The quiet town of Southwest Rocks on the New South Wales north coast (Australia) received an unexpected surprise on the night of 9th January 1972 when three redundant ferries were washed ashore. Salvage efforts failed and the wrecks were left to the vagaries of sun, sea and sand. After almost 40 years there is very little left however there's enough to tell the story of these long lived and hard working vessels...
Dimensions quoted from Ferries of Sydney by Graeme Andrews.
Wreck 1: Koondooloo
The most intact wreck is the that of the Koondooloo. Once washed ashore the ship was driven higher up the beach with successive storms and sand movement, now she is almost completely covered.
A beautiful photo of the Koondooloo in her heyday can be found here: http://www.betterphoto.com/gallery/dynoGallDetail.asp?photoID=9538076
The Koondooloo was built in Leith, Scotland in 1924, she weighed 524 tons and was 58 metres (192 feet) long and had a beam of 11 metres (36 feet).
Between 1924-1932 she operated as one of the largest vehicular ferries crossing Sydney Harbour but was made redundant with the completion of the bridge in 1932. The ship was rebuilt as a showboat and cruised the Harbour until requisitioned by the Royal Australian Navy for use as a repair vessel.
After the war the ship was reconverted back into a vehicular ferry to service Newcastle's Stockton Harbour and she was made redundant again with the completion of the bridge in 1971. She was sold with three other ferries to further service in the Philippines but during the tow north encountered a storm and was driven ashore...and here she remains, slowly succumbing to the forces of nature.
Sad and vines are slowly covering the remains of the Koondooloo.
The sand has covered the entire car deck and almost completely buried the upper deck-house. The remains of one of the other ferries can be seen above the people on the middle left of the photo.
At the stern can be seen one of the motors which operated the ramp pulley system through the post in the background.
The remains of the pulley system which raised and lowered the car ramps. There were two at each end of the ferry.
Docking Bollards retain their positions despite the encroachment of vines and sand.
On closer examination one can see how far advanced the iron and wood elements have begun to break down.
Within a few years the Koondooloo will be completely buried in sand which ironically will also help preserve her lower hull from further exposure. At the very tip of the bow the ferry still has bits of her original green hull paint!
Wreck 2: Lurgurena
The slightly smaller but similarly designed Lurgurena operated as a vehicular ferry in Hobart, Tasmania before before transferred to Newcastle to cope with the steadily increasing car traffic until the completion of the bridge in 1971.
Three of the four ramp posts are all the remains visible of the wreck of the Lurgurena. The deck-house was washed away in the 1990s while the hull has sunk into the sand.
At neap tides it is possible to walk along the length of the wreck and through the ramp posts.
Only one of the forward ramp posts remain standing and is under constant bombardment from the waves.
Wreck 3: Sydney Queen.
The third and final wreck on the beach belongs to the showboat Sydney Queen which spent most of her life operating under the name Kalang.
Constructed in 1926 in Chester, England she was the largest vehicular ferry in Sydney with a gross tonnage of 525 tons, a length of 187 feet (57 metres) and a beam of 36 feet (11 metres). After only six years in operation the Sydney Harbour Bridge was completed and she was made redundant. It was decided to rebuild her as a showboat following the success of the Koondooloo. The reconstruction added two extra decks and almost tripled her gross tonnage to 1,460 tons.
The Second World War intervened and she was requisitioned by the Royal Australian Navy as a repair ship. In 1947 she was reconverted back into a showboat and operated successfully for the next ten years, however in the late 1950s rising maintenance costs and falling business forced her to be sold to businessmen who repainted her white and renamed her 'Sydney Queen'. The operation failed miserably and for the rest of the next decade was laid up until sold for further service in the Philippines with the other redundant car ferries.
There is practically nothing left except two post heads marking the extreme bow and stern of the ship. The lower hull was quickly buried in the sand in the months after running ashore and within a year the upperworks were purposefully set ablaze to allow salvagers access to the ships internal machinery.
The Southwest Rocks Maritime Museum has a room devoted to the shipwrecked ferries with numerous photos and a beautiful model of the Kalang (later Sydney Queen). The photos also reflect the ferries original state when they first ran ashore.
Video footage of the three ferries can be found on the NSW Maritime Heritage site here: http://maritime.heritage.nsw.gov.au/public/search_results.cfm
The main beach at Southwest Rocks remains as serene and tranquil as the day three ferries unexpectedly ran ashore in early January 1972...
