Images(4)

Liz

Vessel numberHV000686

Vessel Registration NumberAHM198N

Date1955

DimensionsVessel Dimensions: 3.7 m × 1.4 m (12.14 ft × 4.59 ft)

Terms

DescriptionZiggy Tietz came to Australia as a German refuge around the early 1950s to work for the Snowy Mountains Scheme in southern NSW along with many other refugees from post war Europe. They were building dams and infrastructure that created the hydroelectric power stations. His speedboat was built in Berridale (between Cooma and Jindabyne) where he lived around 1955. It is 3.7m long, and has plywood panels over mountain ash timber longitudinals and frames, and originally had a 40 hp Scott McCullock outboard. The frame corners at the chine have a triangular block of ash fitted with brackets of plywood on either face, an original manner in which to fabricate this joint.

The dam that formed Lake Eucumbene was completed in 1958 and when it had enough water Teitz used the boat to race other craft owned by workers on the scheme.

It was sold by Ziggy Teitz to Peter Wolf a veterinarian in Cooma around 1959 and he named it LIZ after his sister. He used it occasionally but the registration label that expired 1/1/1964 dates the time when he put it in his Cromwell Street shed and no longer took it out on the lakes.

The current owner grew up in a house next to that shed and used to pass by it regularly as a schoolboy. Since age 10 he had been asking Peter Wolf to give him the boat. In 2013 Peter Wolf gave in and passed it on. The boat was in sound condition and it was only necessary to strip off the old paint and varnish and repaint the hull just as it had been finished originally. It is now powered by a 30 hp Tohatsu outboard, and for heritage sentiment it still has the expired 1964 registration certificate on the dashboard.

SignificanceLIZ is a plywood speed boat built around 1955 in Berridale NSW. It was built by German refugee Ziggy Teitz when he worked on the Snowy Mountains Scheme. It was built to race with other workers’ boats on the newly created Lake Eucumbene that they had constructed. It represents one of the first uses of the lake for recreational purposes. It also represents the strong amateur design and build tradition that has always existed throughout Australia, and in particular shows the spirit of self-sufficiency found throughout regional Australia.