ANL

Australia is a vast continent of 7.7 million square kilometres in area, with huge resources of iron ore, coal, bauxite, lead, crude oil, natural gas, and smaller quantities of zinc, silver, gold, uranium and thorium, the latter two minerals are used in nuclear power production. However, twice during World Wars, Australia was forced to set up a State owned shipping line after Britain stopped most of its trading with Australia due to fear of U boats. In 1916, the Commonwealth Line of Australia was formed when the Australian Prime Minister travelled to London to purchase six ships to continue to export its grain, wool and meat. Direct control of all Australian shipping was taken again on the outbreak of World War II, and at the end of the war the Australian government was the owner of a number of new and old vessels including the former Lloyd Triestino liner Rynella of 9,787 grt and completed in 1927 at Trieste, which had been seized at Fremantle on 11th June 1940. The Australian Shipping Board (ASB) was formed on 1st January 1946 as a State owned entity, with some of its vessels allocated to private Australian shipping companies for management. The ASB assumed the management of all government owned ships from 1st October 1947, and this eventually led to the establishment of the Australian Coastal Shipping Commission on 1st October 1956, with the Australian National Line (ANL) taking over the operation of government owned vessels on 1st January 1957.

The ASB assumed ownership of a building programme of forty new ships already in service or building in Australian yards, consisting of thirteen ‘river’ class of 8,600 dwt, eleven ‘B’ class of 6,300 dwt, ten ‘D’ class of 3,000 dwt, and five coastal ‘E’ class of 622 dwt, with one vessel eventually cancelled from this war programme. However, the last of this programme was not completed until March 1956, and these 39 vessels formed the backbone of Australian State owned shipping until the 1960s:-

‘RIVER’ class                           ‘B’ class               ‘D’ class               ‘E’ class

River Boyne                            Balarr                  Dalby                   Eugowra

River Burdekin                       Balook                 Dandenong          Enfield

River Burnett                          Baralga                Daylesford           Edenhope

River Clarence                       Baroota               Delamere            Elmore

River Derwent                        Barrigun              Delungra              Euroa

River Embley                          Bilkurra               Denman               Kabbarli

River Fitzroy                           Binburra              Dorrigo

River Glenelg                         Boonaroo             Dubbo

River Hunter                           Borda                   Dulverton

River Loddon                          Bulwarra

River Mitta                             Woomera

River Murchison

River Murray

River Murrumbidgee

River Norman

The existing and new Australian shipyards that came into operation during the war, including the new yard at Whyalla owned by BHP (Broken Hill Proprietary), could not build ships as large as ‘Liberty’ types, so the ‘river’ class was based on the smaller Norman Monarch and Scottish Monarch of 8,600 dwt completed in 1937/38 by the Caledon yard at Dundee for Raeburn & Verel of Glasgow. There were variations in the class with some having light signalling masts on the bridge and some having kingposts in front of the bridge, with the four earliest examples having a break in the superstructure at number 3 hold between bridge and funnel, and the bridge itself was one deck lower. They were powered by a triple expansion steam engine with an exhaust turbine, and had steam deck winches and union purchase cargo handling gear. There were eight ‘river’ class in service at the end of World War II, and the class were put to good use along the Australian coasts carrying coal, iron ore, sugar, grain, limestone, phosphates and general cargo of all types. South Australian iron ore was loaded in the lower holds with car bodies in the ‘tween decks and on top of the hatches at Adelaide for delivery to Sydney and Brisbane. They were occasionally withdrawn to carry supplies to the Australian occupation Force in Japan, and river Fitzroy carried stores to the Macquarie island Antarctic research Station in 1951. Some of the class were also chartered on worldwide bulk routes during the short period of very high freight rates after the Suez crisis of 1956/57. river Loddon sustained heavy bow damage on 12th September 1952 in a collision with a British ship in Sydney harbour. river Burnett was badly holed in a grounding on Corsair reef at Port Phillip Heads on 17th July 1955 and was beached in shallow water, and returned to service in March 1956 after refloating and repairs.

