Skip to main content
Advanced Search
RMS KHYBER
RMS KHYBER

RMS KHYBER

Photographer (1901-1975)
Date27 October 1923
Object number00040925
NameGlass plate negative
MediumEmulsion on glass
Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection
DescriptionThe commercial passenger steamship KHYBER was photographed at Circular Quay on Saturday 27 October 1923 by FG Wilkinson.HistoryKHYBER was a 9,114 gross ton merchant ship built in 1914 by Cammell Laird, at Birkenhead for the Peninsular & Orient Steam Navigation Co. The twin screw vessel undertook its maiden voyage from London to Sydney via Bombay, Colombo and Melbourne on 5 September 1914. KHYBER made four round trips on this route. During and immediately after World War I the ship was refitted as a troopship to take servicemen between England and Australia. The renamed HMAT KHYBER left England on 3 March 1919 with returning members of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) 27th Battalion, comprising 214 Western Australians, 139 South Australians, 449 Victorians, 73 Tasmanians, 543 New South Welshmen and 261 Queenslanders. Under the command of Captain L Pinckney the ship sailed via the Suez Canal and Colombo arriving at Fremantle on 9 May, Port Adelaide on 10 May, Port Phillip on 12 May, and finally Sydney, on 14 May 1919. On 15 May 1920 KHYBER re-commenced commercial passages between London, Colombo, Melbourne and Sydney, undertaking five trips on this route. KHYBER was eventually sold for scrapping in Japan in 1931. SignificanceThis photograph of the commercial steamship KHYBER records commercial maritime trade in Sydney, Australia, at its peak in the first half of the 20th century.

It is part of the F G Wilkinson Photograph Collection, comprising more than 700 glass plate negatives of ships in Sydney Harbour taken between 1919 and 1936. The collection shows commercial shipping in the port of Sydney before the gradual decline of the coastal trade and the changing face of the city and harbour foreshores.