenance. Her sinking led to the last of the old wooden ferries being retired.

The 1913 Karrabee sunk at Circular Quay after the January 1984 ferry race. Unknown photographer, City of Sydney Archives, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Three JetCats replaced the hydrofoils on the Manly fast run. The 268-seat boats were built by NQEA in Cairns and delivered in 1990 and 1991. They were dear to run and not very reliable, and the last JetCat service ran on 31 December 2008. A private operator, Manly Fast Ferry, took over the fast run on 10 February 2009.

The JetCat Sea Eagle on her way to Manly in 1991. Graeme Andrews collection, City of Sydney Archives, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

On the river, the RiverCats took over. Six were ordered from NQEA in 1991, named after famous Australian sportswomen, and the first was delivered in early 1992. They took over the Circular Quay to Meadowbank run on 7 May 1992 and started running all the way to Parramatta in December 1993. Passenger ferries hadn't run past Gladesville since 1928. A seventh boat arrived in 1995. The last RiverCat, the Dawn Fraser, was retired on 9 March 2026, replaced by the new Parramatta River class. Four SuperCats came in 2000 and 2001, mainly for the eastern suburbs runs, and smaller HarbourCats such as the Pam Burridge worked alongside them.

The RiverCat Shane Gould, built in 1993, heading down the river near Homebush in 2025. She was retired that September. Coolsoap8, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Emerald class came next, built by Incat. The first, the Fred Hollows, started on 26 June 2017, and the Emeralds let the last two Lady-class ferries, Lady Northcott and Lady Herron, retire in October 2017. The sixth boat was going to be named "Ferry McFerryface" after a supposed public vote. The Maritime Union refused to crew her under that name, and in January 2018 she became the May Gibbs. A second batch with wave-piercing hulls, the Fairlight, Clontarf and Balmoral, went on the Manly run from October 2021 to replace the Freshwaters. They had a rough start, with steering failures, a smashed window in big seas and trouble berthing at Manly at low tide. In September 2022 they were pulled out of service and the old Freshwater and Collaroy were brought back. After the 2023 state election the new government decided to bring the Freshwaters back to full-time work. Queenscliff returned in November 2023 and Narrabeen in October 2025, while Collaroy is to be scrapped.

The Clontarf, one of the three second-generation Emerald class ferries built for the Manly run in 2021. Kayden Rayward, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Private Operators – Harbour City Ferries and Transdev

Ferries had moved through a string of government bodies: the Public Transport Commission, the Urban Transit Authority from 1980, the State Transit Authority from 1989 and the Sydney Ferries Corporation from 2004. In April 2007 the government appointed the barrister Bret Walker to inquire into how the ferries were run. His report that November was scathing about the management, industrial relations and government meddling. He recommended replacing the whole ageing fleet and handing day-to-day operations to a private operator, while the government kept the boats.

The first attempt in 2008 came to nothing. After the change of government in 2011 the plan went ahead, and on 28 July 2012 Harbour City Ferries started running the network. It was a 50/50 joint venture between Transfield Services (later Broadspectrum) and Veolia Transdev. Transdev bought out the other half in December 2016, and when a new contract started in July 2019 the operator was renamed Transdev Sydney Ferries. Its contract runs to June 2028. The ferries and the Balmain shipyard still belong to the government and are leased to the operator.

The Merinda and the Pam Burridge – 28 March 2007

Just before 11pm on Wednesday 28 March 2007 the HarbourCat Pam Burridge collided with a nine-metre private cruiser, the Merinda, near the Harbour Bridge. The people on the Merinda were from Australia's figure skating community, out on a sightseeing trip after the World Championships the week before. Four of them died: fourteen-year-old skater Morgan Innes, the judges Simone Moore and Alan Blinn, and James Engert, a 45-year-old Sydney man. Morgan Innes's coach, Elizabeth Cain, who had skated for Australia at the 1980 Winter Olympics, lost a leg. Morgan's body wasn't found for five days.

The Office of Transport Safety Investigations found the Merinda wasn't showing the required navigation lights and hadn't kept a proper lookout. The coroner's summary said it was the failure to turn on the lights that let the other causes line up into the collision. Earlier that same year, in January, a man was killed when the RiverCat Dawn Fraser hit a dinghy on the river.

The HarbourCat Pam Burridge in 2015. She was retired in July 2023. Mertie, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Wreck of the Dunbar – 20 August 1857

Long before the ferries had their troubles, the harbour's worst shipwreck happened right at its doorway. The Dunbar was a big timber full-rigged ship built at Sunderland in England for the London shipowner Duncan Dunbar, coming out to Sydney with passengers and cargo. On the night of 20 August 1857 she reached the coast in heavy rain and a strong gale. Captain James Green either thought he'd already passed South Head or mistook The Gap for the harbour entrance, and he drove her onto the cliffs. She broke up fast.

There were 59 crew and 63 passengers aboard, and only one survived: able seaman James Johnson, who clung to the cliff face until he was rescued. Bodies and wreckage filled the harbour. Sydney shut down for the funeral, flags flew at half mast, and the victims recovered were buried in a single big tomb at Camperdown Cemetery. The loss of the Dunbar, and of the Catherine Adamson on North Head nine weeks later, pushed the colony to build the Hornby Lighthouse at the actual harbour entrance. One of the Dunbar's anchors now sits at The Gap. I've got a full page on the Dunbar too.