The ‘B’ class varied considerably in appearance with six (Barrigun, Balarr, Balook, Borda, Baroota, Woomera) having split superstructure, and the later five examples (Bilkurra, Binburra, Boonaroo, Bulwarra, Baralga) having composite superstructure, with Baralga the last completed in March 1956. The class comprised eight steamers and three motorships, and Balook and Barrigun were only briefly in the government fleet with four others of the class being sold on completion to private Australian shipping companies. Woomera had no ‘B’ class name allocated to her, and was completed in July 1952 for Huddart Parker Ltd., and was reconstructed in 1966 as a unit load container carrier equipped with three deck cranes and also converted to burn oil fuel. They were used on the Australian coastal routes, and two or three were chartered out during the Suez crisis of 1956/57. Boonaroo was badly damaged when she ran into the side of a Norwegian tanker off Sydney Heads on 12th august 1960. Balook was sold to BHP in 1961 and renamed iron Warrior, and was probably the last steam powered vessel on the Australian coast when she was towed away from Newcastle (NSW) for breaking up in May 1975 to Kaohsiung.

The last of the ‘D’ class, Dongara, was completed in November 1951 as the motorship Kabbarli for the Western Australian government as a modified vessel with accommodation for 39 passengers and a service speed of 11 knots from twin 5-cylinder British Polar diesels. The rest of the ‘D’ class were steamers and had two holds forward and one aft of the substantial bridge accommodation and a good array of derricks. Dubbo was sold in 1965 after giving 18 years service to ANL to continue sailing in Australian waters as Pacific Lady for Australia Pacific Shipping Co. Ltd., and was broken up at Hong Kong in June, 1969. Two modified ‘D’ class were later completed as the motorships Windarra and Wangara in 1953/54. Wangara was aground off Point Lonsdale at Port Phillip Heads on 18th November 1961 for three days and suffered severe double bottom damage that took six months to repair. The ‘E’ class were small engines aft bridge ‘midships coasters suitable for work on the Queensland and Tasmanian coasts. Euroa was badly damaged when she caught fire on 9th February 1957 while lying alongside Yarraville wharf at Melbourne. Leaking kerosene from under the wharf had ignited, and repairs to Euroa took several months.

In 1954, government owned vessels had transported four million tonnes out of a total of 11.5 million tonnes of cargo moved around the Australian coasts, including 60% of the coal and 40% of the iron ore and limestone. Purchased British built tonnage had helped the ASB ships, and included the standard ‘Empire’ type Tyalla of 10,000 dwt and the ‘Scandinavian’ types Carcoola and Coolabah of 4,300 dwt. The last British registered ships to carry iron ore on the Australian coast was a quintet owned by Westralian Farmers Transport Ltd. (WFT) – Swanriver, Swanstream, Swanvalley, Swanhill and Swanbrook, which were chartered to the ASB in December 1953 and then sub chartered by ASB to BHP (Broken Hill Proprietary) for several years on their iron ore routes. Two engines aft British built coasters of 1,650 dwt, Nilpena and Noongah, were completed at Port Glasgow in 1955, with Noongah becoming the first total loss of the company when she sank off Smoky Cape (NSW) on 25th august 1969 in heavy weather while on a voyage from Newcastle (NSW) to Townsville with steel, unfortunately 21 of her crew of 26 were lost.

Forty vessels were transferred to the new ANL Company from ASB on 1st January 1957, and the size of the big ANL fleet had increased to 44 vessels by 1962. Funnel colours changed from black with two narrow yellow bands for the ASB, to a blue base with a thin red line between two white bands and a black top of ANL, later ‘ANL’ in white was added to the blue part. ANL was very profitable during the first thirty years or more of its existence, especially when supported by political leaders who believed in the employment potential of heavy industries and shipping. The Welsh born seafarer Capt. John Williams was the founding Chairman of ANL and led it for the next 15 years. He was appointed by the Minister for Shipping and Transport of the Menzies government, and told to run ANL on a commercial basis, with the ASB fleet having a written down value of £15 million plus £500,000 in working capital to ANL. Capt. Williams was expected to make a profit on all of the Australian services and repay this money quickly to the government. after two years trading to 30th June 1959, over £11 million had been paid back in taxes and dividends for their initial investment of £15.5 million to ANL.

