AUSTRALIA STAR
Photographer
Frederick Garner Wilkinson
(1901-1975)
Date12 October 1935
Object number00041656
NameGlass plate negative
MediumEmulsion on glass
Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection
DescriptionAUSTALIA STAR was photographed at Brits Buoy Neutral Bay, Sydney on Saturday 12 October 1935. This image was captured from the 1-2pm ferry traveling between Circular Quay and Neutral Bay on return from Kurraba and Kirribilli.HistoryAUSTRALIA STAR was a 12,615 ton merchant liner that operated for the Blue Star Line. It was built in 1935 by Harland and Wolff at Belfast and was designed to carry refrigerated cargo. In 1941 during World War II it sustained damage from incendiary bombs when moored at Liverpool, England. In 1964 it was sold to the British Iron & Steel Corporation and was scrapped later in that same year.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.
