#OnThisDay the vehicular ferry George Peat was launched at the Poole and Steel dockyards in Balmain. It was built to service the Hawkesbury River, the "first of two designed for service between Kangaroo Point and Mooney Point, to link up the break made by the Hawkesbury River in the new Sydney-Newcastle highway" (SMH article on Trove).
The ferry was named after George Peat, who operated the Peat Ferry service from the late 1840s until the opening of the Hawkesbury River Railway Bridge in 1889.
Source: The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW: 1842 – 1954). Hawkesbury River Ferry, Mon 17 Feb 1930
Related
- Sydney Morning Herald article, 1930 - regarding the launch (Trove)
- Windsor and Richmond Gazette, 1925 - a history of George Peat and his ferry (Trove)
- Wikipedia entry for Peats Ferry Bridge
- Afloat Magazine: Wheels across the Hawkesbury
