MV ''Kooringa'' was the world's first fully cellular purpose-built

container ship A container ship (also called boxship or spelled containership) is a cargo ship that carries all of its load in truck-size intermodal containers, in a technique called containerization. Container ships are a common means of commercial intermodal ...

and was built by

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n company, Associated Steamships in partnership with McIlwraith, McEacharn & Co and commissioned in May 1964. It was built at the New South Wales State Dockyard in

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

as a "custom-designed cellular container ship to handle 20-ton containers". The 6,750-ton ship was designed to handle 10,000 tons of containerised cargo in 36 hours by being loaded and unloaded simultaneously. It entered the

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

Fremantle Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australian vernacular diminutive for ...

trade in 1964, arriving at

Fremantle Harbour Fremantle Harbour is Western Australia's largest and busiest general cargo port and an important historical site. The inner harbour handles a large volume of sea containers, vehicle imports and livestock exports, cruise shipping and naval vis ...

on 19 June that year. Two more purpose built container ships, MV ''Kanimbla'' and MV ''Manoora'' joined the regular service in 1969 and the three ships continued to operate until 1975 when competition from rail freight made the service non-viable. The ship was named after the now closed mining town of Kooringa in

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

Another ship of the same name

A ship of the same name, the 339-ton SS ''Kooringa'' was built for the Yorke Peninsula Steamship Co in 1902 and ran mail, passenger and cargo between

Port Adelaide Port Adelaide is a port-side region of Adelaide, approximately northwest of the Adelaide CBD. It is also the namesake of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield council, a suburb, a federal and state electoral division and is the main port for the ...

and ports along the

Yorke Peninsula The Yorke Peninsula is a peninsula located northwest and west of Adelaide in South Australia, between Spencer Gulf on the west and Gulf St Vincent on the east. The peninsula is separated from Kangaroo Island to the south by Investigator Strai ...

and

Kangaroo Island Kangaroo Island, also known as Karta Pintingga (literally 'Island of the Dead' in the language of the Kaurna people), is Australia's third-largest island, after Tasmania and Melville Island. It lies in the state of South Australia, southwest ...

. Yorke Steamship Co. was ultimately taken over by Adelaide Steamship Company.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kooringa Maritime history of Australia Ships built in New South Wales 1964 ships