The Stockton ferry service is a ferry service in

Newcastle, New South Wales Newcastle ( ; Awabakal: ) is a metropolitan area and the second most populated city in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It includes the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie local government areas, and is the hub of the Greater Newcastle area ...

. Operated by

Newcastle Transport Newcastle Transport is a public transport operator in Newcastle, New South Wales. A subsidiary of Keolis Downer, it operates bus, ferry and light rail services under contract to Transport for NSW. History and operations In November 2015, ...

under contract to

Transport for NSW Transport for NSW, sometimes abbreviated to TfNSW, and pronounced as Transport for New South Wales, is an agency of the New South Wales Government established on 1 November 2011, and is the leading transport and roads agency in New South Wales, ...

, it crosses the

Hunter River Hunter River may refer to: *Hunter River (New South Wales), Australia *Hunter River (Western Australia) *Hunter River, New Zealand *Hunter River (Prince Edward Island), Canada **Hunter River, Prince Edward Island, community on Hunter River, Canada ...

from the Newcastle CBD at

Queens Wharf Queens Wharf is a multi-purpose venue in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia with a cafe, pub, restaurant, observation tower and ferry wharf built as part of the redevelopment of the Hunter River foreshore. Opened in May 1988 by Queen Elizabe ...

to Stockton.

History

Prior to the construction of various road projects connecting the outer western suburbs of

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 ...

and crossing the

, including the

Stockton Bridge The Stockton Bridge is a road bridge that carries the Nelson Bay Road across the Hunter River, between Kooragang and Stockton in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia. The bridge and Nelson Bay Road serve as the main transport rout ...

, numerous ferry services, both privately run and publicly operated, shuttled across the Hunter River to link the locality of Stockton with the rest of Newcastle during the 19th and 20th centuries, including a car ferry service from the former Market Street Wharf and Stockton. This relatively vast network of wharves and services on the river included many wharves on the Newcastle foreshore, Bullock Island, the Stockton foreshore, and Port Waratah. The passenger ferry service that operated between

and Stockton, which runs in an area further downstream of the river from the bridge, is the only ferry service in Newcastle that still operates, surviving a wave of service decommissions prompted by the opening of the Stockton Bridge in 1971. Having become unprofitable, it was discontinued in July 1982. It was revived in February 1983 by the Government of New South Wales owned

Newcastle Buses & Ferries Newcastle Buses & Ferries was a commuter bus and ferry service operating in Newcastle and Lake Macquarie from 1935 until 2017. Part of the State Transit Authority, it operated 26 bus routes and the Stockton ferry across the Hunter River. H ...

. Initially the ''Edith Walter'' and ''West Head'', two ferries previously used by the former operator, were chartered to operate the service until two new vessels were delivered in 1986. In July 2017, it was included in the transfer of Newcastle Buses & Ferries' operations to

Services

Ferries operate every 15 minutes during peak periods and every 20-30 minutes outside peak periods. No services operate during a period varying from 50 to 60 minutes at noon depending on the day of the week. The journey time between the two wharves is five minutes.

Wharves

Vessels

The fleet comprises two 127 seat ferries built in 1986 at the Carrington Slipways,

Tomago Tomago is a combined industrial/semi-rural suburb of the Port Stephens local government area in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia. It is located just north of the Hunter River and west of the body of water known as Fullerton Cove ...

as single-deck versions of the First Fleet class built for the

Urban Transit Authority The Urban Transit Authority, a former statutory authority of the Government of New South Wales, was responsible for the operation and maintenance of buses and ferries in Sydney and Newcastle from July 1980 until January 1989. History The Urban ...

for use on Sydney Harbour at the same time. Both were refurbished in

Port Macquarie Port Macquarie is a coastal town in the local government area of Port Macquarie-Hastings. It is located on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Australia, about north of Sydney, and south of Brisbane. The town is located on the Tasman Sea c ...

in 2018.Hunter Ferry refurbishment taking place at Birdon
Birdon 2 October 2018

References

External links

{{Regional NSW public transport Ferries of New South Wales Newcastle Ferries