Photograph album compiled by Henry Stewart
Date1890 - 1940
Object numberANMS0809
NameArchive series
MediumPaper
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineANMM Collection Transfer from the Australian War Memorial
DescriptionThis photograph album containing 75 black and white photographs of merchant and navy steamships was compiled by Mr Henry Stewart. It is one of seven photograph albums compiled by Stewart during his career as an employee at McIlwraith McEacharn Limited.HistoryThe series consists of 75 black and white photographs of the following vessels HMAS AUSTRALIA (I), HMS COMMONWEALTH, HMS CORNWALL, HMS DREADNOUGHT, HMS HIBERNIA, HMS MONARCH, HMS PSYCHE, IWATE, RMS BRITON, RMS MALWA, RMS MOOLTAN, RMS MOREA, RMS NALDERA, RMS NIAGARA, RMS OMAR, RMS ORAMA, RMS ORMONDE, RMS ORTONA, SS ARAMAC, SS ASCANIUS, SS BARADINE, SS BELTANA, SS BOMBALA, SS CANBERRA, SS COOMA, SS EURIPIDES, SS HOBSONS BAY, SS HYGEIA, SS INDARRA, SS JOHN WILLIAMS, SS KANOWNA, SS KENT, SS KHYBER, SS KYARRA, SS LEVUKA, SS MAHENO, SS MANAWATU, SS MANUKA, SS MEDIC, SS MOERAKI, SS MOKOIA, SS MONOWAI, SS OMRAH, SS ORSOVA, SS PEREGRINE, SS RIVERINA, SS RUNIC, SS SONOMA, SS SOPHOCLES, SS SYDNEY, SS THEMISTOCLES, SS ULIMAROA, SS WAIKARE, SS WARRIMOO, SS WIMMERA, SS WYANDRA, SS WYREEMA, TSS CERAMIC, TSS KAROOLA, TSS KATOOMBA, TSS LOONGANA, TSS NESTOR and a number of unidentified vessels including passenger ships and cargo ships.
In the nineteenth century, shipping provided the infrastructure for the European settlement and development of Australia. It was essential to commerce that ships reached people's lives in a way which was personal and immediate; delivering groceries to small towns, carrying passengers between ports and bringing immigrants to Australia.
McIlwraith, McEacharn & Co entered the Australian trade in 1887 bringing immigrants from Britain to Queensland. They also entered the coal trade. They entered into the fierce competition for passenger trade in the first decades of the twentieth century when competition for passengers required companies to provide more than converted cargo vessels. In 1909 their ship KAROOLA won a reputation for its salubrious accommodation and its size, and was the first Australian ship to exceed 7,000 tons. The company maintained the advantage in 1912 by commissioning KATOOMBA, which was larger and more luxurious than all its generation of passenger ships.
With the growth of rail and road transport, Australian shipping declined during the twentieth century. McIlwraith, McEacharn & Co was a survivor and bought the fleets of James Paterson and Huddard Parker in 1961. In 1957 McIlwraith, McEacharn & Co together with Adelaide Steamship Company and Melbourne Steamship Company, set up Bulkships Pty Ltd to work the heavy ore trade and bought four ships. In 1964 it merged shipping interests with those of the Adelaide Steamship Company to form Associated Steamships. They had a combined fleet of 12 conventional cargo vessels, which they replaced with three container ships.
McIlwraith McEacharn continued in the shipping trade until the 1990s when their ships were sold to a US company.