The wreck of the Dunbar off Sydney Heads. The title says September, but "Aug 20/57", the real date of the wreck, is pencilled on the back. Unknown artist, State Library of New South Wales, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

James Johnson, the only survivor of the Dunbar, in a hand-coloured ambrotype taken in Sydney in 1857 and attributed to Thomas Glaister. State Library of New South Wales collection, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Dunbar anchor at The Gap. It was recovered in 1910 and put there in 1930. Peter George Christopher, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Lady Hopetoun and the Heritage Fleet

Some of the old boats are still with us. The Lady Hopetoun is a VIP steam launch built for the Sydney Harbour Trust and launched at W. M. Ford's yard at Berrys Bay on 10 April 1902. She was named after the wife of Lord Hopetoun, the first Governor-General, designed by Walter Reeks and built for £4,500. The Sydney Heritage Fleet says she's probably carried more famous people than any other boat in Australia, including the future King George VI when he was Duke of York, the Duke of Windsor, and the King and Queen of Thailand. Her everyday work was humbler. She was a relief pay boat, did small towing jobs and took the children who lived on Fort Denison to school each day.

She was retired in February 1965 and replaced by a diesel launch. That December a group of enthusiasts formed the Lady Hopetoun and Port Jackson Marine Steam Museum to save her. She was handed over in early 1966, restored, and recommissioned in 1970 in time for the Captain Cook bicentenary. That little museum grew into the Sydney Heritage Fleet, which also looks after the 1874 barque James Craig and the 1912 ferry Kanangra. Her hull is still mostly the original New Zealand kauri, and she still has her original triple-expansion steam engine.

The Lady Hopetoun at the Commissioners Steps, Circular Quay, between 1904 and 1908. Unknown photographer, Graeme Andrews Working Harbour Collection, City of Sydney Archives, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Lady Hopetoun at Circular Quay in 1960, a few years before she was retired. Unknown photographer, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The South Steyne survived too. After the 1974 fire, Manly residents started a "Save Our Steyne" campaign and stopped her being towed to Hong Kong for scrap. She went through several owners and became a restaurant ship. During the 2000 Olympics she was moored in Darling Harbour as the Olympic Information Centre. She was added to the State Heritage Register in 1999.

Big Days on the Harbour

The 1988 Bicentenary and the Tall Ships

On Australia Day 1988 the harbour was covered in boats. A re-enactment voyage of the First Fleet arrived. The Hawke government had refused to pay for it, thinking it might offend Aboriginal Australians, so radio station 2GB ran an appeal to keep it going. The government funded a separate display of tall ships instead, which sailed up the east coast and into the harbour on the day. The same day more than 40,000 people, including Aboriginal people from all over the country, marched through Sydney for land rights. It was the biggest march in the city since the Vietnam Moratorium.

Spectator boats crowd the harbour to see the tall ships for the Bicentenary in 1988. Australian Overseas Information Service, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The 2000 Olympics

On 15 September 2000 the Manly ferry Collaroy carried the Olympic flame across Sydney Harbour. On the night of the closing ceremony, 1 October 2000, fireworks poured off the Harbour Bridge.

Fireworks on the Harbour Bridge for the closing ceremony of the Sydney Olympics, 1 October 2000. David Shapinsky, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Great Ferry Race

In 1980 the Festival of Sydney held the first Great Ferry Race, with six ferries taking part. The Lady Woodward won. The maritime writer Graeme Andrews said the event showed Sydney "had finally rediscovered its ferries". It has been run every year since and is now held on Australia Day.

Timeline

• May 1789 – Convicts lay down the Rose Hill Packet at Sydney Cove. She is commissioned on 5 October 1789.
• By 1800 – The packet service has ended. Small one-man passage boats work the harbour.
• December 1801 – Billy Blue arrives on the Minorca. He is later rowing passengers across the harbour.
• 1831 – The Sophia Jane arrives on 13 May. The Australian-built Surprise starts regular trips to Parramatta on 1 June.
• 1845 – The Gerrard brothers' Fairy Queen starts the first reliable cross-harbour steam service.
• 1853 to 1856 – Henry Gilbert Smith starts the Manly steamers. The Victoria begins daily trips in 1856.
• 20 August 1857 – The Dunbar is wrecked at South Head. 121 die and one man survives.
• 1859 – The Phantom, the first big double-ended Manly ferry, goes into service.
• 1861 – The North Shore Ferry Company is formed.
• 23 January 1877 – The Port Jackson Steamship Company Limited is formed.
• 1879 – The Wallaby, Sydney's first double-ended screw ferry, starts running.
• 1883 – The 67-metre paddle steamer Brighton joins the Manly run.
• 1886 and 1893 – A cable tram, then the railway from Hornsby, reach Milsons Point.
• 1896 – The Manly companies merge. The Manly (II) is the first double-ended screw ferry on the Manly run.
• 14 December 1899 – Sydney Ferries Limited is incorporated.
• 10 April 1902 – The Lady Hopetoun is launched at Berrys Bay.
• 1907 – The Port Jackson and Manly Steamship Company Limited is formed.
• 24 September 1916 – Jessie the elephant crosses to Taronga Zoo on the vehicular ferry Kedumba.
• 1922 – The Kuttabul and Koompartoo, the biggest inner-harbour ferries ever, enter service.
• 3 November 1927 – The Greycliffe is run down by the Tahiti. 40 die.
• 1928 – The Curl Curl and Dee Why arrive from Scotland.
• 19 March 1932 – The Sydney Harbour Bridge opens and ferry patronage collapses.
• 16 November 1936 – Fire guts the Bellubera at Kurraba Point. Two crew die.
• 13 February 1938 – The Rodney capsizes while farewelling the USS Louisville. 19 die.
• 9 September 1938 – The South Steyne arrives in Sydney.
• 31 May and 1 June 1942 – The Japanese midget submarine attack. The Kuttabul is sunk and 21 sailors are killed.
• 1 July 1951 – The government buys the Sydney Ferries Limited fleet.
• 7 January 1965 – The first Manly hydrofoil starts running.
• December 1974 – The Public Transport Commission takes over the Manly service.
• 1980 – The first Great Ferry Race is held.
• December 1982 – The Freshwater goes into service on the Manly run.
• 22 January 1984 – The Karrabee sinks at Circular Quay.
• 1984 to 1986 – The nine First Fleet class catamarans arrive.
• 26 January 1988 – The Bicentenary. The First Fleet re-enactment and the tall ships sail into the harbour.
• 18 March 1991 – The last hydrofoil service runs. The JetCats take over.
• 7 May 1992 – The RiverCats start running to Meadowbank, and to Parramatta from December 1993.
• 15 September 2000 – The Collaroy carries the Olympic flame across the harbour.
• 28 March 2007 – The Pam Burridge and the Merinda collide. Four die.
• 31 December 2008 – The last JetCat service runs.
• 28 July 2012 – Harbour City Ferries takes over running the network.
• 26 June 2017 – The first Emerald class ferry enters service.
• July 2019 – Harbour City Ferries becomes Transdev Sydney Ferries.
• October 2021 – The Emerald class ferries start on the Manly run.
• 9 March 2026 – The last RiverCat, the Dawn Fraser, is retired.

