Bass Strait ferries

Last updated
Bass Strait Ferry
Overview
Owner TT-Line Pty. Ltd.
Locale Australia
Termini
Service
Operator(s)TT-Line Pty. Ltd.
Route map

Contents

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Geelong
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Victoria
Tasmania
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Devonport

Bass Strait ferry Spirit of Tasmania I in 2014 Spirit of Tasmania I loading at Port Melbourne June 2014.jpg
Bass Strait ferry Spirit of Tasmania I in 2014

Bass Strait Ferries have been the ships that have been used for regular transport across Bass Strait between Tasmania and Victoria in mainland Australia, [1] [2] [3] as well as the various attempts to link Tasmania with Sydney. [4] [5] Historically, some regular shipping services in the twentieth century linked Sydney, Melbourne and Hobart with the Bass Strait ports: Launceston's various port locations, Devonport and Burnie. The distinction between coastal shipping and Bass Strait ferry has been blurred at times.

At various stages the cost of shipping between Tasmania and the Australian mainland have caused enquiries and calls for subsidies or reduced rates of both ferries and general shipping. [6] [7]

History

In the 1840s the Launceston–Melbourne Steam Navigation Company was in business with Black Swan, Royal Shepherd and Havilah. [8] The Shamrock at this time was engaged in a service between Sydney, Melbourne and Launceston [9]

Tasmanian Steamers commenced in the 1920s with three ships. [10]

The Oonah (originally on the Sydney-Hobart route) was operated along with SS Loongana and Nairana until 1935 when Oonah and Loongana were replaced by the SS Taroona.

In 1959 the Australian National Line took over the service, and from 1959 to 1972, the Princess of Tasmania made crossings between Melbourne and Devonport. The cargo-only Bass Trader carried heavy vehicles from Melbourne to Tasmania until the Australian Trader was added in 1969 with services from Melbourne to Burnie, Devonport and Bell Bay (Launceston) in rotation.

From 1965 to 1972, the Empress of Australia made three crossings per fortnight from Sydney to Hobart, Bell Bay and Burnie. In 1972 the Empress replaced the Princess on the Melbourne to Devonport route and the Australian Trader moved to the Sydney-Tasmania routes.

The Tasmanian Government's TT-Line took over the service from 1985 when the Abel Tasman replaced the Empress and made six weekly overnight crossings between Devonport and Melbourne. It was replaced by the Spirit of Tasmania in 1993.

In the summer months of 1998 to 2002, TT-Line in conjunction with SeaCat Tasmania, also operated the high speed catamaran Devil Cat between Port Welshpool, 200 kilometres south east of Melbourne and George Town near Bell Bay. The trip took six hours.

Flinders island can also be reached by ferry from Bridport in Tasmania, and from Port Welshpool in Victoria.

2002 - Spirit of Tasmania I, II, III

In 2002 the Spirit was replaced with the two ferries previously owned by Superfast Ferries Spirit of Tasmania I and Spirit of Tasmania II, with two crossings each night leaving simultaneously from Melbourne and Devonport. From January 2004 to June 2006 a third ship, Spirit of Tasmania III, operated on the Devonport to Sydney route.

2022 - Spirit of Tasmania IV, V

On 28 February 2022, Rauma Marine Constructions (RMC), a shipbuilding company in Rauma, Finland, started construction of Spirit of Tasmania IV. The shipbuilder will also build Spirit of Tasmania V. TT-Line will introduce updated branding for the new ferries, but will keep the iconic red and white as the colour scheme. The new ferries are due to be delivered by the end of 2023. [11]

On the 23 October 2022, TT-Line moved its Victorian terminal from Station Pier in the Port of Melbourne to the new purpose built Spirit of Tasmania Quay in Geelong.

Localities and ports

Ships

SS Nairana Nairana (AWM 303672).jpg
SS Nairana
SS Taroona in 1951 Taroona.jpg
SS Taroona in 1951

(chronological) [12]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Devonport, Tasmania</span> City in Tasmania, Australia

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tasmanian Government</span> State government of Tasmania, Australia

The Tasmanian Government or the Government of Tasmania is the executive branch of the Australian state of Tasmania. The leader of the party or coalition with the confidence of the House of Assembly, the lower house of the Parliament of Tasmania, is invited by the governor of Tasmania to form the executive. The governor appoints the premier of Tasmania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bass Strait Triangle</span> Waters separating Victoria and Tasmania

The Bass Strait Triangle is the waters that separate the states of Victoria and Tasmania, including Bass Strait, in south-eastern Australia. The term Bass Strait Triangle appears to have been first used following the disappearance of Frederick Valentich in 1978 although the region had a bad reputation long before that.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Huddart Parker</span> Australian shipping company

Huddart Parker Ltd was an Australian shipping company trading in various forms between 1876 and 1961. It was one of the seven major coastal shippers in Australia at a time when shipping was the principal means of interstate and trans-Tasman transport. The company started in Geelong, but in 1890 shifted its offices to Melbourne. By 1910 Huddart Parker had grown to rank 24th of the top 100 companies in Australia by asset value. Several of the company's ships served in World War I and World War II. Huddart Parker ceased to be an independent company in 1961, when it was taken over by Bitumen and Oil Refineries Australia Limited.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Burnie Airport</span> Airport in Wynyard, Tasmania

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spirit of Tasmania</span> Operators of the ferry service between Tasmania and Victoria

TT-Line Company Pty Ltd, trading as Spirit of Tasmania, is a Tasmanian Government-owned business that has been offering ferry services between mainland Australia and Tasmania since July 1993. Navigating the Bass Strait, Spirit of Tasmania ferry services cover a distance of 242 nautical miles between Geelong, Victoria and Devonport, Tasmania. Each journey across the "Sea Highway" takes approximately 9–11 hours in both directions.

