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The SS Allenwood was built and launched in December 1920 by Ernest Wright of John Wright & Co Shipyards, Tuncurry, NSW. The vessel was a coastal trader owned by Allen Taylor's North Coast Shipping Co. with her prime role that of carrying timber and supplies to the residents of towns along the coast of NSW.
The 398-ton, 147-foot twin-screw wooden steamer was easily recognizable by her twin funnels.
During WW2 the Allenwood was requisitioned by the Department of Navy and became the HMAS Allenwood, after the war reverting to its former role..
Vessels like the SS Allenwood regularly faced hazardous sea conditions as well as perilous bar crossings up and down the NSW coast. Many such vessels were lost in their performance of these roles and many mariners died.
Somehow the twin screw powered SS Allenwood managed to survive the elements until one foggy night on the 14th September 1951 in a powerful storm the vessel skippered by Captain Boutrup finally succumbed to nature's fury. Unable to avoid being washed onto Birdie Beach, near Norah Head on the NSW Central Coast the life of the Allenwood ended.
Soon after she was declared a wreck and put out to tender for salvage. Marine engineer JP Scott of Warners Bay was the successful bidder. He paid £601 for the salvage rights. He used the timber to build a house at Warners Bay.
After big storms when sand is removed from the wreck site the superstructure of the boat can still be seen today.
Click on the image below to read more about the SS Allenwood.
Birdie Beach, is in Munmorah State Conservation Area being bordered by the rugged cliffs of Wybung Head to the north and Budgewoi Peninsula to its south. Rarely busy, Birdie Beach is a great spot for surfing and snorkelling though its best known as a clothing-optional beach.
The original AI rendering was done in Chat GPT as seen in the image above. All the Grok Ai animated images of the SS Allenwood that follow have been created from the image above and before that of Kevin Rasmussen's model boat shown in the first comment below.
I asked that Grok Ai create a realistic portrayal of the model in a stormy sea. In some renditions I asked it to add voices to the rendered image but had to specifically ask that it use an Australian accent.
The arcade where I learned how to Dragon Punch and shoot zombies, both vital life skills. Now they have great sushi.
My Family me-Odin-JuJu-Kitten*Grant want to find us we are at Sturgis Island come hang out with us on Second Life
Once again here is my camera in it's current oufit. He sure knows how to accessorize. As pictured here I'm getting 3:1 macro ratio and about 2 inches from lens to subject. Since the last picture I posted of my setup I've changed my camera strap, added a flashlight to help with focusing, and spliced into my kenko tubes so I get full lens control of my reversed 50mm EF .
Oh, it weighs a bit over 5 pounds total. I can't hold it steady enough with one hand but it's really not terrible.
Next step is to see if I can get any more useful magnification from a third set of tubes and to test out a 28mm EF lens to see if it's sharp enough to be usable.
Signature: NTOgxgDNnK71Zyrvd8ABLK2KUFCbVZBnPlpwVWWbZUO0z8hVFLz2QCeL5Lj1l7ATU+3E7JbH498LfyKOtqt4w8dyI5e+IBPhpigf02wB2tgJd4XkKFJyA6ENLB/X2e+PCMjo6kZpavk6HPBt5qFcatD64A/fQ5o5Dh0M9PYf4Yvr1s+tdyF5CpaKEP3aY9cME9mosx7QuuE1DlbgEmnQoQ==
Copyright - All Rights Reserved - Black Diamond Images
Minimbah EA63 is a stylish 31 foot magnificently restored timber cruiser, originally built in Tuncurry, NSW in 1946 by John Wright & Son Shipyards.
On January 23rd 1946 Ernest Wright, then owner and manager of Wright shipyards died at age 67. It's unlikely he was involved with the actual building of the Minimbah.
It's possible but not certain, that the Minimbah was built as Wright Shipyards sought to transition to smaller boats in an effort to keep the shipyards viable at a time in history when larger wooden boats were being replaced by steel boats.
When John Wright established his sawmill and shipyards from 1875 in Tuncurry "Minimbah" was the original aboriginal name for Forster. Not long after his arrival on the 'North Shore', Forster being the ' South Shore', John Wright called the new village Tuncurry which in the Biripi language of the then aboriginal population meant 'plenty of fish'.
Today the name Minimbah is used to refer to the area between Tuncurry and Nabiac, west of the Wallamba River.
