THE STORY OF STEAM FERRY EXCURSIONS BEFORE PEOPLE HAD CARS
THE CENTENARY OF THE LAST STEAM FERRY TOROA
AHF 2025 Toroa Tours booked out
If you would like to attend a later restoration tour, or would like to arrange a tour for your group or Society, contact us via Toroa restoration tours
Join us at the Toroa restoration yard for a presentation on the decades of Aucklanders taking their recreation on the steam ferries. This will be followed by a tour of the restoration of the 100-year old Toroa, the last survivor of 120 years of steam ferry operation on the Waitematā Harbour.
The Annual Steam Ferry Excursions
Before there was a car in every garage, the steam ferries reigned supreme. They were the queens of the Waitematā and they transported thousands of passengers out to watch the Anniversary Regatta and to picnics at North Shore beaches and to islands in the inner Hauraki Gulf or the upper Waitematā Harbour. Pine Island, now Herald Island, was a favourite destination, for many years owned by the Devonport Steam Ferry Company Limited. And to race meetings, sometimes ferrying the horses to the track with the punters. And the blokes on fishing and hunting excursions, with vast catches of snapper, birds and rabbits. The annual excursion for company and works employees, churches, Sunday Schools, unions, clubs and societies was the social event of the year.
Toroa’s Centenary
The last survivor of the fleet of steam ferries, the Toroa, is being painstakingly restored and readied to take new generations on excursions to explore the harbour’s maritime and ecological heritage – and this time burning renewable fuel. The steel skeleton has been renewed — a kilometre of bulb angle frames, 200 sq m of bulkhead plate, 10,000 rivets, 40 tonnes in all — and re-planking has begun. The triple-expansion engine has been rebuilt, replacement boiler and condenser acquired, and much work done on cabins and wheelhouses.
(Barry Davis, TPS Collection)
(PJ McCurdy, TPS Collection)
The speed of the restoration is dependent on the funding — every bit of support helps towards returning the Toroa to steaming again on the Harbour.
Come and see her progress in her centennial year and find out how you can join the crew and contribute to her story.
AHF 2025 Toroa Tours booked out
If you would like to attend a later restoration tour, or would like to arrange a tour for your group or Society, contact us via Toroa restoration tours
After the restoration
There will be much less smoke from sustainably sourced fuel, not coal. (Barry Davis, 1969, TPS Collection)