Sydney Heritage Fleet's Steam Ships in Rozelle, New South Wales, Australia | Landmark & historical place

Sydney Heritage Fleet's Steam Ships

Locality: Rozelle, New South Wales, Australia

Phone: +61 2 9298 3888

Address: Gate 4, James Craig Road 2039 Rozelle, NSW, Australia

Website: http://www.shf.org.au

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25.01.2022 Chart Room and Masters cabin fit out underway. @ Sydney Heritage Fleet's Steam Ships

24.01.2022 The fully restored steam driven refrigeration compressor is now back in its original position on the starboard main deck. While this machinery will no longer run a refrigerated plant, it will still operate for display purposes.

24.01.2022 Mori Flapan has produced a completely new edition of his earlier book "Steam Tug Waratah" with many more photos and historical facts gleaned from further research. Two very fine line drawings in colour show sectioned views of the ship and her machinery 36 pp. soft cover over 50 photos many in colour. $19.95 + post from our on line shop. www.sydneyheritagefleetshop.com

21.01.2022 Looking forward, port side of the ship. She still has beautiful lines. The black paint shows the seams that have been caulked.

19.01.2022 STEAM TUG WARATAH has been losing fire tubes in her boiler for some months due to corrosion. One by one they were closed off using copper plugs drawn in with a threaded rod, but the time inevitably came....... New tubes duly arrived, all 86 of them. They have been cut to length and 6 inches at each end sand blasted to remove mill scale. Waratah's Scotch boiler uses fire tubes through which the hot furnace gases pass to heat the 900-odd gallons of water, a slow process, over 12 hours. Lady Hopetoun's boiler uses water tubes, more than 400 of them. The fire surrounds them and the relatively small volume of water heats rapidly allowing steam to be raised in a couple of hours. But they don't last as long. Read the series starting soon about the new boiler being manufactured (in Australia) for Lady Hopetoun

18.01.2022 Views from the Bridge deck port, starboard and midships.The focsle deck is the last original external deck awaiting restoration. @ Sydney Heritage Fleet's Steam Ships

17.01.2022 Progress on pilot steamer John Oxley continues constantly. Boilermakers Alex and Steve are being assisted by Engineer Garry Burns with the independent boiler inspector in attendance. Read a full report from Operations Manager Time Drinkwater here https://www.shf.org.au//John-Oxley-Monthly-Report-October- Simultaneously a necessary repair has been made to rusted sections of the decking of the floating Heritage Dock on which the ship stands. Simultaneously a necessary repair has been made to rusted sections of the decking of the floating Heritage Dock on which the ship stands.

15.01.2022 Looking down on the port boiler, restoration work can be seen with the Fire tubes.

15.01.2022 John Oxley Restoration Committee members Andy Munns and Brett Smith on the Bridge deck touring the amazing work that has been achieved by our professional boiler makers during the recent COVID volunteer shut down.

15.01.2022 50 years ago the Queensland Government put John Oxley up for disposal and she was donated to Sydney Heritage Fleet formally known as Lady Hopetoun and Port Jack...son Marine Steam Museum. She was officially handed over by Mr Chalk, the Deputy Premier of Queensland on August 13, 1970. Our museum crew went to Brisbane to prepare John Oxley for the delivery voyage and steamed her down the coast to her new home in Sydney arriving on August 17, 1970. The restoration commenced in 2002 and is still ongoing, for more information visit http://johnoxley.org.au/ or for updates on the progress follow John Oxley - Australia's last Coastal Steamship First photo supplied by John Bennett of John Oxley arriving in Sydney Harbour. Second photo supplied by Tom Binns, includes SHF Founder, Warwick Turner and original Chief Enginer on John Oxley, Aub Binnie on the delivery voyage.

13.01.2022 Sheaves for the steering system galvanised and ready for re-installation.

13.01.2022 Photos of the Poop Deck, Boat Deck and Well Deck taken today. @ Sydney Heritage Fleet's Steam Ships

09.01.2022 Progress continues under COVID procedures! Volunteering is more difficult due to COVID restrictions, but we certainly thank our team for their perseverance dur...ing these times. First image shows chippies under IanF have reinstalled the bulkhead between chartroom and Master's cabin - Next work is reinstall of exterior cabin panel that was removed for better access. Interior painting and fitout continues. Second image shows the many new steel flanges for the new steam pipe system. Our old steam pipes are condemned and design and weld procedures for a new code steam pipe system are in place. New steel flanges are supplied by Hawleys which are CNC plasma cut and then CNC drilled to match our 1927 steam boiler and engine valve flanges. Engineer team under GaryB will be laying out the new steam pipes and fabricator Alex will weld. Final inspections and pressure testing to follow. Fabricators were diverted to our steam tug Waratah for a COVID layup boiler retube. This highly skilled work is now complete. First pressure tests revealed a few tiny drips and weeps - Inspector is happy as we did not over-expand and strain our tubeplates and we know these weeps will take up before final pressure test. Fabricators have also fitted forecastle deck angles and are also working hard on cutting and fitting the many brackets that carry loads down through the steel deck plates and into the below deck frames. Each bracket has a unique shape and fitups must be exact. Other work shown includes the well deck bulwarks and the shipside access openings. Volunteers are still sought but attendance during COVID is problematic - People can still support this restoration through sharing this post and by contributing through sponsorship - Best contact is through https://www.shf.org.au/contact-us/

09.01.2022 An interim update on progress with the new boiler for the former NSW Government VIP steam launch Lady Hopetoun. As with Waratah, boiler tubes have been developing leaks for some time and when 10% had to be plugged off, it was time. Lady H has a water tube boiler with over 400 tubes and operates at the higher-than-Waratah pressure of 220 psi. New tubes were ordered from Germany and the boiler is being constructed from scratch in Australia. Member Glenn Rigden has done a grea...t job with drawings for the boiler casing panels, so we have ordered what we hope will be close to an Ikea style project to build the casing (though not out of plastic coated chipboard!!) comprising fully profile cut components. Allen key not included. The opportunity has been taken to thoroughly clean and repaint the stokehold, make new floor plates and bunker walls and overhaul ancillaries such as boiler feed pump and feed tank. Steve Driver has been working his magic on our feed pump (at home, to avoid Covid 19 risks) and some of you may have seen the video of it running on air. It will be back in the workshop by the end of October, at which point we need to arrange new steam cylinder piston rings from Melbourne. It is expected back in the vessel by late November. Cost of boiler? About $110,000. Expected life? About 25 years.

08.01.2022 Cable trays and protrusions for electrical wiring are also starting to appear around the ship. This photo stbd side upper hold.

03.01.2022 Progress continues daily on pilot steamer John Oxley. Steve, Garry and Alex under the eye of an independent boiler inspector are back at work in the stoke hold after completing a necessary repair to a badly rusted section of floor on the floating Heritage Dock on which the ship stands. see the full report by Operations Manager Tim Drinkwater here: https://www.shf.org.au//John-Oxley-Monthly-Report-October-

02.01.2022 John Oxley, Birkenhead Point, 1981 Photo: Lance Lyon