Furthermore, no government capital was made available for any future new ships, and by 1962 ANL funds of over £12 million had been invested in new ships without calling on the government for financial assistance. However, the size of the ANL fleet was restricted to 325,000 gross tonnes to help protect the private Australian shipping sector against competition from ANL. The ANL ro-ro Searoad Service began in September 1959 with the completion of the yellow hulled passenger and cargo Princess of Australia of 3,964 grt with accommodation for 334 passengers. She replaced the ageing steamer Taroona built on the Clyde in 1935 and owned by Tasmanian Steamers (Pty) Ltd., which could only carry thirty cars and were lifted aboard by crane. ANL was given a government subsidy for this new Melbourne to Devonport (Tasmania) service, with the first overnight sailing on 23rd September 1959. Princess of Australia was joined by the black hulled twin screw ro-ro Bass Trader in April 1961 with accommodation for a dozen passengers, and she traded between Melbourne and Launceston (Bell Bay), Devonport and Burnie, making one visit to each Tasmanian port each week. The Bass Strait Searoad Service was later extended during the 1960s throughout the continent with Searoad Terminals at Sydney (Port Botany), Port Kembla (NSW), Adelaide, Fremantle, Brisbane, Mackay, Townsville, Cairns and Darwin. New ro-pax vessels were completed as Australian Trader and Empress of Australia, and new ro-ros in Brisbane Trader, Sydney Trader, and Townsville Trader of unusual engines ‘midships design. Darwin Trader was not a ro-ro but a versatile bulker and container carrier, with two large grey gantry cranes for loading and discharging. She carried manganese ore south from the island of Groote Eylandt to Port Kembla, Melbourne and Launceston, and returned with refrigerated cargo and containers to Darwin.

The yellow hulled Empress of Australia of 12,037 grt was completed in January 1965 at Sydney with accommodation for 250 passengers as well as cars, lorries and containers for the service between Sydney and Tasmania. in 1972, her passenger complement was increased to 440 and she was moved to the Melbourne to Devonport service after the sale of Princess of Tasmania to Canada. She was sold in 1985 and converted into the cruise ship royal Pacific but sank on 23rd august 1992 after a collision in the Malacca Straits. The yellow hulled Australian Trader of 7,005 grt was completed in June 1969 at Newcastle (NSW) with accommodation for 190 passengers as well as over one hundred cars, trailers and containers and served the Bass Strait routes alongside Princess of Tasmania until the latter was sold. She was then modified in April 1972 for the Sydney to Tasmania route with extended superstructure aft and more crew cabins, and served this route for five years until sold to the Australian Navy as a training ship under the famous name of H.M.A.S. Jervis Bay. In 1995, she was sold to Medi Link Lines of Malta and renamed Agios Andreas as a Mediterranean ferry, and was then sold in 2004 to Jordanian owners and sailed from Aqaba on a regular ferry route as Ajman City. Princess of Tasmania had been renamed Marine Cruiser in 1975 on a bareboat charter to the Canadian government, and then she moved to the Mediterranean in 1983 to become Majorca rose for Dolphin international Shipping Co. Ltd., Malta.

The ANL bulk fleet had been updated by the new Blyth built bulkers Talinga and Timbarra of 10,220 dwt during 1954/55, and a trio of self trimming 7,000 dwt bulkers from Australian yards in Inyula, Illowra and Iranda during 1954/57. However, the 1960s decade saw a vast increase in the ANL bulk cargo capacity with eight ‘Lake’ class bulkers of 10,450 dwt in service after completion between 1956 and 1959. Coal and ore were the main cargoes for the five hold engines aft Lake Barrine, Lake Boga, Lake Colac, Lake Eyre, Lake Illawarra, Lake Macquarie, Lake Sorell and Lake Torrens. They also carried steel from Whyalla and Kwinana to NSW ports, and replaced the ‘river’ class vessels, which began to be sold off from 1959. Lake Illawarra became a total loss on 5th January 1975 while carrying zinc concentrates up the Derwent River at Hobart to the Risdon plant. She collided with the supports of the Tasman Bridge and two thousand tons of steel collapsed onto the ship, and she was left sunken under the bridge, unfortunately fifteen people lost their lives in the accident.

