Some of James Willson’s earliest memories of Sydney Harbour involve the Manly ferry and the kind of crossing you don’t easily forget.
“As a very young boy, I remember crossing the Heads in extreme weather on the MV North Head,” he said.
James has travelled on the Manly ferry for as long as he can remember. Decades later, that lifelong connection to the harbour helped shape Sydney Harbour Ferries, a 200-page hardcover book featuring 300 photographs documenting the ferries, people and places that have shaped life around the harbour.
Unlike most Sydney Harbour ferry routes, the Manly service crosses Sydney Heads, where weather and swell can quickly change the character of the journey.
For James, that experience is part of what makes the route so memorable.
“No other ferry journey tells Sydney’s story quite like Manly,” he said. “You experience the drama of the Heads, the beauty of the harbour, the skyline, the history and the connection between communities. It’s part of the harbour’s identity.”
That connection to Sydney Harbour runs through James’ family.
The project began with photographs taken by James’ grandfather, Robert Willson.
Robert was a lifelong Sydneysider who lived on Mandalong Road in Mosman and spent decades photographing the city around him.
He lived through the creation of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Opera House, Harbour Tunnel and Anzac Bridge, documenting the city as it changed around him.
The Harbour Bridge alone fundamentally changed the way Sydney moved. By the start of the 1930s, Sydney’s ferries were carrying around 40 million passenger journeys a year. After the bridge opened in 1932, that fell to 14 million, with the fleet halved within 12 months.
Nearly a century later, Sydney Ferries operates across 10 routes and 38 wharves, carrying around 15.5 million passengers each year on vessels spanning nine different classes.
Sydney’s ferry story, however, stretches back much further. Among the stories featured in the book is the Phantom ferry, which entered service in 1859 as the first large double-ended ferry on the Manly run, allowing it to travel in either direction without needing to turn around.
For James, the entry point into that history was Robert’s early photographs of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
Around 20 of his grandfather’s photographs eventually made it into Sydney Harbour Ferries, alongside archival and contemporary images from a growing group of contributors. What James initially envisaged as an 80-page book soon grew far beyond that original scope.
“As the project grew, so did the people that I met,” he said.
The finished version reached 200 pages, drawing heavily on contemporary images from Sydney Ferries employee and photographer Haig Gilchrist, along with photography from Manly Drone. Ferry historian John Darroch and captain Nicholas Baker also contributed historical and technical expertise.
One chapter is devoted entirely to the Manly run and its Freshwater-class ferries.
More than four decades after the first of the class entered service, the Freshwaters remain part of the route. A campaign to retain the vessels led to a NSW Parliamentary petition with 22,000 signatures after plans were announced to phase out much of the Freshwater-class service in favour of newer Emerald-class ferries.
In August, the MV Freshwater travelled to Yamba for dry-docking maintenance, with Transport for NSW aiming to return it to passenger service for summer as part of the NSW Government’s $71 million fleet refurbishment.
Beyond Manly, the book covers early ferry travel, Circular Quay, the Parramatta River, the crews behind the network, historic tram connections and vessels past and present.
Sydney Harbour Ferries is available in hardcover as part of The Bridge Collection bundle for $89.95, which also includes a 10-piece set of A5 print cards and an SHB calico bag by Jo Waite.
Northern Beaches readers can also pick up a copy from Humphrey’s Manly Book Centre at 60–62 The Corso.
To learn more about Sydney Harbour Ferries and The Bridge Collection, you can visit their website for the book, bundles, print sets and other Sydney Harbour ferry keepsakes.
