RMS HOBSONS BAY

Photographer Frederick Garner Wilkinson (1901-1975)

Date10 May 1924

Object number00040998

NameGlass plate negative

MediumEmulsion on glass

Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection

Terms

DescriptionRMS HOBSONS BAY was photographed leaving Sydney Harbour for Brisbane on Saturday 10 May 1924. This image was captured from Dawes Point. HOBSONS BAY was used on the passenger trade route between Australia and Britain.HistoryHOBSONS BAY was a passenger steamship of the Royal Mail service. The 13850 ton vessel was built in 1922 by Vickers Ltd at Barrow. Between 1922 and 1928 it operated for the White Star Line carrying passengers between Australia and the United Kingdom. It was owned by C G L and scrapped in 1955.SignificanceThis photograph represents passenger transportation 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.