Sale!

Additional Information

Have you ever wondered what it was like to live in Sydney before the opening of the Harbour Bridge in 1932?

Time on Koondooloo started life in Leith, Scotland in 1924. In the same year she steamed around the world and started service as a car ferry from North Sydney to the city. The ferry was then joined by two sister ships the Kalang and Kara-Kara.

Their time was up in 1932 when the Sydney Harbour bridge was opened. Retrenched from service the Koondooloo was then converted to Sydney’s first single decked show boat in 1937. Sydney couples danced their way to romance on the decks of this versatile Scottish ship. Imagine love had bloomed on the Koondooloo.

While translating the photo into this painting I noticed Koondooloo was trying to tell me her story. In the right-hand corner, the morning light has cast a shape, half a heart on the rusted roof. Fittingly the other half of the heart gives way to a bright moon and the colour red in the air vent. The show boat era in the 1930s was successful for Koondooloo and she was soon joined by her sister ship the Kalang on Sydney Harbour.

All this changed again in 1942 when she was commissioned for Army use in WW2. After the war ended she was converted back to a car ferry and used in the Newcastle to Stockton crossing. In 1972 the ferries were being towed to Manilla to be scrapped. They had been sheltered in Trial Bay to avoid a storm off the coast in January. Three ferries ended up grounded in the shallow bay, and the Koondooloo was washed onto the beach as her final resting place.

In 1985, at Trial Bay NSW, I had spent a night to remember camping in the remains of the ferry. I awoke from my dew covered sleeping bag to a bright blue sky, red funnel, and wanning moon. Koondooloo is an artwork of texture, shape, and colour by featuring two large air vents from the ship. The large cogs remind me of an old watch while the metal rust barnacles look like seashells washed up on a beach.