After 1835, European settlement and the development of Melbourne created the demand for livestock and goods to be transported across the Birrarung/Yarra in increased quantities. Bridges were expensive and took some time to build, and rowboats gave way to the cheaper and more useful transportation option, river punts. The best-known punts were at the site of the present Princes, Punt Road, and Hawthorn bridges.

Early punts, as described by ‘Garryowen’ in The Chronicles of Early Melbourne, comprised a ‘dray without wheels, made water-tight by tarpaulin … launched through the agency of a small rope looped round the main rope across the river’. Flat-bottomed punts could be loaded easily and either pulled across the river using ropes or propelled by hand using a pole. Transporting goods and people across the Birrarung/Yarra by punt quickly became a lucrative business venture.

The government identified a revenue stream through a licensing system. Thomas Watt was the first to petition for a punting licence launching his new punt, The Melbourne, in April 1838 by his daughter breaking a bottle of champagne against one of its sides. Watt’s punt was only the first of several that would service the Birrarung/Yarra until permanent bridges were built.

A cluster of punts could be found at the foot of King Street. R.J. Hilliard, the owner of the Yarra Bank Hotel, ran a punt slightly east of King Street from 1853 until 1862. A steam-driven punt that went by a series of names (Darling’s/Cook’s/Newell’s) operated from 1884 until 1930 taking passengers and cargo from Spencer Street to Clarendon Street.

Many commercially-owned ferries and canoe/boat hire ventures have operated near Princes Bridge over the past two centuries, such as the Cremorne Gardens Ferry, which took people upriver to tourist places such as the Hawthorn Tea Gardens, Studley Park, Rudder Grange, and Fairfield Park. Growing demand for motor vehicle transportation across the river led to a large steam ferry service near Spencer Street. Customers boarded via a constructed terminal carved into the river’s north bank. Built in 1929 to accommodate the increased road traffic, the Spencer Street Bridge ended the thriving profitable history of punting and ferries on the Birrarung/Yarra.

FURTHER READING

• Colin Jones, Punts and Ferries, https://www.emelbourne.net.au/biogs/EM01211b.htm
• Old Treasury Building (n/d) On the Water: Punts of the River, https://www.oldtreasurybuilding.org.au/lost-jobs/on-the-water/punts-on-the-river/
• To Melbourne (n/d) The Story of the Yarra River, https://tomelbourne.com.au/story-yarra-river/

IMAGE CREDIT
Punt on the Yarra, Melbourne, 1845, Ham Brothers, State Library Victoria