Where the Sources Disagree

• Sydney's first steam ferry. Wikipedia's Sydney Ferries article and the Timeline of Sydney Harbour Ferries give the honour to the Australian-built Surprise, which started regular Parramatta trips on 1 June 1831. Wikipedia's Sophia Jane article says the English-built Sophia Jane was steaming before the Surprise and was "the first steamer to turn a paddle-wheel in Sydney Harbour", though she was mostly used on coastal runs.
• The Rose Hill Packet's size and dates. The Dictionary of Sydney calls her a twelve-ton ship. Wikipedia says her builder called her a 20-ton launch, while other accounts at the time put her at 10 or 12 tons. Wikipedia says she was launched in September and commissioned on 5 October 1789. The timeline just says she was launched in October 1789.
• When Billy Blue started rowing. The Dictionary of Sydney has him ferrying passengers in the first decade of the 1800s. Wikipedia's Sydney Ferries article and timeline put his regular Dawes Point to Blues Point service at about 1830.
• The first Manly ferry. Wikipedia's Manly ferry article says Henry Gilbert Smith chartered the Brothers in 1853. The Sydney Ferries article says it was the Huntress, in 1855. The timeline says the Victoria, from 1856, was the first regular Manly ferry.
• The Manly company's beginnings. Wikipedia's company article says the Port Jackson Steamship Company Limited was formed on 23 January 1877 and became the Port Jackson and Manly Steamship Company in 1907. The Manly ferry article says the Port Jackson Steamboat Company was formed in 1876. The Dictionary of Sydney simply says the Port Jackson and Manly Steamship Company was formed in 1907.
• The first Binngarra. The Sydney Ferries and Manly ferry articles date the Binngarra to 1905. The timeline says she entered service in 1906.
• How hard the Bridge hit. Wikipedia's Sydney Ferries Limited and Rodney articles say yearly patronage fell from 40 million to 15 million. The timeline and the Dictionary of Sydney say it fell to 14 million. Wikipedia's Sydney Ferries article says it went from 44 million to 20 million.
• The date of the Rodney disaster. Wikipedia's Rodney article gives Sunday 13 February 1938. The timeline and some of the Wikimedia Commons photo captions say 12 February. The 13th was a Sunday, which matches the newspaper photos dated the 13th.
• Brambles and the Manly takeover. The timeline and the South Steyne article say Brambles took over the Manly service in 1971. Wikipedia's company article dates the sale to 19 April 1972, and the Manly ferry article says April 1972. For the government takeover, the Freshwater class article says February 1974, the company article says 1 December 1974, and the timeline says December 1974.
• When the hydrofoils finished. The Manly ferry and Sydney Ferries articles say the JetCats replaced the hydrofoils in 1990. The Sydney hydrofoils article says the last hydrofoil ran on 18 March 1991, and the timeline gives 1991.
• The Dunbar's death toll. The heritage listing and Wikipedia say 121 died out of 122 on board. Mark Twain, in Following the Equator, gave the toll as 200 and called the ship the Duncan Dunbar, which Wikipedia notes is wrong. Wikipedia also gives conflicting build dates, built 1852 to 1853 but launched on 30 November 1854. The State Library painting is titled 20 September 1857, but the real date of 20 August is pencilled on the back.
• The Kuttabul date. The attack is usually dated 31 May 1942. The Australian War Memorial and Wikipedia say the submarines came in that night, but the torpedo was fired about 12.30am, so the sailors died on 1 June.
• The Merinda skaters. Wikipedia's article on the collision says the skaters were celebrating the "2009" World Championships, which can't be right for a 2007 crash. The Sydney Ferries article says it was the 2007 World Championships, held the week before.
• Lady Hopetoun's retirement. The Sydney Heritage Fleet says she retired in February 1965. A Museum of Sydney Harbour page says the early 1960s.

