Sydney Harbour
Port Jackson, consisting of the waters of Sydney Harbour, Middle Harbour, North Harbour and the Lane Cove and Parramatta Rivers, is the ria or natural harbour of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The harbour is an inlet of the Tasman Sea (p ...
's first
ferries
A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water tax ...
were sail and/or oar powered, but by the mid-19th century, paddle steamers were well established. Double-ended ferries became common as they did not require turning at terminating wharves in Sydney's busy but narrow bays, including at the main hub at
Circular Quay
Circular Quay is a harbour, former working port and now international passenger shipping port, public piazza and tourism precinct, heritage area, and transport node located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia on the northern edge of the Syd ...
. Double-ended ferries, however, provided technological challenges for screw (propeller) propulsion and Sydney's shift from paddle steamers to screw ferries in the closing years of the nineteenth century was relatively late. Diesel power first came to Sydney Harbour ferries mainly through the conversion of existing steam ferries to diesel in the 1930s and the 1950s, when during the slow
post-Bridge decades ferry companies could generally not afford new ferries.
Hydrofoils
A hydrofoil is a lifting surface, or foil, that operates in water. They are similar in appearance and purpose to aerofoils used by aeroplanes. Boats that use hydrofoil technology are also simply termed hydrofoils. As a hydrofoil craft gains sp ...
were introduced to the Manly run in the 1960s and 1970s halving travel times for those willing to pay a premium fare. Government investment in new vessels during the 1970s and 1980s saw the replacement of the surviving early twentieth century vessels. New vessels included modern
Lady-class ferries,
four large Manly ferries, and nine
First-Fleet ferries. The most recent decades have seen the introduction of the
RiverCats,
JetCats,
SuperCats,
Emerald-class ferries and
River-class ferries. Apart from the three Manly "Freshwater-class" ferries, the current Sydney Ferries fleet comprises all catamarans.
See also
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Timeline of Sydney Harbour ferries
Sydney Harbour ferry services date back to the first years of Sydney's European settlement. Slow and sporadic boats ran along the Parramatta River from Sydney to Parramatta and served the agricultural settlements in between. By the mid-1830s, sp ...
Notes
References
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{{Sydneyferries
Ferry transport in Sydney
Sydney Harbour ferries
Sydney-related lists
Lists of ferries
Ferries of New South Wales