SS ULIMAROA in its WWI dazzle camouflage

Photographer Frederick Garner Wilkinson (1901-1975)

Date1914-1918

Object number00040969

NameGlass plate negative

MediumEmulsion on glass

Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection

Terms

DescriptionSS ULIMAROA is shown at wharf No 2 Naval Buoy. The vessel was used for trade to Tasmania and along the Australian coast. ULIMAROA is shown painted in a camouflage razzle-dazzle paint scheme, used as a protection against enemy attack during World War I when it served as a troopship.HistorySS ULIMAROA was a 5777 ton steam ship built in 1908 by Gourlay Bros & Co at Dundee. It was registered in Melbourne and employed on the trans Tasman trade route under the owners of Huddart Parker Co. It also made a number of passages along the Australian coast. ULIMAROA could accomodate 190 first, 120 second and 120 third class passengers. During World War I it was requisitioned by the Commewealth for war services transporting troops. In 1934 it was broken up by Japanese scrappers. SignificanceThis photograph represents SS ULIMAROA and its presence in Australian waters as a commercial vessel and troopship.

It is part of the F G Wilkinson Photograph Collection, comprising more than 700 glass plate negatives of ships in Sydney Harbour between 1919 and 1936. The collection provides an extensive and well-documented coverage of the changing styles of shipping in the port of Sydney before the gradual decline of the coastal trade, and in a period which was probably the peak reached by commercial shipping in Australia. The backgrounds also reveal the changing face of the city and harbour foreshores.