My Earlier Posts

• The Greycliffe Ferry Disaster – Sydney Harbour – 3 November 1927
• The Wreck of the Dunbar – South Head – Watsons Bay – 20 August 1857
• Manly – From Kai'ymay and Phillip's 'Manly Cove' of 1788 to the Ferries, the Quarantine Station and the Surf
• First Boat Built At Sydney Cove – Alfred St In Front Of Customs House
• Billy Blue – The Old Commodore of Blues Point
• Fort Denison – Pinchgut Island – Sydney Harbour – From 1788 to Today
• The Man O'War Steps – Farm Cove – The Navy's Landing
• The Sydney Opera House – From Cattle Point to Utzon's Sails
• The Amazing Islands of Sydney Harbour
• Robert Campbell – Campbell's Cove – Campbell's Stores – The Rocks
• Semi-Circular Quay – Port Jackson – Sydney Harbour
• The Government Wharf – Circular Quay
• Cadman's Cottage – The Coxswains' Barracks – Circular Quay West
• Garden Island – Sydney Harbour
• Cockatoo Island – Port Jackson
• Luna Park Sydney – Milsons Point
• Neutral Bay – Its Beginnings
• The Old Moore Park Zoo – Sydney's First Zoo
• Bradfield – The Harbour Bridge – The Trains
• Sydney Harbour Bridge 80th Anniversary (2012)
• Australian Maritime Museum – Darling Harbour
• The Wreck of the Malabar – Long Bay – 2 April 1931
• Entrance to Sydney Harbour – North Head

Sources

• Garry Wotherspoon, "Ferries", Dictionary of Sydney, 2008 – https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/ferries
• Wikipedia, "Timeline of Sydney Harbour ferries" – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Sydney_Harbour_ferries
• Wikipedia, "Sydney Ferries" – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Ferries
• Wikipedia, "Rose Hill Packet" – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_Hill_Packet
• Wikipedia, "Sophia Jane" – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophia_Jane
• Wikipedia, "Sydney Ferries Limited" – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Ferries_Limited
• Wikipedia, "Manly ferry service" – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manly_ferry_service
• Wikipedia, "Port Jackson and Manly Steamship Company" – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Jackson_and_Manly_Steamship_Company
• Wikipedia, "SS South Steyne" – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_South_Steyne
• Wikipedia, "HMAS Kuttabul (ship)" – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMAS_Kuttabul_(ship)
• Wikipedia, "Greycliffe disaster" – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greycliffe_disaster
• Wikipedia, "Rodney disaster" – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodney_disaster
• Wikipedia, "Attack on Sydney Harbour" – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Sydney_Harbour
• Australian War Memorial, "Japanese Midget Submarine" (encyclopedia) – https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/encyclopedia/midgetsub
• Wikipedia, "Sydney Harbour Bridge" – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Harbour_Bridge
• Wikipedia, "Sydney hydrofoils" – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_hydrofoils
• Wikipedia, "Sydney JetCats" – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_JetCats
• Wikipedia, "Sydney RiverCat" – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_RiverCat
• Wikipedia, "First Fleet-class ferry" – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Fleet-class_ferry
• Wikipedia, "Freshwater-class ferry" – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freshwater-class_ferry
• Wikipedia, "Emerald-class ferry" – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerald-class_ferry
• Wikipedia, "Transdev Sydney Ferries" – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transdev_Sydney_Ferries
• Wikipedia, "Merinda–Pam Burridge collision" – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merinda%E2%80%93Pam_Burridge_collision
• Wikipedia, "Dunbar (1853 ship)" – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar_(1853_ship)
• Wikipedia, "Australian Bicentenary" – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Bicentenary
• Wikipedia, "Sydney Heritage Fleet" – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Heritage_Fleet
• Sydney Heritage Fleet, "Lady Hopetoun, History" – https://shfmember.org.au/explore-the-fleet/our-operational-vessels/lady-hopetoun-1902-steam-launch/history/
• Museum of Sydney Harbour, "Meet the Fleet / Lady Hopetoun" – https://www.museumofsydneyharbour.org/blog/blog-post-title-one-a62t5-xb4ar-a6klb
• Wikimedia Commons file pages for each picture (linked from the pictures above) – https://commons.wikimedia.org/

The Water Police Court – Phillip Street, Circular Quay – Edmund Blacket's 1856 Courthouse and the Justice and Police Museum

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this page contains the name of an Aboriginal person who has died.

The old Water Police Court on the corner of Phillip and Albert Streets, now the Justice and Police Museum, 2013. Sardaka, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

If you have ever walked up from the ferries at Circular Quay towards the Opera House end of Phillip Street, you have probably passed a little sandstone courthouse sitting up on its own raised footpath, with three arches across the front and a triangular pediment on top. It looks almost too modest for the address. These days it is the Justice and Police Museum, but for well over a century it was where Sydney's waterfront troubles ended up – the drunks, the brawlers, the petty thieves, the sailors who had a big night, and plenty of folk who were just unlucky. This is the story of the Water Police Court.

Gadigal Country

The court stands on Gadigal Country. The City of Sydney's Barani history site describes the Gadigal as a clan of the Eora Nation, one of about 29 clan groups across the Sydney area, whose land stretched along the southern side of Port Jackson from South Head to around what is now Petersham. Wikipedia's article on the Gadigal (spelt Cadigal and Caddiegal in older records) describes them as the traditional owners of Sydney Cove, the place the British chose for their first settlement in 1788.

The same Barani page quotes historians on how quickly the Gadigal were devastated after the British arrived, through smallpox and the loss of land and food sources, and it also stresses that descendants of the Eora still live in Sydney today. Museums of History NSW, which runs the museum, greets visitors to the building with "Good to see you on Gadigal Country", and it acknowledges in particular the impact that colonial and state law enforcement had on First Nations people, saying it wants the museum to be a place for reflection and conversation about First Nations people and the justice system. For a former police station and courthouse, that is a fair thing to say out loud.

