Manly ferry "North Head" crosses the open water with South Head in the background sometime in the late 1970's. Built at Mort's Dock, Balmain in 1913 as the steamer "Barrenjoey", she was the longest-lived of the classic vessels on the Manly service. Rebuilt in 1951 with diesel electric power she was renamed "North Head" and continued in service until December 1985.
After retirement she was used as a restaurant and convention venue in Hobart until, in 2000, she was taken to Cairns with a view to putting her to similar use. The plan failed to eventuate and she remains land-locked and seriously deteriorating in far north Queensland. An ignominious fate for a venerable old lady.