MS <i>Princess Seaways</i>

MS Princess Seaways is a cruiseferry operated and owned by the Danish shipping company DFDS Seaways on a route connecting North Shields, England, to IJmuiden in the Netherlands. She was built in 1986 as Peter Pan by Seebeckwerft, Bremerhaven, Germany for TT-Line. Between 1993 and 2002, the ship was operated by TT-Line Company of Tasmania under the name Spirit of Tasmania a service across the Bass Strait. In 2002, the ship was sold to Fjord Line and renamed Fjord Norway for service from Denmark. In 2006, she was sold to DFDS Seaways and sailed as Princess of Norway before being given her current name in 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australian National Line</span> Government Owned Shipping Line

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tasmanian Steamers</span>

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SS <i>Taroona</i>

SS Taroona was built in Linthouse, Glasgow by Alexander Stephen & Sons for Tasmanian Steamers, Australia. She was a steam turbine ship capable of 18 knots, but typically operated at 16 knots for better fuel economy.

SS <i>City of Launceston</i> Steamship operated by the Launceston and Melbourne Steam Navigation Company

SS City of Launceston was a 368 GRT steamship operated by the Launceston and Melbourne Steam Navigation Company from 1863, which had an early role in colonial steam shipping as the forerunner of the modern Bass Strait ferry service between Tasmania and Victoria. It was sunk in Port Phillip Bay after a collision with another ship on 19 November 1865.

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MS <i>Spirit of Tasmania I</i> Bass Strait ferry

MS Spirit of Tasmania I is a roll-on/roll-off ferry operated by TT-Line between Geelong and Devonport in Australia. Built in 1998 by Kvaerner Masa-Yards at Turku New Shipyard in Finland for Superfast Ferries as MS Superfast IV, since 2002 she has sailed for TT-Line as MS Spirit of Tasmania I.

Tasmanian Steam Navigation Company Limited was an Australian steaming company, formed in Hobart in 1853 and defunct in 1922 after a series of acquisitions. It operated a shipping service from Tasmania to the Australian Mainland, later expanded to New Zealand.

References

  1. Loney, Jack (1982). In Bay steamers and coastal ferries. Reed, Sydney ISBN   0-589-50383-9
  2. Peter Plowman (2004) Ferry to Tasmania : a short history Dural, N.S.W. : Rosenberg Publishing. ISBN   1-877058-27-0
  3. Hopkins, David L. (David Lloyd) (1994). In The shipping history of the Bass Strait crossing : a brief history in pictures and text of the regular passenger ferries that criss-crossed Bass Strait at oft times a most notorious stretch of water. Taswegia, Devonport, Tas. ISBN   0646186353
  4. "SYDNEY TO TASMANIA FERRY POSTS US$32 MLN ANNUAL LOSS". AsiaPulse News. 2005-11-09.
  5. "Tassie scraps Sydney to Devonport ferry". The Age . 5 May 2006. Retrieved 14 January 2007.
  6. "TO ENCOURAGE TOURISTS". The Mercury . Hobart, Tas. 10 August 1935. p. 11. Retrieved 26 July 2011 via National Library of Australia.
  7. Demand for sea passenger transport between Tasmania and the Australian mainland, August 1980. Bureau of Transport Economics. Canberra: Government Printer, 1981. Parliamentary paper (Australian Parliament); PP no. 366/1980. ISBN   0-642-06544-6
  8. Hopkins, David L.; Hopkins, David L. (1991), The golden years of Tasmania: from boom to almost bust and back again in the island state, Tasmania, St David's Park Publishing, ISBN   978-0-7246-2536-9 page 208 The Bass Strait crossing
  9. "Bass Strait Steamer Service". The Mercury . Vol. CXIV, no. 16, 057. Tasmania. 20 April 1921. p. 4. Retrieved 19 March 2016 via National Library of Australia.
  10. "BASS STRAIT STEAMER SERVICE". The Mercury . Vol. CXIV, no. 16, 057. Tasmania. 20 April 1921. p. 4. Retrieved 19 March 2016 via National Library of Australia.
  11. "Construction starts of new Spirit of Tasmania ship! Livery and ship names revealed". Spirit of Tasmania. Retrieved 3 February 2023.
  12. Hopkins, 4th edition, 2003
  13. Broxam, Graeme (2008) The Bass Strait Ferry "City of Melbourne" : pioneer Australian screw steamship Hobart, Tas. : Navarine Publishing, ISBN   978-0-9751331-3-2 (pbk.)
  14. Plowman, Peter (1989). The career of the Taroona. -The Bass Strait ferry, built in 1934-. In Australian Sea Heritage. (23), 10-11,13.
  15. Port of Launceston Authority (Tas.) & Thompson Clarke Shipping Consultants (1982). In Replacing the "Empress" : abridged proposal for a Bass Strait ferry service between Melbourne and Bell Bay. the Authority, [Launceston]