Two larger ore carriers of 13,710 dwt were completed as the engines aft bridge ‘midships Mount Keira and Mount Kembla at Whyalla in 1960, specifically designed for the route between Yampi Sound in Western Australia and Port Kembla. ANL also received the engines and bridge aft Musgrave range of 21,165 dwt completed in November 1964, an ore carrier which had a sister Gerringong of Bulkships Ltd. (Howard Smith Ltd., manager). Also, two much larger ANL nine hatch ore carriers of 55,000 dwt, Darling River of May 1966 and Yarra River of April 1970, had a Bulkships sister in Bogong and another sister in iron Hunter of BHP, to whom all of these ore carriers were on charter for Australian coastal shipments. Darling River was withdrawn from her Yampi Sound in Western Australia to Newcastle/Port Kembla iron ore route in April 1970 and transferred to the Weipa to Gladstone bauxite trade when her sister Yarra River replaced her at Yampi Sound.

In 1957, the Australian and Japanese governments signed a joint agreement for the development of commerce between their countries, with conventional shipping mainly provided by Japanese shipping lines. Nine years later, two new developments in Australia directly connected with ANL enabled Japan to become Australia’s biggest trading partner, replacing Britain for the first time. These were the first iron ore shipments from Port Hedland to Japan on 27th May 1966 with 24,900 tonnes shipped in the bulker Harvey S. Mudd, and the placing of orders in Japan for three ro-ro ships for the Eastern Searoad Service (ESS) to Japan jointly run by ANL, Kawasaki ‘K’ Line, and the Flinders Shipping Co. Ltd., a joint venture between Jardine, Matheson & Co. Ltd. and H.C. Sleigh Ltd. of Melbourne. Port Hedland is named after Capt. Peter Hedland who explored the area in April 1863 with the purpose of developing a port and a jetty was later built there in 1895. Goldsworthy Mining developed an iron ore mine 100 kilometres East of Port Hedland in the early 1960s with iron ore shipped to the port by rail. Illowra of ANL was then chartered on 5th august 1967 to transport railway sleepers to Port Hedland to build a new line to the Mount Newman region 400 kilometres away. High grade iron ore reserves of 242 million tonnes had been proven here, and contracts had been signed with eight Japanese steel producers for the shipment of 100 million tonnes of iron ore over the next 22 years. The first coastal shipment of Mount Newman iron ore took place on 22nd March 1969 to Newcastle (NSW) with the first export cargo to Japan one month later. ANL then placed orders in Sweden and Germany for four large bulkers of the ‘P’ class of between 120,000 and 140,000 dwt for the Japanese iron ore export trade, completed as Australian Pioneer, Australian Prospector, Australian Purpose and Australian Progress.

The ANL ro-ro container ship on the Eastern Searoad Service (ESS) to Japan was Australian Enterprise of 14,000 dwt, and she operated alongside her Kawasaki sister Australian Searoader and her Australian privately owned sister Matthew Flinders. This trio were a special type that combined ro-ro operations below deck with lo-lo (lift on, lift off) on the weather deck, and gave much faster cargo handling than the cellular container ship. This trio were very profitable and were lengthened in 1978 and continued to run to Japan until 1986. Two further ro-ro vessels were completed after an agreement between ANL and John Lysaght (Australia) Ltd. was concluded in 1970 for a raw coil, steel products and container service between Port Kembla (NSW) and the steelworks at Westernport (Victoria). The twin funnelled Lysaght Endeavour and Lysaght Enterprise were completed at Newcastle (NSW), and were later lengthened by Mitsubishi at Kobe by 27 metres to increase their cargo carrying capacity to 12,000 tonnes of ro-ro cargo. They were replaced on their Westernport route by BHP vessels in 1986. ANL container services to Europe and the U.K. began in 1969 when it joined the Australia to Europe/U.K. conferences in partnership with the ACT (associated Container Transportation) container consortium of Blue Star Line, Port Line, Ben Line, Ellerman Line and T. & J. Harrison. A container ship was launched at the Bremer Vulkan yard at Vegesack as ACT 3 of 1,414 TEU capacity in April 1969 and then sold and delivered to ANL as Australian Endeavour three months later. She was joined in 1971 by her sister container ship Australian Exporter running a service from Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane to Norfolk (VA), New York and Boston. A year later the ACT and ANL services were integrated into a round the World service with six ACT ships and the two ANL ships sailing either eastwards or westwards via the Suez and Panama Canals. This service was augmented in 1977 by the introduction of the German built Australian venture by ANL and her sister ACT 7 by ACT of 2,450 TEU capacity. The Spanish built feeder container ship Echuca of 168 TEU capacity brought containers into the main Australian ports from outlying ports for ANL between 1971 and 1976.

