WANGANELLA

Photographer Frederick Garner Wilkinson (1901-1975)

Date8 September 1934

Object number00041612

NameGlass plate negative

MediumEmulsion on glass

Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection

Terms

DescriptionWANGANELLA is shown leaving No 3 Darling Harbour for New Zealand on Saturday 8 September 1934. This photograph was taken at 12.12pm from Dalgetys Wharf, Sydney.HistoryWANGANELLA was ordered in 1928 for Harland & Wolff, of Belfast by the Elder Dempster Line and originally called MV ACHIMOTA. It was purchased by Huddart Parker in 1932 and renamed MV WANGANELLA. The 5,625 tons vessel was refitted to accommodate 304 first-class and 104 second-class passengers. WANGANELLA started operating on the New Zealand run in 1933 and then traded in the South Pacific. In 1941 WANGANELLA was requisitioned for service in World War II as a hospital ship with the Royal Australian Navy. During this period it was involved in the repatriation of Australian POWs from Singapore. In 1946 it re-entered commercial service and operated on the run between Vancouver and the Tasman. In 1961 the vessel was purchased by McIlwraith McEacharn but quickly sold on to Hang Fung Shipping Company in Hong Kong. In 1962 the ship was used as a floating hotel at Fremantle and in 1963 was sold to Utah Constructions as floating accommodation for hydro-electric workers in New Zealand. WANGANELLA was bought by the Australian Pacific Shipping Company and then in 1970 sold to Taiwanese ship breakers.SignificanceThis photograph 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.