The North Head was built as a Sydney-to-Manly ferry in 1913. The North Head, or ‘Barrenjoey’, as it was originally called, is a 500 ton ship which originally cost £32,000 to build. This would be approx. $ 7.9 million in today’s money.
The North Head is 64 meters long (210 feet), and she was originally built for 1509 passengers in fair weather, in rough weather the ferry would carry up to 978 passengers.
The North Head is currently located in the Trinity Inlet in Cairns, on the premises of the Rum Jungle Marine facility. The ferry is not open to the public. However, she is parked close to shore, so you can take photos of the ‘North Head’ while driving past in your boat or when on one of the Trinity Bay cruises from Cairns Marlin Marina.
Below is a photograph of the ‘North Head’ in 1980, when she had been in service for almost 70 years. At that time, the ferry had undergone several transformations already. She also still had a blue hull then.
