ROCKIES HIGHWAY being turned by tugs at the head of Johnstons Bay, departing Sydney Harbour, 26 November 2007, aerial view
Photographer
Andrew Frolows
Date26 November 2007
Object number00046113
NameDigital image
Mediumtiff file
Copyright© Australian National Maritime Museum
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineANMM Collection
DescriptionOne of a series of photographs recording the final year of the car trade into Sydney before the car terminal at Glebe Island was closed in 2008. The photographs focus on the "K"Line HIGHWAY car and truck carriers named for highways throughout the world. Roll/on Roll-off (RoRo) vehicle carriers were a familiar sight on Sydney Harbour arriving and departing almost weekly for more than three decades.HistoryFor more than 30 years motor vehicles came into Sydney in Roll On/Roll Off car and truck carriers (PCCs - Pure Car Carriers, and PCTCs - Pure Car and Truck Carriers). With Australian tariff decreases on imported vehicles in 1989, the numbers of imports climbed every year, until in 2008 more than a quarter of a million vehicles were delivered to terminals at Darling Harbour, White Bay and Glebe Island. On 15 November 2008 the last shipment was landed at Glebe Island, and the vehicle trade was moved to a new facility at Port Kembla, 100 km south of Sydney.
SignificanceThe photographs record a significant activity in the Port of Sydney which came to an end in 2008. The end of the car trade to Glebe Island Automotive Terminal in November 2008 brought Sydney's life as a working harbour nearer to its close. The RoRo container trade into Sydney ended in 2007, so the car and truck carriers were the last RoRos into the Port of Sydney. The photographs also document the changing use of the Port of Sydney waterfront and the end of Sydney as a working harbour.