Sydney Cove, Port Jackson, painted by John Lewin in 1808, long before Circular Quay was built. John Lewin, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Before the Court: Where the Water Police Came From

Sydney was a harbour town from day one, and it needed policing on the water as much as on land. The Australian Police chronology says that in 1789 Governor Phillip set up a Night Watch and that a Row Boat Guard was "quickly established on Sydney Harbour". The Dictionary of Sydney says the Row Boat Guard's job was preventing smuggling, and that the Water Police were formally established by legislation in 1840, later adding the protection of wharf cargoes and rescue work to that list. The same chronology records the 1840 Water Police Act setting up a force of 15 operational and 12 support personnel, an inquiry into the Sydney Water Police in 1843, and about 28 Water Police men, including two detectives, by 1852.

For a few years the Water Police had their base on the other side of the Quay at Cadman's Cottage. The Dictionary of Sydney says that after John Cadman, the last government coxswain, left, the cottage was occupied by the Water Police from 1846 to the mid-1850s, and was extended for offices and lock-up cells. The NSW Government's Plan of Management for the cottage says the Water Police took it over between 1846 and 1849, that it was gazetted as a Court of Petty Sessions in 1849, and that by 1854 it was reported as inadequate. Even after the move it kept being used as a Water Police lock-up. I wrote about the cottage itself in my Cadman's Cottage post.

Cadman's Cottage at The Rocks, where the Water Police had their offices and cells before moving to Phillip Street. Gwrang, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Cadman's Cottage with the Sailors' Home behind it on George Street, The Rocks. Bidgee, CC BY-SA 3.0 au, via Wikimedia Commons

Museums of History NSW historian Jane Kelso puts it this way: by 1851 the old Water Police Office in The Rocks, with its court and lock-up, was "inadequate and dilapidated". A new home was needed, and the Government had just the block.

A Site Carved from Government House Grounds

The first Government House was pulled down in 1845–46, and Kelso writes that a large part of its grounds was carved up into new streets and allotments. One block was held back for public buildings, and the corner of Phillip and Albert Streets was picked for the new Water Police Office. The site sat up high above the brand-new Circular Quay, and that is still obvious today when you look at the way the building perches above the street.

Looking south from Dawes Point past the ships at Campbell's Wharf to Circular Quay, about 1857, around the time the new court opened. State Library of New South Wales collection, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

Sydney Cove from Fort Macquarie in 1859, looking across to The Rocks, the Water Police's old patch. State Library of New South Wales collection, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

The Architects

Edmund Blacket and the Water Police Office, 1854–1856

The plans were drawn up by the Colonial Architect, Edmund Blacket. Wikipedia's biography gives his dates as 25 August 1817 to 9 February 1883, and the NSW Government Architect list on Wikipedia has him as Colonial Architect from 1849 to 1854. Most people know Blacket for his churches and the University of Sydney, so a small police court is a bit of a sideline for him.

It was not an easy job to get built. Kelso says the project kept stalling because labour and materials were scarce and dear just as the colony boomed, and it was hard to find a contractor who could do the work. The State Heritage Register text, as reproduced on Wikipedia, adds that quarrying of the sandstone began at Bennelong Point in 1853, and that the gold rushes pushed prices up and drained the labour supply. More money was found and building started in 1854. The courthouse was finished in 1856.

Edmund Blacket, the Colonial Architect who designed the Water Police Office, about 1870. Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Kelso describes it as a Palladian-influenced design, with two lower wings set back slightly from a central pedimented bay, a layout that turned up again in other NSW courthouses. The three arches and the porch behind them were open at first, but iron palisading soon went up to keep out stray goats. Inside was the courtroom with cedar joinery, with rooms for magistrates, clerks and records in the wings, and a separate privy block out the back. From 1858 to 1873 the Shipping Master's Office had the east wing.

According to the heritage listing text on Wikipedia, the building was occupied in April by the Water Police Magistrate, Hutchinson Hothersal Brown, with a Clerk of Petty Sessions and a second clerk, and its cases came under the Harbour Regulations Act and the Act for Establishing a Water Police. In May the Steam Navigation and Pilot Boards were given a room.

The new building did not win any beauty prizes. Former curator Nerida Campbell, writing for Museums of History NSW, says it was "not universally celebrated for its architecture" but was accepted as "well fitted for the purpose for which it is designed", quoting the Sydney Morning Herald of 29 April 1856. Its acoustics were another matter. The Evening News in 1902 complained that "If the magistrate speaks, one hears a voice proceeding from the roof, as if some ardent ventriloquist were displaying his talent." Kelso adds that coir matting was laid to deaden the noise and roof cowls added to fight the "stench" from nearby warehouses and from the courtroom regulars.

The Water Police Court in 1872, photographed by Charles Percy Pickering for the NSW Government Printing Office. Pickering, Charles Percy (New South Wales. Government Printing Office), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Water Police Station, 1857–1858

Next door went the station. Kelso writes that money was allocated in 1855, but it was two years before the new Colonial Architect, Alexander Dawson, submitted a plan and a contractor was found. It was a T-shaped building of Pyrmont stone, with offices and a guardroom facing Phillip Street, cells behind, rooms for inspectors and a big barrack room upstairs, plus a separate kitchen block. It was finished in 1858. The heritage text says the upstairs barracks housed four water policemen and their families, and that the original design, based on stations at Darlinghurst, Newtown and Balmain, was trimmed back because of the gold rush costs.

