POLLY WOODSIDE on display at Southbank, Melbourne in 2006.

Images(2)

Polly Woodside

Vessel numberHV000077

Official Number90129

Owner Polly Woodside Maritime Museum

Previous owner William J Woodside and Co

Builder Workman Clark & Co.

Previous owner AH Turnbull and Co

Previous owner National Trust of Australia (Victoria)

Previous owner Adelaide Steamship Company Limited (1875 - 1977)

Date1885

DimensionsVessel Dimensions: 60.95 m x 9.19 m x 3.96 m (200 ft x 30.15 ft x 13 ft)
Registered Dimensions: 678 tons x 647 tons

DescriptionThe barque POLLY WOODSIDE was built by Workman Clark & Co. Belfast, Ireland in 1885, for William J Woodside and Co. also of Belfast. This was a one ship company and the vessel was named after the owner's wife. The iron-hulled vessel traded between the United Kingdom and South America before it was sold in 1904 to Arthur Hughes Turnbull of Christchurch, New Zealand and renamed RONA. The RONA was purchased to replace the WEST AUSTRALIAN which had been wrecked in 1903. RONA changed hands twice more in New Zealand until sold to Australia in 1922.

During its New Zealand ownership RONA traded across to Australia and around the coast with cargoes of timber, salt, manure, cement, grain, produce and coal. In the latter part of World War I RONA sailed to the USA and back, filling in for the losses in shipping due to that war. The last voyage was in 1921, carrying coal from Newcastle, Australia to New Zealand. It was then sold to the Adelaide Steamship Co. and brought across to Melbourne to be used as a coal hulk. It served in this role for the remainder of its working life, including World War II duties with the Royal Australian Navy in New Guinea.

In 1968, Howard Smith Industries (who had taken over Adelaide Steamship Co.) sold the POLLY WOODSIDE for one cent to the National Trust of Australia (Victoria). The potential restoration of POLLY WOODSIDE had been encouraged since 1962 when moves were initiated by well known ship enthusiast Karl Kortum from San Francisco and Dr Graeme Robertson. It was one of the very few remaining iron hulled barques which could be rebuilt in display condition to show off the impressive square rig.

In 1977 the restored POLLY WOODSIDE was opened to the public. It was floating in the old Duke's and Orrs' Dry Dock on the Yarra River in Melbourne, where it remains as a popular tourist attraction in 2006.

(Prepared from research material supplied by Polly Woodside Maritime Museum)

Update May 2023:
POLLY WOODSIDE was closed to the public on 30 April 2006 to allow for the major redevelopment of the lower Yarra River's southern bank and nto the dry dock and reopened to the public on 23 December 2010.

POLLY WOODSIDE had work on the pumphouse undertaken in September 2012.

The POLLY WOODSIDE won a significant national award, the Museums Australia 2012 MAGNA Awards in Adelaide for Best Permanent Exhibition (Level 3). A new museum to tell the story of the Polly Woodside tall ship moored in the adjacent dock.
SignificancePOLLY WOODSIDE is an iron plated barque built in 1885 in the United Kingdom. It is a rare example of a tallship that traded between Australian and New Zealand ports from 1904 until 1922. It is kept as a fully rigged but a static dsiplay in Melbourne Victoria and one of a few of its type in the world.