STEAM FERRY TOROA AT THE AUCKLAND WOODEN BOAT FESTIVAL
Friday 13th March to Sunday 15th March at the Viaduct Events Centre
The Toroa Preservation Society is taking part in this most excellent celebration of Aotearoa New Zealand’s age-old wooden boat building traditions, and of wooden boats themselves.
Our centre-piece is one of the double-ended ferry’s two wheelhouses — magnificently restored and fitted out.
Come and take the wheel and imagine yourself a ferry skipper, threading your way across the busy Harbour to deliver your 1221 passengers to the City or back to the North Shore.
Our second focus is the very large 8-foot (2.4 m) model of the Toroa built by a shipwright who worked on maintaining the ferries during his long career.
This is the model built by Dennis Mumme, not the actual Toroa.
And there’s much more to our presentation at the Festival — artefacts, pictures, videos — and knowledgeable volunteers on hand to answer questions about Auckland’s rich steam ferry history and the restoration of the Toroa.
Mementos and Memories
Did you travel on the Toroa, or any of the steam ferries? Have you steam ferry memories of your own or your predecessors’? Photos? Tickets? Items from the ferries – gear and fittings, uniforms, flags – which became widely dispersed when the ferries ended service? Please let our volunteers know at the Festival – it is all part of preserving our maritime heritage and assisting the return of the Toroa to Harbour as a heritage excursion steam ferry.
On the Sunday, all are invited to a presentation at the Maritime Museum:
The Resurrection of Auckland’s Last Steam Ferry Toroa
11 am, Sunday 15th March
A presentation by Peter McCurdy, vessel conservator of the Toroa, on the largest wooden boat restoration project in Aotearoa New Zealand. As well as the restoration of the historic ferry, Peter talks about the essential part the steam ferries played in the life of Aucklanders, and the preservation of maritime heritage, historic vessels in particular.
https://www.maritimemuseum.co.nz/events/auckland-wooden-boat-festival-or-seminar-programme AWBF Seminars at the NZ Maritime Museum, Hobson Wharf