SS KOOLONGA
Photographer
Frederick Garner Wilkinson
(1901-1975)
Date16 March 1924
Object number00040989
NameGlass plate negative
MediumEmulsion on glass
Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection
DescriptionSS KOOLONGA is shown anchored in Snails Bay, Balmain Sydney on Sunday morning 13 March 1924. The British owned vessel was used for trading general cargo and operated under the name KOOLONGA from 1921 to 1929.HistorySS KOOLONGA was a 5277 ton steel screw cargo steamship built at Sunderland in 1918 by W Doxford & Sons Ltd. It was owned by the British owners McIlwraith McEacharn Line and underwent a number of name changes. Originally launched as WAR ASPEN, then named SOUTHMEAD in 1920, KOOLONGA in 1921, CAITHNESS in 1929, DAVID DAWSON in 1935 and AVON RIVER in 1936. It was stranded in the Hudson River in 1936. This was the second vessel to be named KOOLONGA, the first being lost in enemy action during World War I.SignificanceThis photograph represents the cargo vessel KOOLONGA trading in Australia during 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 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.
