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One of Sydney’s large Manly ferries will be turned into scrap metal despite maritime enthusiasts insisting it is in “good nick”, meeting the same fate as the RiverCat named after Australian swimming legend Dawn Fraser.
NSW’s transport agency has quietly put out a tender to scrap the Collaroy – the youngest of the four large Manly ferries – arguing it is the “only viable method of disposal” after it reached the end of its “economic life” as a passenger vessel.
Scuttling the Collaroy at sea for use as a dive wreck was considered, but Transport for NSW ruled it out due to significant environmental and technical risks, and the cost involved which would have run into the millions of dollars.
The Collaroy, right, tied up beside the Freshwater at Cockatoo Island on Tuesday.Credit: Sam Mooy
The double-ended Collaroy has been tied up at Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbour since it was retired from service on the Manly-Circular Quay route in September 2023. The government had deemed it “prohibitively expensive” due to its “one-of-a-kind build”.
In what will mark the end of an era, the Dawn Fraser – the last of seven RiverCat ferries – is also due to be permanently retired from passenger service in late February after plying the Parramatta River for more than three decades.
The swimming champion the vessel is named after, and family members, are set to be involved in a ceremony marking the ferry’s retirement before it is towed to the coastal town of Yamba in northern NSW where it will be pulled apart.
RiverCat ferries plied the Parramatta River since the early 1990s. Credit: Nick Moir
Like the three other Freshwater-class ferries, the Collaroy had been synonymous with the Manly-Circular Quay route – Sydney’s busiest – since it entered service in 1988. The Freshwater-class ferries each carry more than 1000 passengers, compared with the three newer Emerald-class vessels used on the Manly route which have capacity for about 400 people.
Action for Transport ferry expert Graeme Taylor said the Collaroy remained in “excellent condition” and should be retained in the government-owned fleet to plug a growing gap in demand for services between Circular Quay and Manly.
“The government’s thinking is really short-sighted in this instance. It’s in good nick – it’s a perfectly good ferry. This is a large ferry purpose-designed for the Manly route, and it still has many decades of working life ahead,” he said.
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“The smaller generation-two Emeralds are way too small for the Manly run. As demand for the services increases, the shortfall in capacity associated with the Emeralds will only become more acute.”
However, Transport for NSW said two other Freshwater-class vessels and the Emerald-class fleet provided sufficient capacity on the Manly route. “As has been the case since September 2023 when the Collaroy left service, the Manly-Circular Quay route will not be impacted,” it said.
The agency said it had decided to scrap the Collaroy because there had been “insufficient viable interest” in repurposing the ferry despite an extended campaign to test the market.
The tender for the Collaroy’s scrapping closes on March 16, and Transport for NSW expects to decide on the successful bidder by the end of May.
The government is spending $71 million on refurbishing the three remaining Freshwater-class ferries, including the cost of dry docking and extending the vessels’ service life.
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The Narrabeen returned to service last October after major repairs in a dry dock at Sydney’s Garden Island, while the Freshwater is due for a dry docking by the middle of the year. Their sister vessel, the Queenscliff, returned to service in late 2023 after two new 2½-metre propellers were installed.
In late 2024, the government unveiled plans to electrify the state’s 40-strong ferry fleet over the coming decade in a major shake-up that could result in the last three large Manly ferries retiring by 2030 as they are replaced with “Freshwater-like” vessels.
Seven new vessels built in Hobart are replacing the RiverCats on the F3 Parramatta River route. The $48 million cost of the new ferries includes the bill for scrapping the decades-old RiverCats.
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