The Iconic Sydney Ferry
Not all Harbours can boast of a ferry service that can date as far back as 1789; the Sydney Harbour with its iconic Sydney Ferry is one of the luckiest. The Sydney Ferry was around when the Harbour city was just poised to take off; it has witnessed the arrival of migrants that seeded Australia; it has witnessed the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge; it has witnessed the building of the Opera House. Not known to many, but the Sydney Ferry is has been an icon of the Sydney Harbour long before the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House, but with the talk of privatization and the changing economic tides, no one knows how long the icon can survive.
History of the Sydney Ferry
Long before Sydney Harbour cruises became one of the mainstreams in Sydney, the Sydney Ferry has been servicing the early settlers to transport people, trade, and livestock from the western most point of the Parramatta River to the east in the Sydney Cove. The first ferry in service was Rose Hill (a.k.a. The Lump) that was powered by sailors and oars who were usually convicts, exiles from the motherland, Great Britain. The ferry service has seen its first commercialization in 1861 when the North Shore Ferry Company assumed operation of the iconic ferry. Since then it’s been no other way but up for the ferry service acquiring modern watercrafts to heed the call of modernization.
Sydney Ferry Harbours
Today, this humble icon of Sydney has stops in the Darling Harbour, Manly Harbour, Mosman, Neutral Bay, Parramatta River, Taronga Zoo, Watsons Bay, Woolwich/Balmain, and the Cockatoo Island. You can’t afford to visit Sydney without having to experience Sydney Harbour Cruises aboard one of the icons of the Harbour City. The cruises are affordable starting at only 10 Aussie dollars, but the memory and the photos you can snap during the trip are priceless.
Sydney Harbour Cruises aboard Sydney Ferry
A tour around the Harbour City is not complete without cruising in one or two routes of Sydney Ferry. Riding in one of these Sydney Harbour Cruises provides an opportunity to get a different vantage point of the other icons of Sydney: you’ll pass by North Head Quarantine Station, Sydney Olympic Park, Opera House, Manly Bay, and you’ll have the opportunity to pass by Sydney Harbour Bridge under it, not over it. Don’t ever forget to take your camera with you when you take one of these Sydney Harbour Cruises because the pictures you can take are one for the postcards.
Rough Water Ahead for Sydney Ferry
It’s shameful to hear but nonetheless real; the looming privatization of Sydney Ferry brings more division than unity toward the safety and assurance at sea of one of the oldest icons of the Harbour City. Granted that the changing economic tide brings new challenges for the ferry service, but is there a price to save one of the city’s icons—a heritage that is not only a witness to the city’s progress, but one that plays an active role itself in creating what the city is now? Times like these once again test the patriotism and the Aussie spirit; Australians bond together to save Sydney Ferry—to see their work and progress and to extend a helping hand, head on to Save Our Sydney Ferries.
The Best Way to Keep Sydney Ferry Afloat
But the best thing you can do to keep Sydney Ferry afloat is to support its business by buying tickets whenever you can. People from around the world can pitch in to this effort too. When you tour Sydney, make time to ride one or two routes of this iconic ferry; not only will you have great story to tell and pictures to show your friends and family back home, you will have experienced riding one of the longest running harbor ferries in the world!
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