The Water Police finally moved over from Cadman's Wharf. Kelso adds that the station grew two new cells in 1875–76, an exercise yard a couple of years later, and that the yard behind the court was enclosed to keep out "trysting" goats. The goats get a surprising amount of attention in this building's history.

The former Water Police Station at 8 Phillip Street, later called the Phillip Street Police Station. Sardaka, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Another view of the old station, photographed in 2007. Sardaka at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

James Barnet and the Police Court, 1884–1886

The third building is the one squeezed in between. Kelso writes that in 1884–85 a new courthouse was slotted between the two Water Police buildings, designed by Colonial Architect James Barnet, with three arches and a pediment that echoed Blacket's court. Barnet's double-height courtroom tried to fix the old complaints: linoleum and asphalt blocks on the floor to dampen sound, ventilation tubes in the walls, an unusual recessed skylight and an underfloor "air propeller" for a kind of early air-conditioning. Wikipedia gives Barnet's dates as 1827 to 16 December 1904 and says he was Colonial Architect from 1862 to 1890.

Campbell writes that the Police Court opened in 1886 and that its first magistrate, Mr Whittingdale Johnson, said, "There was chance now of those magistrates who were in good health not losing it, and of those who had suffered through the foul atmosphere of the old court regaining their health." He was quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald of 8 January 1886. I covered this building's green plaque in Sydney Police Court – Historical Marker Number 94.

James Barnet, Colonial Architect from 1862 to 1890, who designed the 1886 Police Court. Unknown photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Later on, in the late 1890s, Government Architect Walter Liberty Vernon added bow-fronted weatherboard infills to the side arches of both courts. Kelso says they were mocked as looking like "little fruit, lolly, and soft-drink shops", quoting the Evening News of 20 November 1899.

The three arches and pediment of the court, looking along Phillip Street, 2012. sv1ambo, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Cases: Sailors, Wharf Crime and the Push

Don't let the name fool you. Kelso points out that the Water Police Court was not confined to maritime cases. Its patch stretched north from Bridge Street to Broken Bay and west to the Lane Cove River, and it dealt with a growing pile of minor criminal and public order matters, as well as preliminary hearings for serious crimes.

Campbell paints the picture well. In the 1850s, with the end of convict transportation and the gold rush, people of every kind flooded through the port, and crime rose along with trade. Most of the court's work was petty: offensive language, public drunkenness, careless "mistakes" after a night out, petty theft and break and enter. By 1880 it was dealing with more than 17,000 cases a year, she writes, citing the Sydney Morning Herald of 22 January 1881. The public gallery was its own show. The Evening News in March 1884 sniffed that "the same faces are visible in their dirt and repulsiveness, watching with interest and gloating over the scenes which are almost daily presented in the courts."

Circular Quay in 1871, crowded with sailing ships. The sailors off these ships kept the Water Police busy. Australian National Maritime Museum on The Commons, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

Looking east over Circular Quay and the Government Domain from the Observatory in the 1870s. Aussie~mobs, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Rocks Push

Just across the Quay was The Rocks, and from the 1870s it had its own homegrown trouble. The Dictionary of Sydney describes the Rocks Push as a larrikin gang who "dominated and intimidated the residents of the Rocks from the 1870s to the 1890s by theft, assault and battery". Wikipedia's article on the gang says it fought running battles with rival pushes such as the Miller's Point Push, the Glebe Push and the Forty Thieves from Surry Hills. It also tells a grim story about female members luring drunks and seamen into dark lanes like Harrington Place, nicknamed the "Suez Canal", where they were assaulted and robbed. That story comes from Wikipedia rather than a court record, so take the gory details with a grain of salt.

Wikipedia also says the push leaders were decided by bare-knuckle fights, and that Larry Foley, later called the "Father of Australian Boxing", led a Catholic larrikin gang known as the Greens. In 1871 he fought Sandy Ross, leader of the Protestant "Orange" group, for 71 rounds before police stepped in. Wikipedia's article on larrikins quotes the Queanbeyan Age of 27 February 1892 describing "a horde of larrikins, known as the 'Rocks push'" abusing and attacking men at the Labour Bureau. The Water Police Court was the nearest bench to The Rocks for much of this time, so it is a safe bet it saw a fair share of push members, although none of the sources I read names a particular push case heard there.

"The Larrikin", from A Walk in Sydney Streets on the Shady Side, 1885, by Nelson P. Whitelocke. Nelson P Whitelocke (1861-1927), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Mad Dentist and Captain Moonlite

The court's most notorious preliminary hearing, Campbell writes, was that of Henry Louis Bertrand, "the mad dentist of Wynyard Square". In 1865 he murdered Henry Kinder, the husband of his lover Maria Kinder, and dressed it up as suicide. When another of Maria's lovers wrote accusing him, Bertrand took the letter to the police, and the writer was sent to jail for a year for attempted blackmail by the Water Police magistrate. In his secret diary Bertrand wrote, "I am satisfied. Thus once more perish my enemies." Further inquiries led to his arrest along with his wife Jane and Maria Kinder. The Water Police magistrate heard part of the case in his private office to spare the two women from telling the details in public. Bertrand was found guilty but insane at a higher court. The museum holds the guns he bought and little bone carvings he made in prison.

Campbell also notes that the bushranger Andrew George Scott, alias Captain Moonlite, is known to have spent time in the Water Police Station. The museum has a plaster death mask made shortly after his execution.