In 1971, a ro-ro container service was begun by PAD (Pacific Australia Direct) Line from Adelaide, Burnie, Melbourne, Sydney, Newcastle (NSW) and Brisbane to Noumea, Suva, Honolulu, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland (Oregon), Tacoma and New Westminster. Three ships were employed in a consortium of Australian, British and Swedish companies, with allunga being managed by ANL and also 25% owned by ANL. The other two sister ships on the service were the British ACT (a) vessel Dilkara, and the Swedish Paralla owned by Transatlantic Rederi a/B. This twin funnelled trio of 20,600 dwt were completed in Sweden with two container cranes up forward on the weather deck, from where sloping ramps allowed access to the lower decks. Large folding angled stern ramps made them independent of linkspans at any Pacific ports, and the service operated at maximum capacity and profitably with conventional ships chartered in to clear cargo backlogs. A fourth ro-ro container ship named Lillooet was chartered in 1979 by Transatlantic Rederi a/B and Searoad Shipping Co. Ltd. of Vancouver to increase capacity on the Pacific route. Allunga was laid up at Portland (Oregon) on 12th January 1985 and was then towed to Victoria (BC) where she arrived on 23rd October 1985 to be stripped of her gearbox to be fitted into her sister Paralla. PAD Line was sold in 1987 to CGM/Sofrana with CGM ro-ro vessels then operating a North Europe to South Pacific route and on to Australia.

an ANL ro-ro container service was begun in January 1975 from Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne to the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan (from 1976) and Hong Kong. The service was fortnightly by Australian Enterprise and Australian Explorer ex Matthew Flinders. a consortium of ANL, royal interocean Lines of Holland, China Navigation Co. Ltd. and orient overseas Container Line (OOCL) then operated the route from 1976, with two ships from each partner. Two Korean shipping companies were then admitted to the Australia to Japan/Korea Conferences in 1979, and the Korean Australia Searoad Service (KASS) began operations at the end of 1979 with Australian Emblem and Australian Escort provided by ANL alongside other ro-ros from the other partners.

In September, 1977, a ro-ro container service from Australian ports to South East Asia was begun under the name of ANRO. The new ANL vessel ANRO Australia of 16,477 dwt operated in a consortium with vessels of Neptune orient Lines (NOL) of Singapore, and the Straits Steamship Co. Ltd. ANRO Temasek was the NOL vessel, and ANRO Asia the third vessel and owned jointly by Nedlloyd of Holland and the Australian Straits Container Line but managed by the Straits Steamship Co. Ltd. The trio were of a twin funneled engines aft bridge ‘midships design. The service called at Singapore, Port Kelang and Penang with feeder services to Bangkok and Tanjong Priok in Java. A direct service to the latter port was begun in December 1978 with the Indonesian State owned company of Djakarta Lloyd then chartering slot space on the trio. The service was very profitable with ANRO Australia and her two sisters lengthened in 1981, and a further three ro-ros were chartered in and given ‘ANRO’ names. The ANL vessel, ANRO Australia, was withdrawn from service in 1997 and broken up.

