Name/TitlePhotograph, "Coweambah"

About this object"Coweambah" – known to locals as “Cowie” built by G.A. Engle and Sons at Tea Gardens was launched in 1919.

Skippered mainly by George Davies, the boat ran a service three times a week from Tea Gardens to Newcastle carrying passengers and cargo. She also provided a vital link to the Outer lighthouse keepers and their families on Fingal Island as well as Arthur Murdoch’s shell grit enterprise on the southern side of Fingal Island. The grit was purchased by poultry companies to strengthen the eggshells and use as a cushion when the eggs were packed in boxes and transported).

The “Coweambah” was 82 ft 7 in long with a 22 ft 4in beam and was known to pass around the Point Stephens lighthouse into southern-easterly seas, which larger ships were not prepared to do. The slowest voyage, when running into a gale, was ten hours from Point Stephens to Newcastle, a distance of twenty sea miles.

On a lighter note, the “Coweambah” also took part in the Annual Mungo Brush Regatta organised by the Port Stephens Regatta Club, ferrying spectators from Buladelah and Bungwahl for the trip to Mungo Brush.

In 1943 the “Cowie” was commandeered for the war effort in the Pacific along with a number of other Port Stephens vessels and served in New Guinea with Bill Ripley of Tea Gardens as her skipper.

Returning home in 1945 “Coweambah” ran aground during a cyclone in Trial Bay near South West Rocks and became yet another shipwreck statistic on Australia’s East Coast. A detailed description of the foundering of the Coweambah on 11 June 1945 can be found in "Forgotten Fleet 2" p.136-37, Lunney, Bill and Ruth. Forfleet Publishing.

Place MadeOceania, Australia, New South Wales, Tea Gardens

MakerG.A. Engle and Sons

Maker RoleShipwright

Date Made1919

PeriodEarly 20th century

Formatjpeg

Object TypeBoat

Subject and Association KeywordsBoat building

Subject and Association KeywordsBoats

Subject and Association KeywordsFerry

Subject and Association KeywordsCargo

Subject and Association KeywordsShipping

Subject and Association KeywordsWorld War II

Subject and Association KeywordsNavy

Object numberTMA2021.00145.2

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