Andrew George Scott, alias Captain Moonlite, about 1879. He spent time in the Water Police Station. believed to be Charles Nettleton (1826-1902), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

From Water Police Court to Traffic Court

The 20th century brought big changes. According to Kelso, the Water Police moved to Dawes Point in 1913, and the Phillip Street building became a subsidiary station. The heritage text on Wikipedia says it was known from then on as the Phillip Street Police Station, though people still called it the Water Police Station, and that the court was still called the "Water Bench" until late 1940. In 1933 the station became head station of No. 4 Division of the Metropolitan Police District.

Kelso writes that the Water Police Court closed in 1918 to make way for the Police Traffic Branch, served as an inoculation depot during the 1918–19 influenza pandemic, and reopened in 1924 because courts elsewhere were overcrowded. With the motor car came two dedicated Traffic Courts and later a special Parking Court. The heritage text says that from 1926 the courts were known as Traffic Courts 1 and 2 and heard all traffic and parking offences in the Sydney district, while still taking shipping cases and Water Police matters.

There were some telling small changes along the way. In 1912, Kelso says, the iron spikes on the "cage-like dock" were taken off because it looked degrading and implied guilt. In 1945–46 the road levels were lowered for the Circular Quay railway loop, which is why the buildings now sit up on a split-level footpath. By the late 1940s the station was described as "the worst in the State" (The Sun, 3 May 1949), but rather than being knocked down, it was patched up again. A wartime concrete air-raid shelter ended up as the sergeants' room.

Phillip Street in the late 1880s, photographed by Arthur K. Syer. State Library of New South Wales collection, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

The corner of Phillip and Bridge Streets in 1899. Bridge Street was the southern edge of the Water Police Court's patch. Photographic Collection from Australia, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Justice and Police Museum

The museum's roots go back to 1910. Kelso writes that a Police Museum opened at Police Headquarters that year, filled with confiscated weapons, gambling gear and housebreaking tools, to train recruits. It was called "the demonstrating laboratory in the policeman's school" (The Sun, 5 September 1926). It later moved to the Redfern Police Barracks, and by the 1970s a more public home was being looked for.

When the courts and police moved out of Phillip Street, the old buildings were the obvious choice. In 1986 the NSW Public Works Department began conserving them, stripping out later additions and returning them largely to their late-19th-century look. Kelso says a company, Justice & Police Museum Limited, was set up after the 1987 police reorganisation. The museum went to the Ministry for the Arts in 1988, the Historic Houses Trust of NSW took over in August 1989, and the Justice & Police Museum officially opened in 1991. The Historic Houses Trust later became Sydney Living Museums and is now part of Museums of History NSW. Campbell says the museum shows a courtroom, charge room and cell recreated to look as they did in the 1890s, when the complex was at its busiest.

The building around 1987, during the years it was being turned into a museum. Sardaka, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The sandstone courthouse in 2012. sv1ambo, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Collection and the Mugshots

The heritage text describes the collection as largely police-based, built on the 1910 Police Museum teaching collection, and especially strong in colonial firearms and forensic evidence from famous crimes. Campbell mentions evidence from the Pyjama Girl murder and items said to have belonged to the bushrangers Ben Hall, Thunderbolt, the Kelly gang, the Clarke gang and Frank Gardiner.

The best-known treasure is the police photographs. The Research Data Australia listing for the collection describes about 2,500 glass plate negatives, plus some cellulose negatives, of suspects, offenders and detainees taken by Sydney police between 1910 and the early 1930s. They are known as "Special Photographs", and the listing says they were mostly taken in the cells at Central Police Station. It quotes curator Peter Doyle saying the subjects seem to have been allowed, "perhaps invited", to pose themselves as they liked. Museums of History NSW explains that suspects hold handbags, papers and cigarettes, that a bentwood chair in the frame gave an idea of height, and that the lack of handcuffs meant a photo could be shown to a witness without prejudice. The listing names razor-gang era figures such as John Frederick "Chow" Hayes and Guido Calletti (spelt "Guidio" in the listing) among the sitters. I wrote about that era in Kate Leigh & Tilly Devine – Sydney's Razor Gang Queens.

Exhibitions

The museum's exhibition Underworld: Mugshots from the Roaring Twenties displayed more than 100 of these Specials, taken between 1920 and 1930 and reproduced from the original glass negatives. It is listed as a past exhibition. The current museum page lists a permanent display on Alexander Riley, the legendary Aboriginal police tracker, about the work of Aboriginal trackers for NSW Police in the 20th century. It also notes that the Police Cells are closed for conservation work and are due to reopen in early 2027 with a new exhibition. The museum opens on Saturdays and Sundays from 10am to 5pm.

The museum building on the corner of Phillip and Albert Streets, 2012. sv1ambo, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Bricks and stone said to come from the old Water Police Court. The photo was shared by a NSW records collection, and its original caption links the stone to the first years of the colony. Photographic Collection from Australia, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Heritage Listing

The complex was listed on the NSW State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999 as item 673, under the name "Justice and Police Museum; Police Station & Law Courts (former); Traffic Court", according to Wikipedia's article, which reproduces the register text. The listing says the buildings were the headquarters of one of the earliest policing bodies in NSW, closely tied to Sydney's growth as a port, and that they reflect "the work of four government architects over 48 years". It also notes the museum holds the only public collection in NSW of artefacts on the history of crime, law and policing. And it says, rather nicely, that the buildings' "endearingly human scale" gives an important foil to the towers around Circular Quay. The police station's own green plaque is in my post Phillip Street Police Station – Historical Marker 93.

