Australian
Screen

an NFSA website

North Shore Steam Ferry (1899)

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clip
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North Shore steam ferry

This clip chosen to be G

Clip description

This actuality footage shows a steam ferry docking at the Milsons Point Ferry Wharf in 1899. Workers prepare to receive the ferry as passengers on board ready for disembarkation.

Curator’s notes

Frederick Charles Wills and Henry William Mobsby produced over 30 films for the Queensland Department of Agriculture using a Lumière Cinematographe, a camera which combined the functions of a moving image camera, printer and projector. An additional benefit of the camera was that it was hand-cranked and therefore was not dependent on electricity.

The ferry in the clip may be the wooden paddle ferry Cammeray, built in 1884. While filming in Sydney in 1899, Wills also shot Newtown Railway Station (1899).