By Hamish Heard
WILLIAMSTOWN residents will have a chance to stake their claim to a multimillion-dollar maritime tourist drawcard when Australia’s best tall ships sail into the city on Friday.
Organisers of the three-week visit say it is a test to see if plans to transform a now-defunct Port of Melbourne Authority site at Workshops Pier in Ann St into a major maritime history precinct would work.
During the long stay, locals and visitors will enjoy sailing trips and tours aboard four historic ships.
The floating exhibition’s showpiece is the James Craig, an original 1874 barque that took 33 years and $18 million to restore after being plucked from a muddy grave off Tasmania in 1972.
In 2005 the James Craig won a World Ships Trust Medal, recognising it as one of the world’s six best-restored historic ships, alongside England’s recently destroyed Cutty Sark and others dating back to 1510.
It will be only the second time the 19th-century vessel will have visited Melbourne since 1920, when she was sailing cargo routes between Australia and New Zealand.
Before that the English-built ship sailed 23 trips around Cape Horn.
The James Craig will be joined by the tall ships Windeward Bound and Enterprize and the historic steam tug Wattle.
Tall Ships Victoria’s Peter Harris encouraged Hobsons Bay residents and visitors to seize a rare opportunity to wander around or sail on board a “living museum”.
“As a crew member of the ship (James Craig), I still think it’s the most remarkable experience anybody could have, and that’s after 40 years of sailing,” Mr Harris said.
“The interesting part is to see the crew working in exactly the same way the professional crews worked in the 19th century.”
Mr Harris said plans to turn Workshop Pier into a working maritime museum where tourists could explore Australia’s maritime history on board tall ships hinged on the success of the visit.
“We’re now working with Parks Victoria and Hobsons Bay City Council to develop that concept, and one of the stages is to bring ships in and bring the public on site to explore how it will work,” he said.
“It’s to show the people who have the funding what is possible and how it would work.”
Mr Harris said the project would cost “many millions” of dollars and would likely come as a result of a public private partnership.
He said the facility would offer something different from the “static displays” on offer at Victoria’s other maritime museums.
“We are interested in a working display where members of the public can actually get inside the displays,” Mr Harris said.
Star readers will have a chance to win double passes to sail on board the James Craig by being one of the first 10 callers to phone Hobsons Bay Visitor Information Centre on 9932 4310 between 9am and 5pm today (Tuesday).
The lucky winners will enjoy a four-hour Australia Day cruise on board the majestic ship.
A series of public open days, starting at 10am on Monday (January 21), will give others a chance to see inside the vessels and there will be also be 11 opportunities for the public to join the ship on a journey across on Port Phillip Bay.
Readers can find out the dates and times in the next edition of Star.