It's believed the Minimbah was initially based in Sydney, possibly in the Pittwater area but more research is necessary to establish those details. I'll add more details as they become known.
In the 1970's the Minimbah was sold and relocated to Lake Eildon in Victoria. After many years service the Minimbah sank on her mooring.
in 2006 Grant Ottaway and his father Kevin, a shipwright, drove up to Lake Eildon from Paynesville to inspect the sunken vessel and decided it was worthy of salvaging. Grant's father said at that time that the boat displayed some of the best craftsmanship he had ever seen in a vessel of this type.
After being salvaged from the waters of Lake Eildon, Minimbah was purchased by Grant and Kellie Ottaway and transported to Paynesville in the Gippsland Lakes where the couple carried out substantial and meticulous restoration work, completed between 2012 and 2014.
In February 2022 Minimbah EA63 is operational and moored in Paynesville, Victoria.
In January 2022 my wife and I decided to take a road trip down the south coast of NSW. That trip was extended when we decided to continue on into Victoria and on to Paynesville with the plan of viewing and photographing the Minimbah.
Once we decided on the extension to our trip, we rang Grant Ottaway only to find that our timing was unfortunate and that it was impossible for us to see the boat as it was in dry dock behind closed gates undergoing its annual maintenance and hull clean.
So unfortunately, we were unable see and photograph the historic cruiser. However, all was not lost as Grant Ottaway had previously emailed me these images.
I'll return to Paynesville in the near future to finally inspect, photograph and, hopefully take a trip on the water in the Minimbah.
HERE is a video of the Minimbah on the Gippsland Lakes.
For some years we had believed the last Wright Shipyards built boat still afloat was the US Army WT 85 (Protrude). It was built by Ernest Wright Shipyards in 1943 in Tuncurry, NSW but not actually launched until 24 July 1944.
That vessel was at Scotland Island in the Pittwater in Sydney's north undergoing renovation but was crapped in 2021 or 2022.
See more details HERE.
It was therefore with some surprise when doing a Google search of John Wright Shipyards, Grant Ottaway's Classic Boats of the Gippsland Lakes website came up with details of the Minimbah.
UPDATE 2026
After an earlier renovation by Grant Ottaway the Minimbah has recently once again been substantially renovated in 2025-26 by new owner Mark Whorlow and is still located at Paynesville in Victoria with no doubt a long life ahead.
It is possible other Wright Shipyards boats could still be out there so any leads are most welcome.
For the record the Minimbah was not the last boat launched from Tuncurry's John Wright and Co. Ltd. Shipyards. After Ernest Wright died in January 1946 the future of the yards was thrown into some doubt. Just before he died Ernest Wright had begun construction of a large wooden vessel locally known as the Santa Cruz. That vessel remained on its block's incomplete for 8 years with work being undertaken in various stages during that period while the future of the shipyards was being decided.
Ultimately John Wright Jnr, Ernest Wright's son, a career soldier in the Australian Army, agreed to leave the army and take over the management of the yards. He did so at a difficult time, when construction of larger wooden boats had become no longer financially viable.
The Santa Cruz, later named the Norfolk Whaler then Arcturus, was eventually completed and launched on the 16th September 1954, the same year Wright's electric sawmill burnt down, for the third time in its history. After Ernest’s death, work on the Santa Cruz was supervised by yards manager, Arthur Wedlock and foreman, Frank Avery.
The Santa Cruz was photographed after it was launched in Tuncurry on or around 30th November 1954 after which it went to Ballina for further fitting out before beginning its career as a whale chaser with the Norfolk Island Whaling Company. The full story of the Santa Cruz is available HERE
With the 99 year lease on the Tuncurry waterfront Wright Shipyards site due to expire the yards were finally closed down in 1958 and the site returned to its original condition as per the original conditions of the lease. In 1966 the Lands Department gazetted the former shipyards site as a park. It was officially named 'John Wright Park'.
Much of this work was carried out by Bruce Wright who for many years owned Wrights Shop which was located on Manning Street next door to the original location of John Wright House before it was moved to Wright land at the end of South St Tuncurry in 1982. John Wright House is still occupied in 2022, by the Bourke family, and remains the oldest continuously occupied home in the Manning Great Lakes Region.
This is a very nice image from Emma's prompt by the little-known Grok generator. A little unrealistic with the cow's head outside the dome of the flying saucer, but what the hell.