The long journey of the three-masted sailing barque Polly Woodside which ended in Duke’s & Orr’s Dry Dock on the Birrarung/ Yarra began in Belfast in 1885. William J. Woodside named the vessel after his wife Polly. He commissioned the vessel to carry coal, nitrate and wheat between England and South America. However, in 1904, the Polly was purchased by a New Zealand company, renaming her Rona, a Māori word referring to the moon’s influence on people, and tides. Once berthed in New Zealand, Rona sailed to ports across Australia and New Zealand carry cargos of 1000 tons for 800,000 nautical miles.

No longer capable of sailing, Polly Woodside/Rona was dismantled in 1923 and became a coal hulk, or coal storage vessel able to float around to re-supply steam ships or other machinery around the port. During WW2 Polly Woodside/Rona had a brief interlude in New Guinea, refuelling naval ships until 1946.

In the 1960s, the working life of Polly Woodside/Rona ended. In 1967, after intense advocacy to the Victorian government, the National Trust of Australia (Vic) acquired custodianship of the vessel for a single cent! Dr Graeme Robertson, a founding member of the Victorian Branch of the National Trust described the wrought iron hull of Polly Woodside/Rona as a beautiful piece of work. The Victorian Heritage Register (H2116) recognises the historical, technical, and social significance of this vessel as a rare surviving example of a nineteenth century barque rigged, iron-hulled, ocean-going trading ship.

Clustered around the Polly Woodside and the dry docks on the river bank are many former goods sheds, now re-purposed as bars and cafés, while the wharf and Goods Shed No.2 has been incorporated into the Polly Woodside Museum facility.

The wharf sheds are relics of the older style of cargo handling. The wharf and the dock sheds at Nos 5 to 9 (formerly Nos 13 to 17) South Wharf were built between 1885 and 1929 and the former No.2 (ex No. 10) shed was constructed in 1891. Dock sheds of this kind were made redundant by the need for large areas of open space for the storage and sorting of shipping containers, and for the marshalling of vehicles. The Polly Woodside, floating in a dry dock on Southbank Maritime Precinct close to the Melbourne’s CBD, is an evocative reminder of river-based trading port of Melbourne and the many nineteenth century ships that sailed Victorian waters.

FURTHER READING

• Clark, Jennifer, ‘The Single Ship Museum: Polly Woodside (Melbourne)’, Journal of Transport History 34 (2), 2013, p.196. https://research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=3f8e380a-1907-36bf-bb00-5b7836607a34
• The National Trust (Vic), https://www.nationaltrust.org.au/places/polly-woodside/; https://pwva.org.au/history.php
• Victorian Heritage Database, https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/14368

IMAGE CREDITS
Image 1: Polly Woodside, Sohe, 2008, https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/14368
Image 2: Polly Woodside and Boatbuilders Yard, photographer Jeff Malley 2024