As Cee has given us an open choice this week I went looking in my archives for something interesting and found some photographs that I took at Port Huon several years ago now. Port Huon used to be an extremely busy port as apples were sent from here to overseas ports. After Britain joined the European Common Market trade declined and so did the port. There is a little boat repair business at one of the nearby slipways but most other businesses that were there have long gone.
When I took these photos it was still possible to go on to the wharf to fish or take photos but it is used by a fish farming operation and I believe that they have now completely closed off the wharf to the public. I love old buildings like these and I thought that the old sheds would make good subjects in black and white.
Port Huon Wharf April 2014A barge that I think was being used to take food out to the salmon farms in the bay.
I wondered what to post for the last Which Way Challenge. Then I went for a walk near home and saw the Fishpass. It was built a few years ago to help fish over the weir on the Kermandie River at Port Huon. Despite the sign not much environmental work has been done since.
The Kermandie River Fishpass
The Kermandie River Fishpass
The Kermandie River Fishpass
The Kermandie River Fishpass
I have really enjoyed doing the Which Way Challenge. Thank you Cee for running it.
The view of the Huon River from halfway up Percy St, Port Huon
I went to visit my sister for the weekend and Hubby came to pick me up from Hobart today. On our way home he asked me “Would you mind if we made a small detour? I’d like to show you something.” I said it was fine with me and when we reached Port Huon which is a couple of kilometres from our home he took me up the side road next to the Kermandie Hotel. We climbed uphill on a narrow, unsealed road. There are many roads like this in our area and most of them make me a bit nervous but the views are always worth it.
We didn’t need to go to the end of the road, just a short distance up the hill was a place where Hubby could pull off the road and that is where I took this picture and others. You can see the Port Huon Wharf on the left and on the right the fish farms that belong to Huon Aquaculture. In the distance to river winds away towards the D’entrecasteaux Channel.
The photograph was taken from the road next to this location.
The Huon River seems to be becoming a home for retired ferries at present. As well as the Cartela which will be setting off for her new berth in Franklin next Sunday two other former Hobart ferries are at moorings nearby.
Below is the Jeremiah Ryan, otherwise known as Incat Hull -001. The Jeremiah Ryan was the first catamaran ferry built by Robert Clifford, the forerunner of the many that he has built at Incat since then. She was built after the collapse of the Tasman Bridge in 1975 left Hobart with a transport crisis.
Most recently she was used for tourist trips on the Derwent but after the collapse of Captain Fell’s Historic Ferries she went out of service and is currently for sale. For some years prior to 2007 when Captain Fell bought her she was used on the Maria Island ferry run. By the looks of her she will need some work. I think it would be a nice thing to see her preserved, perhaps at Incat as the first of her kind.
Jeremiah Ryan at Port Huon
Jeremiah Ryan at Port Huon
I haven’t been able to find out very much about Lady Jane’s past. I know that she was formerly called the Commodore and I remember her by that name doing cruises to the Cadbury factory when we first came to Tasmania and that she is made of Ferro cement. Poor Lady Jane hasn’t been welcome anywhere for the past few months. When she first came to the Huon she berthed at the Port Huon Wharf for a while, then she disappeared and reappeared hidden behind Franklin Marine at Franklin which the local council was keen for her to depart from. Now she is moored just outside of Huonville. I see men aboard her often when we pass by and wonder what her fate will be. I hope it won’t be the scrap yard.
Lady Jane at Port Huon Wharf
Lady Jane at the old mooring near Huonville
Lady Jane’s anchor
I hope that both of these old boats find good homes, maybe here in the Huon. There is a lot of waterfront activity at Franklin now with the Living Boat Trust, Wooden Boat School and Cartela Restoration all resident there.
One of the most well known sights on the Hobart waterfront is the historic ferry the MV Cartela. When I was working in Hobart I would see her most days at her mooring on Brooke Street Pier. Although I’d been on cruises on the Derwent on some of the smaller and more modern ferries Cartela was no longer making regular cruises by the time I first saw her. She was used for private charters such as weddings and New Year parties. In September of 2011 when I heard that there were to be cruises for the public over one weekend my sister and I made a point of going.
