Auckland’s last steam ferry needs a $5 million refurbishment to ever be seaworthy again.
Toroa, a 380-tonne ferry, turns 100 years old this July but is currently languishing on dry land near the Lincoln Rd interchange of the Northwestern Motorway.
In its glory days, the Toroa ferry sailed on the Waitematā Harbour carrying more than 1000 passengers. Now it overlooks a line of traffic and a roaring quarry next door. The hull is rickety and riddled with holes, perched high above the mangled junk of the yard.
Toroa is the last surviving vessel of a fleet of steam ferries that operated on Auckland’s harbour for 120 years.
“She’s been doing an awful lot of sitting,” Toroa Preservation Society president and civil engineer Peter McCurdy said, looking up at the vessel he’d spent 24 years working on.
Despite McCurdy spending decades working on the project and a $5m hole in the budget, his resolve has not faltered.
The group has already poured $2m into the vessel, with work to restore the inside of the boat requiring a kilometre of bespoke steel to be hot-bent into shape and soldered with more than 10,000 rivets.
The triple expansion engine of the ship had also been successfully restored.
A sawmill was used to harvest fallen macrocarpa trees from Henderson Park and the logs, measuring up to 9m in length, would be used in the ship’s planking.
“One of our volunteers gave us the money for that mill ... don’t think his wife’s ever forgiven him,” McCurdy said.
So far, the restoration project has continued with splashes of goodwill, private donations and funding from the Lottery Grants Board and the ASB Community Trust.
The ferry sank in 1998 during a heavy storm by the Birkenhead wharf and then lay underwater for about a month.
The buried vessel was salvaged from the ocean using a heavy-duty crane but there was extensive damage to the ship from salt corrosion.
Rules blocking boats from the New Zealand Heritage List and Auckland Council’s Unitary Plan are preventing the ferry from getting heritage status that would boost the restoration project to save Auckland’s last steam ferry.
McCurdy said he wanted the Toroa to be recognised by Heritage New Zealand as a Category 1 Historic Place, but because the ferry was movable it was not eligible.
The heritage recognition would give the project an elevated status when applying for funding from corporate groups and Auckland Council.
“That would really lift our public recognition,” he said.
A Heritage New Zealand spokesperson said the restoration of the vessel involved making it seaworthy and the Toroa steam ferry was “not fixed to land”, which meant it did not meet the statutory definition of a historic place under the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Act 2014.
“Listing as a historic place would not in of itself result in accessibility to additional funding.”
McCurdy would like Heritage New Zealand to have an additional listing for historic vessels.
Auckland Council manager of heritage Noel Reardon said as the Auckland Unitary Plan was underpinned by the Resource Management Act, it was “unable to protect movable objects like boats”.
The Auckland Unitary Plan covered historic heritage places and areas, special character areas, notable trees, sites and places of significance to mana whenua.
“The official New Zealand Heritage List, which is managed by the Government, offers protection for boats in some circumstances,” Reardon said.
Toroa Preservation Society volunteer Peter Stone said he wanted the council to get more on board with the restoration project as it would greatly benefit Aucklanders.
“I just think it’s going to be an absolute boon for Auckland, it’s such a beautiful-looking vessel but it’s also an important part of Auckland’s history and maritime heritage,” Stone said.
Reardon said any support from council towards the restoration of the ferry was a decision that would need to be made by Auckland’s councillors.
In her 55-year working life, the steam ferry carried more than 70 million passengers.
Stone said the heritage steam vessel could be used by the public for excursions and leisure cruises around the harbour and out to Waiheke or Motuihe Island.
Toroa is the Māori name for the northern royal albatross.
When the steam ferry finally took to the water, the crew planned to use wood or forestry slash to power the ship instead of coal.
Stone said wood pellets would be “better-smelling” than coal and wouldn’t expose passengers to harmful sulphur-dioxide.
“The challenge I have to my friends who tease me when I say I’m working on it, is there’s a lot that’s been done inside,” Stone said.
“We’re starting on the exterior... once that’s done people will really see that the ship’s on its way.”
People can visit Toroa during the Auckland Heritage Festival from September 20 to October 5 and any donations or support for the project can be made on steamferrytoroa.com.
Eva de Jong is a New Zealand Herald reporter covering general news for the daily newspaper, Weekend Herald and Herald on Sunday. She was previously a multimedia journalist for the Whanganui Chronicle, covering health stories and general news.
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