History in the docks: New chapter begins for 90-year-old Temeraire ferry in Albany

About 90 years since it first hit the water off Fremantle, a rich piece of WA maritime history has found a new home in Albany. Originally built in 1931, the Temeraire boat holds a special place in the hearts of Perth and Albany locals alike. The 15-tonne, 12.8m-long boat was docked on the Albany Town Jetty in the early 1950s. Local electrician Allan Kitcher spent years transforming the New Zealand kauri-planked ship to a commercial standard. The Temeraire then ferried Albany locals across Princess Royal Harbour before heading to Perth to charter guests to Garden Island. But perhaps the most well-known chapter of the Temeraire’s history was its time as one of the first ferry boats to Rottnest Island. Up to 44 people at a time piled on to the vessel to travel at 10-12 knots to the island, a run it completed from 1956 to 1971. More than 70 years since she was in Albany waters, local schoolteacher Mike Elliott brought the Temeraire home this week, on a mission to get her back in the water. With doubts over the durability of the boat’s 240hp engine, the Temeraire was towed with the help of Fremantle Sea Rescue to the beginning of the Swan River, before it was carried by truck to the south coast. Now at Emu Point, Mr Elliott has a big job ahead with signs of her age starting to show. He has already begun work waterproofing the vessel and will soon start replacing rotten wood, repainting and overhauling the inner cabin. Mr Elliott expects the Temeraire to be sitting on the water at Emu Point in about a month, where the rest of the restoration works are to be completed. But how long the project will take is the “big unknown”, he said. “My plan is to preserve Temeraire and to redesign her interior for more comfortable accommodation,” he said. “She is in need of some extensive repair work mostly to decks and cabin it seems at this early stage. “As a first project of this type and scale for myself, I hope I can do her, and the many people who know her, justice. “I am just here to keep her going. “She has done 90 years, so I figured she deserves to go again. “At a later date, I may live on it — I don’t know, it depends if I get sick of mowing the lawn.” Mr Elliott said there were still many nooks and crannies of the 15-tonne vessel to explore, with some cupboards containing remnants of her former life as a ferry boat. He said many Albany residents had already shared their memories of the Temeraire. “I don’t consider myself the owner of this iconic vessel, rather the next custodian and hopefully not the last,” he said. “Really, this lovely boat is a legacy. She is for my father, Rodney Elliott, a true old salt, and for my son, Casey Elliott, so that he may appreciate the beauty of wooden boats and the value of retaining local history.”