The interior of the MV Cartela September 2011
The piano
The bar
Sadly since then Cartela has not cruised the Derwent due to her deteriorating condition but there are plans to restore her to operating condition over the next four years. But before I tell you about that here is a bit of background information. The following two excerpt are from the Cartela website, http://www.cartelasteamship.com.au.
Cartela was built for Huon, Channel & Peninsula Steamship Co. Ltd. by well-known Battery Point shipbuilders Purdon & Featherstone in 1912. She was designed to service all the communities along the estuary of the River Derwent, D’Entrecasteaux Channel and Tasman Peninsula at a time when the best, and sometimes only access, was by sea. A vessel like Cartela was often a remote community’s main point of contact with the rest of the world and the river steamer’s whistle was a signal for locals to meet the vessel at the wharf. [GW Cox, p. 1]
There are still older people in the Huon Valley who can remember seeing the Cartela tied up at Port Huon Wharf.
River ferries like Cartela were integral to the economies of isolated rural communities along the south-east Tasmanian coast, carrying passengers and general freight, and fruit, timber and butter and eggs for sale at the Hobart markets. Cartela was also used to break the 1919 maritime strike, transporting 4000 apple cases from Port Huon to Port Melbourne and returning with a load of general merchandise. [G W Cox, p. 58] Her role as a cargo vessel only ended in the 1950s when trucks began to take over from the ketches and river ferries.
During World War One the Cartela was requisitioned by the navy as an Examination Vessel (EV) to help protect the port of Hobart. She was commanded by three naval reserve lieutenants with a crew of mixed civilians and naval cadets. At the end of this post I’ve included an article from our local newspaper, “The Huon Valley News” which tell more about Cartela’s war service. According to the article the job of the EV’s was to steam out to any approaching vessel and enquire if it was a “Friend or Foe?” I can’t imagine what she was supposed to do if there had actually been an unfriendly vessel.
After she was released from her war duties in 1916 Cartela returned to her regular job of carrying freight and passengers. She participated in the popular although unofficial river ferry races on the Derwent River between 1919 and 1931 when the river steamers vied for the title of “Cock of the Derwent”.
The Cartela was bought by ferry operators Roche Brothers in 1951 and converted from steam to diesel. By this time Hobart’s eastern and western shores had been connected by a bridge and with better road access and higher car ownership there was not as much work for her or her sister ships. Cartela became more of a tourist vessel.
In 1975 the Tasman Bridge collapsed after one of its pylons was hit by freighter the Lake Illawarra. Twelve people died in the tragedy and the Hobart metropolitan area was effectively cut in half. Cartela was one of many ferries called in to transport passengers across the Derwent while the bridge was being repaired. It was not until 1977 that she was released from those duties and became a tourist vessel once again.
In 2009 the Roche brothers donated the Cartela to a not for profit organisation called Steamship Cartela Ltd. It is intended that she will be fully restored and that her original steam engine will be re-installed. The whole project will cost about four million dollars and take about four years. On June 26th Cartela left her berth at Brooke Street Pier for the last time to journey to Franklin on the Huon River which will be her home during the restoration.
I spotted Cartela at Port Huon Wharf the next day, she had been unable to complete the journey to Franklin as the facilities at her new berth were not quite ready. As I write this post she is still at Port Huon but I hope to have photos of her at Franklin very soon.
A beautiful winter day at Port Huon
MV Cartela-Port Huon Wharf- July 2014
The weather changes quickly here.
I have included a lot of links to articles with more detailed information about the Cartela and the restoration project that I found while writing this post. The official website http://www.steamshipcartela.com.au has more as well as a great description of the Derwent River steamer races, engineering details and a lot of great photos. Check it out. If you are an Australian resident and want to donate the project it is tax deductible. I am not affiliated with the project in any way. I just think it will be a great thing to see this grand old lady get a new lease of life. She is the last of the Hobart river steamers.