The ANL fleet of 34 ships in October 1978 were employed on a wide variety of trades on both the Australian coasts and on international routes:-

ANRO Australia

Singapore to Fremantle & Adelaide

Australian Emblem

Osaka to Melbourne

Australian Endeavour

Sydney to Zeebrugge, London & Liverpool

Australian Enterprise

Brisbane to Manila

Australian Escort

Sydney & Brisbane to Yokkaichi & Yokohama

Australian Explorer

Sydney to Hong Kong

Australian Exporter

Sydney and Auckland to U.S. East Coast ports

Australian Pioneer

Dampier to Japan with iron ore

Australian Prospector

Dampier to Fukuyama with iron ore

Australian Purpose

Temporarily laid up before starting the Japanese ore trade

Australian Progress

Temporarily laid up before starting the Japanese ore trade

Australian Venture

London & Genoa to Sydney & Wellington

Bass Trader (2)

Queensland ports & Sydney to Tasmania

Brisbane Trader

Melbourne to Tasmania

Darling River

Weipa to Gladstone with bauxite

Darwin Trader

Groote Eylandt to Melbourne with manganese ore

Empress of Australia

Melbourne to Devonport overnight ferry

Flinders Range

Laid up at Newcastle after completion

Jeparit

on charter to BHP trades

Lake Eyre (2)

Australia to New Zealand with gypsum

Lake Barrine (2)

Australia to New Zealand with sugar

Lake Eildon

Arrived Sydney on 18th October after a collision

Lake Hume

about to be delivered at Hiroshima

Lake Macquarie

on charter to BHP trades

Lake Sorell

on charter to BHP trades

Lysaght Endeavour

Port Kembla to Westernport

Lysaght Enterprise

Port Kembla to Westernport

Melbourne Trader

Queensland ports & Sydney to Tasmania

North Esk

grain trade from North Tasmanian ports

Selwyn Range

Laid up at Newcastle after completion

Stirling Range

Christmas Island to Australia with phosphates

Sydney Trader

Melbourne to Tasmanian ports

Townsville Trader

about to start on Melbourne to Tasmania & Fremantle route

Yarra River

Yampi Sound to Newcastle (NSW) with iron Ore

In addition, four large ore carriers were bareboat chartered from European owners, with Tolga of 57,000 dwt and Tambo River of 64,500 dwt from Wilhelmsen of Norway, and Mount Newman of 119,500 dwt from the Furness Withy group and Alnwick Castle of 109,900 dwt from W. a. Souter of Newcastle. However, all of this quartet had been returned to their owners by March 1982, when for the first time in forty years no ANL tonnage was employed in the BHP iron ore trade. The new quartet of bulkers of 16,500 dwt completed by Mitsubishi at Hiroshima in 1978 as Lake Eyre (2), Lake Barrine (2), Lake Eildon and Lake Hume had short careers of only eight years on average with ANL. The first pair were fitted with three cranes of 16 tonne capacity, whereas Lake Eildon and Lake Hume were ungeared. Lake Eildon was sold and converted into the Australian cement carrier Cementco, and arrived for breaking up at Chittagong on 12th November 2008 after a career of thirty years, and her three sisters were still trading at this time.

ANL ships had been calling at Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean since an agreement was signed in 1959 with The British Phosphate Commissio-ners to transport phosphate rock to Australia. Stirling range ex Baron Cawdor and previously used on this trade, was modified in 1975 for Australian crew requirements and continued on the trade until 1979. in July, 1981, ANL resumed this trade by bareboat chartering three British bulkers for five years, Cape Otway, Cape Hawke and Baron Murray, which were not renamed, and in addition the new bulkers Flinders range and Selwyn range of 27,550 dwt were added to the phosphate rock trade to give a five ship service, with northbound cargoes including wheat and coal to Asian ports.

The coaster North Esk of 2,063 dwt, had spent twenty years as a self unloading grain carrier in the Tasmanian grain trade, and was the most profitable ship in the fleet with her belt system making her 20% more efficient and giving an unloading rate of 250 tonnes per hour. She was sold in June 1979 to West Pacific (Pte) Ltd., Tonga for Pacific trading, but was unfortunately lost during the night of 1st and 2nd of March, 1983 when driven aground at Suva during the passage of cyclone ‘Oscar’ over Fiji. Her sister, South Esk, had been converted into a unit load vessel for the Bass Strait Searoad Service by fitting three large cranes for handling heavy timber, steel loads, containers and cars. South Esk had been sold at the end of 1972 to Eastern Shipping Lines inc. of the Philippines and renamed Eastern Mincon, but was lost ten years later in February 1982 during a voyage from Hong Kong to Manila in heavy seas with the unfortunate loss of all of her crew of 29. The economy of Tasmania that supported the Bass Strait trades at this time was based upon timber, apples and many other fruits and perishables including grapes, walnuts, lavender and flowers, paper production, aluminium production, hydroelectricity and the export of Asian style vegetables to South East Asia. apart from Tasmanian imports of grain, alumina, gypsum, manganese ore and zinc concentrates, most of the annual import of 25,000 tonnes of steel products now arrived on the ANL Bass Strait ro-ros instead of on BHP vessels.

