Friday Facts and Fotos 7. 9th Sept ’22
Transporting ships out of the workshops must have presented some problems. At least 30 ships were built at Newport, so seeing them on the move must have been a regular sight during the war.
The first photo shows a hull between centre block and East block.
Then out the gate and a left turn onto Champion Road. Under the wires across the Champion Road crossing at Nth Williamstown, thence to Melbourne Road.
Crossing the Maribynong River, then down the hill in Spencer Street past VR head office (note the guy on the tramway tower checking the overhead clearance). A left turn into Flinders Street and then to a crane to unload it into the Yarra.
The last photo is of one of the assembled ships underway on the Yarra. Their records can all be researched in the files of the Australian War Museum in Canberra. A very few have survived in private ownership as fishing vessels or small ferries. (Photos PROV)
Tracing the history of the workshop’s involvement in both wars and honouring the memory of those who served is just one of the many reasons why the Newport railway workshops must be kept as a rail heritage precinct and used only for rail heritage purposes.
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