MV Searoad Mersey II

In early days coal was an export product from Devonport. Today, imports include petroleum, bunker fuel, fertiliser and caustic soda. Cement Australia has exported cement products produced from Railton to Melbourne since 1926. Other exports via ships include tallow. A rail line still services the ports area of Devonport. Devonport once had a roundhouse and railway maintenance yards on the foreshore of the Mersey River. A park exists there today.

Searoad Road Shipping operate two roll on roll off vessel of general freight between Devonport, Melbourne and King Island. Vessels servicing these destinations which frequent thir facilities at East Devonport include MV Searoad Mersey, MV Searoad Mersey II (2016- ) and MV Searoad Tamar.


Passenger Ferry Terminal

Tasmania is linked by sea to the mainland view the car and passenger ferries Spirit of Tasmania I and II, which ply the waters of Bass Strait every night (duration: 10hrs 30 minutes), and during daylight hours in the summer months. Getting on and off with a car is an easy, painless experience; the only delay is likely to be going through the quarantine check at Devonport which is slow in peak periods. The Devonport Passenger Ferry Terminal is the southern terminus for the service.


SS Australian Trader

Bass Strait Ferries

The first car ferry linking Tasmania and the mainland was the Taroona, of 4,286 tons, which arrived in Melbourne in March 1935 to begin the Bass Strait service. By the 1950s an increasing number of tourists were travelling to Tasmania, and many wanted to drive their own cars. The Taroona could only carry a small number, laboriously loaded on board by crane. However, in Europe the ferry business was being revolutionised by the introduction of Roll-on/Roll-off ships, into which cars could be driven directly on and off. The Federal Government agreed to built a number of such vessels to service Tasmania, to be operated by their Australian National Line. The first of these revolutionary new ships was the motor vessel Princess of Tasmania in 1959.


Princess of Tasmania

Over the years, two attempts have been made to operate a car and passenger ferry service between Sydney and Tasmania, but with limited success. The first was with the Empress of Australia, which was custom built at Sydney's Cockatoo Island Dockyards in 1962 for Australian National Line, to provide a ferry serice between Sydney (the terminal was at Morts Bay, Balmain) and Hobart via Devonport and Burnie. Empress of Australia sailed between Sydney and Hobart three times each fortnight. Trade never reached expectations, and in 1972, the vessel was transferred to the Melbourne-Devonport run.


Loading cars onto the Princess of Tasmania

Spirit of Tasmania III was introduced in January 2003, reviving the Sydney to Tasmania service, however it did not visit Hobart, instead docking at Devonport with its two sister vessels. It made the 22 hour journey between Darling Harbour, Sydney, and Devonport three times a week. Like Princess of Tasmania three decade earlier, the Sydney-Tasmania service was initially a success but rising costs, an air fare war and a general slowing down of the tourist trade resulted in the vessel running regularly at below half capacity. This led to the withdrawal of the service in August 2006.

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