ANL Bulk Division

on 31st august 1982 the ANL fleet stood at 32 owned and chartered ships, but by 1986, the size of the fleet had fallen to 25 bulkers, ore carriers, phosphates and bauxite carriers, container ships and ro-ro container ships after the ending of the Bass Strait ferry service with the sale of Empress of Australia in 1985. ANL now concentrated more focus on the bulk trades, and the fleet included two new twin funnelled bulkers of 76,355 dwt in river Embley and river Boyne. They had been completed in 1982 and 1983 by the Mitsubishi Heavy industries yard at Nagasaki, and had three holds and eight hatches, and unusually had twin coal fired boilers with automatic control feeding two steam turbines of 19,000 shp to give service speeds of 15 knots. They transported bauxite from Weipa on the Cape York Peninsula to Gladstone in Queensland via the Torres Strait and Thursday Island. The ungeared bulker Selwyn range had been lengthened and converted to a self unloader in 1985 and renamed river Torrens of 31,950 dwt and operated on all the ANL bulk trades including gypsum and salt from Thevenard in South Australia to Sydney and NSW ports.

Her geared sister Flinders range was not converted to a self unloader and was sold in 1988 to Cosco of China and renamed Hua Sheng. However, another bulker of similar size to river Torrens was purchased in 1991 and converted to a self unloader and renamed river Yarra, having been completed as Star Kanda in Japan in 1984. The large ‘P’ class quartet of iron ore carriers were sold to Cosco of China between 1985 and 1991, and continued on the same iron ore trade from Dampier and Port Hedland but to China instead of Japan. Australian Purpose was renamed Tao Yuan Hai but sustained a cracked hull on 27th May 1990 in the Indian ocean off Western Australia and sank, her three sisters had all been broken up by 2002. The port of Dampier opened in 1966 when the first iron ore from the Mount Tom Price mine was transported by rail to Parker Point and loaded on o ore carriers. The port is named after the first Englishman to land on Australian soil in 1688, the pirate William Dampier, and it takes less than a day to load a giant ore carrier with current exports running at 140 million tonnes of iron ore per year.

ANL Searoad Services

The ANRO service to South East Asia was particularly busy in the late 1980s, with Australian Escort ex James Cook transferring from the ESS Searoad Service to ANRO and renamed as ANRO Melbourne to operate alongside her fleetmate ANRO Australia. a further five ro-ro ships operated for the partners on the service, with ANRO Temasek, ANRO Adelaide and ANRO Fremantle operating for NOL of Singapore, ANRO Jayakarta operating for the Indonesian government, and ANRO Asia for the Straits Steamship Co. Ltd. Searoad Service terminals still in use in Australia included Port Adelaide, Melbourne, Burnie, Devonport, Launceston (Bell Bay), Port Kembla, Port Botany, Brisbane, Mackay, Townsville and Cairns. New ANL ro-ros had joined the fleet in 1975/76 as the twin funnelled Melbourne Trader built at Sandefjord in Norway, and a sister of the competing Union Hobart and Union Lyttelton of the Union Steam Ship Co. Ltd. of New Zealand and of Tor Caledonia of Tor Line, and Bass Trader (2) built at Newcastle (NSW) and in ANL service until 1997 when sold to Strintzis Lines of Greece and converted into a ro-pax ferry named Ionian Bridge. A ro-ro vehicle carrier of two thousand cars capacity operated in the Trans Pacific trades from U.S. West coast ports to Japan for ANL as Australian Searoad between 1989 and 1994. New ANL ro-ros were completed in 1991 at Newcastle (NSW) and in Singapore as Searoad Tamar and Searoad Mersey respectively for the Bass Strait trades from Melbourne. They were not sisters as Searoad Tamar had bridge and engines aft with two stern doors, one to starboard and one to port, and could carry 137 trailers and cars and 340 TEU of containers, whereas Searoad Mersey had her bridge forward on the fo’c’stle and engines aft with a smaller capacity of 58 trailers and cars and 180 TEU of containers.

