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.
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.
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 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.
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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 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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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 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 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.
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.
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.
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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 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.
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.
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 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 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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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.
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/