Circular Quay in 1888, painted by Julian Ashton. Julian Ashton, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Water Police are still on Sydney Harbour today. This boat was photographed in 2008. Adam.J.W.C., CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Another Water Police vessel on the harbour, 2008. Adam.J.W.C., CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Timeline

• 1789 – A Row Boat Guard is set up on Sydney Harbour (Australian Police chronology).
• 1840 – The Water Police Act is passed (Australian Police chronology, Dictionary of Sydney).
• 1845–46 – The first Government House is demolished and its grounds are subdivided (MHNSW).
• 1846–1849 – The Water Police move into Cadman's Cottage (sources differ on the exact year).
• 1851 – The old Water Police Office in The Rocks is described as inadequate. The Phillip and Albert Street site is chosen.
• 1853 – Sandstone is quarried at Bennelong Point (SHR text).
• 1854 – Building begins on Blacket's Water Police Office.
• 1856 – The Water Police Court opens.
• 1857–58 – Dawson's Water Police Station is built.
• 1865 – The station gets gas lighting. Bertrand's preliminary hearing takes place.
• 1873 – The west wing clerks' room becomes a second courtroom.
• 1880 – The court handles more than 17,000 cases a year.
• 1884–86 – Barnet's Police Court is built and opens in January 1886.
• 1899–1900 – Vernon's timber and glass infills go into the arches.
• 1910 – The Police Museum opens at Police Headquarters.
• 1912 – The spikes come off the dock.
• 1913 – The Water Police move to Dawes Point.
• 1918–1924 – The Water Police Court is closed. The Traffic Branch moves in, and the building is used as a flu inoculation depot.
• 1926 – Traffic Courts 1 and 2 begin.
• 1933 – The station becomes head station of No. 4 Division.
• 1945–48 – The street levels are lowered for the Circular Quay railway.
• 1979–80 – The courts close.
• 1984–85 – The police station closes and the police leave.
• 1986 – Conservation work begins.
• 1989 – The Historic Houses Trust takes over.
• 1991 – The Justice & Police Museum officially opens.
• 1999 – The complex is listed on the State Heritage Register on 2 April.

Where the Sources Disagree

• Who designed the Water Police Station? It is sometimes credited to James Barnet. But Museums of History NSW (Kelso) and the State Heritage Register text both say Colonial Architect Alexander Dawson designed it, and Wikipedia's list of NSW Government Architects shows Barnet didn't become Colonial Architect until 1862, four years after the station was finished. Barnet's building on the site is the 1886 Police Court.
• When was the station built? The Dictionary of Sydney says the police station was built in 1857. MHNSW says it was completed in 1858, and the SHR text says construction began in 1857 and lists it as "1858 – Police Station".
• When was the Police Court built? Kelso says 1884–85. Campbell, the Dictionary of Sydney and the SHR text give 1886, which was when it opened.
• When did the courts close? Campbell says the courts closed in 1979, and the SHR text says late 1979. Kelso says the premises were vacated by 1980, and the SHR's list of court uses runs the Traffic Court to 1980.
• When did the police leave? Kelso says the station closed in early 1984. Campbell says the police left the site in 1985.
• When did the museum open? MHNSW says the museum officially opened in 1991. The Dictionary of Sydney says the buildings were adapted for the museum in 1990.
• How long were the Water Police at Cadman's Cottage? The Dictionary of Sydney says from 1846 to the mid-1850s. The Plan of Management says they took it over between 1846 and 1849, probably around 1849, and used it as a lock-up even after the new station opened.
• Lowering the roads. Kelso gives 1945–46. The SHR text gives 1947–48.

My Earlier Posts

• Cadman's Cottage
• Phillip Street Police Station – Corner Phillip St & Albert St – Green Plaque – Historical Marker 93
• Sydney Police Court – Historical Marker Number 94
• Darlinghurst Gaol & Darlinghurst Court
• Kate Leigh & Tilly Devine – Sydney's Razor Gang Queens

Sources

• Jane Kelso, "From Water Police Office to museum", Museums of History NSW, 20 February 2026 – mhnsw.au
• Nerida Campbell, "Gritty business", Museums of History NSW, 13 February 2023 – mhnsw.au
• Justice & Police Museum visitor page, Museums of History NSW – mhnsw.au
• "NSW Police 'Specials'", Museums of History NSW – mhnsw.au
• "Underworld: Mugshots from the Roaring Twenties", Museums of History NSW – mhnsw.au
• "Special Photographs – NSW Police Forensic Photography archive", Research Data Australia – researchdata.edu.au
• "Justice and Police Museum", Wikipedia, incorporating NSW State Heritage Register item 673 text (CC BY 4.0) – wikipedia.org
• "Water Police Court", Dictionary of Sydney – dictionaryofsydney.org
• "Water Police", Dictionary of Sydney – dictionaryofsydney.org
• "Cadman's cottage", Dictionary of Sydney – dictionaryofsydney.org
• "Rocks Push", Dictionary of Sydney – dictionaryofsydney.org
• NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, Cadmans Cottage Historic Site Plan of Management – environment.nsw.gov.au
• "Chronology of Policing – NSW", Australian Police – australianpolice.com.au
• "Aboriginal people and place", Barani, City of Sydney – sydneybarani.com.au
• "Gadigal", Wikipedia – wikipedia.org
• "Rocks Push", Wikipedia – wikipedia.org
• "Larrikin", Wikipedia – wikipedia.org
• "Edmund Blacket", Wikipedia – wikipedia.org
• "James Barnet", Wikipedia – wikipedia.org
• "New South Wales Government Architect", Wikipedia – wikipedia.org
• All pictures are from Wikimedia Commons, with credits and licences under each picture.