ANL Liner Division

Two new sister container ships of 2,668 TEU capacity were delivered in 1991 from the Samsung yard in South Korea as Australian Endeavour and Australian Endurance. Australian Endeavour was owned by ANL and her sister was Japanese owned, and they operated on the Sydney to Hong Kong, Japan and Korea route alongside a chartered container ship Australian advance of 1,850 TEU capacity. The twin screw Australian venture of 2,460 TEU capacity, completed for Lombard Leasing and bareboat chartered to ANL in 1977, operated the Australia to U.K. and Europe service. Australian venture was sold to Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) in 1996 and renamed MSC Nuria, and a year later a second hand container ship completed in 1985 as California venture was purchased and renamed Australian Enterprise. The small container ship Australian Trader of 430 TEU capacity had operated a Trans Tasman service into Sydney since 1985, and was joined by the ro-ro container ship Tranztas Trader in 1989 and formerly Watergeuz of Dutch owners. This pair operated in a slot charter arrangement with the Union Steam Shipping Co. Ltd. of New Zealand and Tasman Express Line.

Privatisation And Sale Of ANL

The future of ANL had been the subject of considerable debate since 1991, with a failed privatization bid in 1994 to P&O of Britain. Management of the now loss making ANL had been farmed out to associated Steamships (Pty.) Ltd. of Melbourne in order to revive profits, but the Australian government announced in late 1998 that ANL would be sold off in several pieces as ANL Liner Division, ANL Bulk Division, Quality Container Management (QCM) and two stevedoring and haulage companies, Portside United and Trans United. By May 1999, the sale of the last six ANL ships had been finalized, with the ANL Liner Division and two container ships, Australian Endeavour and Australian Enterprise, going to CMA CGM French Line, the ANL Bulk Division and two self unloaders going to Auscan Self Unloaders Pty Ltd. (Auscan), a subsidiary of Canada Steamship Lines (CSL) of Canada. Quality Container Management (QCM) was sold to the ovens group, with Portside United sold to Linfox and Trans United sold to Kelly Transport. Auscan signed an agreement with intercontinental Ship Management (ISM) to manage river Yarra and river Torrens for CSL, and they were renamed as CSL Yarra and CSL Pacific during Millennium year and continued trading on the Australian coasts, usually with wheat from Brisbane to Hobart.

On 30th June 1999, the Australian government had benefitted from the ANL sale to the extent of $82 million in sale money, special dividends and a reduction in liabilities. ANL Ltd. was subsequently renamed the Australian river Co. Ltd. of Melbourne after the sale of most of its constituent parts, leaving only a ‘shell’ company. The sub charter agreements covering the bulkers river Embley and river Boyne were finalized later in 1999 with their transfer to the Australian river Co. Ltd. of Melbourne, and they retained their names while continuing to ship bauxite from the Rio Tinto Alcan mine at Weipa to Gladstone. The sub charter agreements covering two ro-ros, Searoad Tamar and Searoad Mersey, were also finalized later in 1999 with the sale of the pair to Tasmanian owners and they retained their names and continued to operate in the Bass Strait ro-ro trades.

ANL employed the sensible policy of promoting Masters to Senior Executive positions, an example being Capt. William Bolitho who became Chairman of ANL between 1989 and 1994. He had served his apprenticeship with the company on the ‘river’ class vessels, and was a legendary Australian maritime figure and also Chairman of the Australian National Maritime association. Capt. Bolitho vehemently opposed the proposed privatization of ANL in 1994, which did not proceed, but after his departure from the company ANL became loss making and its sale was inevitable. The Australian government, to its very great credit, had thus successfully operated State owned fleets for sixty years from 1939 to 1999.