The William the Fourth was an achievement of colonial enterprise that focused the eyes of the world on the Hunter.
Advance Australia
Back in the Hunter’s agricultural heyday of the 1830s and 40s, boats plied the river highways of the Hunter Valley transporting passengers, produce and post. Shipping notices made the news and locals would flock down to collect mail and goods while new arrivals disembarked to begin the next adventurous chapter of their colonial lives.
The Hunter Valley was expanding exponentially as an important centre of the colony. The crops grown on these alluvial plains fed the growing population in Sydney, coal-fuelled the city’s furnaces and wool, a substantial part of the Australian economy, was shipped around the world. The Hunter’s network of rivers connected towns from the most northern and western parts of the fledgling colony to the coast and from there to Sydney. This made the region an important transport hub.
But these were still the early days of the colony. European settlement was less than 50 years old. And although there was a well established penal colony in Newcastle, free settlement in the Hunter and Port Stephens was only opened in the 1820s.
Governor Macquarie was the first to really believe in the permanency of the colony. Under his governorship, the underclass (convicts and lower class free settlers) were encouraged to become landowners and merchants. An opportunity most would never have dreamed possible.
Prosperity came quickly and the 1830s were boom years for the Hunter. People started pouring in. With a population of 3000, Maitland was the second largest town in NSW while Newcastle ran a close third. The position on the Hunter River, surrounded by rich farmland, timbered forests and coal seams made the region a drawcard.
However, turning Australia from a penal colony reliant on Mother England to a self-sufficient nation would require ingenuity, enterprise, and above all, self-belief.
The country became swept up in a growing movement of nationalism. The first generation of Australian-born European children was coming of age. They had a pride in their unique identity and a desire to succeed. They sought to “Advance Australia” in the eyes of the world with home-grown ‘Australian’ products and services.
An obvious industry was transportation. The growing colony lacked infrastructure and vehicles. Even relatively short distances today would have felt extremely isolating and transportation was essential if the colony was to survive and thrive internationally.
William the Fourth was to be a significant ‘first’ in Australia’s transport revolution.
The Original, The Replica and the Restoration
1832 - The Original
Built in 1831-2 and named after the reigning British monarch (1830-1837), the William the Fourth was the first Australian-built coastal steamship and the first of many that would be built at Marshall & Lowe’s Deptford Yards on the Williams River at Clarence Town.
“My business leading me from Maitland to Port Stephens, curiosity conducted me to the spot where the William the Fourth is building, when to my surprise, I saw, not a puny boat only fit for fresh water, but a noble vessel capable of steaming the roughest seas.” ~ To the Editor, Sydney Gazette & NSW Advertiser 24 September, 1831
In the era of “Advance Australia”, much was made in the media about the Australian-built vessel and how it would raise the colony’s esteem in the eyes of the British. Progress of the build was keenly followed and several hundred spectators attended the launch in November 1831 where it took its maiden voyage, under sail, to Sydney to be fitted with its engine.
The William the Fourth was a schooner rigged, 53 ton wooden paddle steamer made of local timber with an imported steam engine that was modified and fitted locally. The coal-fuelled engine could run between 13 and 20hp and averaged 8 knots. At 80 feet in length (later extended to 106’) with separate male and female cabins, the steamer was able to carry passengers in comfort along with cargo. The vessel was commissioned by ex-convict turned entrepreneur Joseph Grose, who had heard about the success of steamboats overseas and saw the obvious opportunities of it in Australia. He wanted a boat that could ply both ocean and river. And the Australian made vessel delivered admirably.
On 16 February 1832 William the Fourth steamed from Sydney to Newcastle arriving the next day in a very acceptable 14-hour trip. The boat immediately began its regular services up and down the rivers of the Hunter with occasional ocean trips to Sydney, Brisbane Waters and Port Macquarie.
In 1836, William the Fourth was sold to New Hunter Steam Packet Association and ran regular trips to Port Macquarie. The timber-getting area was newly opened up to free settlers and many people took the steamer to their new homes. In the 1840s, she began a dairy transport run between Jarvis Bay and Sydney. The 'Billy' continued to ply the east coast of Australia until 1853, when she was sold again, this time relocating to China and was last heard of in Japan in the 1860s.
1988 - The Replica
In 1985, after years of research, work began on building a replica William the Fourth as part of the Australian Bicentennial celebrations.
An important heritage aspect of the vessel came from it being the first locally built steamship, crafted from local timbers and built on local shores. So the replica was also built with local timbers on the banks of the Williams River at Raymond Terrace, several miles downstream from Lowe & Marshall’s original dockyards at Clarence Town.
However, the original steam engine was not ‘Australian made’, it was sent from Liverpool and fitted to the ship in Sydney. The lack of detailed technical drawings of the engine led to many hours of research before work could even start on reconstructing this important piece of heritage equipment.
Pieced painstakingly together by volunteers, the replica vessel was launched by Prime Minister Bob Hawke’s wife, Hazel, on 26th September 1987. Just as with the original over 150 years before, hundreds of onlookers watched William the Fourth slide down the slips into the Williams River.
For the next 14 years, the replica operated on Newcastle Harbour using the steam engine and side paddles to ferry tourists.
Building The Replica 1985-1987 (photos are from volunteer FM Cazaubon's collection)
2018 - The Restoration of the Replica
Having spent a decade out of the water, William the Fourth was located in such poor condition there was talk of the vessel being scrapped. Instead, William the Fourth Inc was formed and, with funding from Newcastle Council and other local donors, restoration began.
After several years of work and fundraising, William the Fourth was again returned to the water in 2018 as a working replica.
The boat, rigged for sail and with motorised paddles, still heads out once a month carrying passengers and is open for dockside viewing other weekends. Visitors and Passengers can walk on the wide wood decks or pass their time in the comfort of the restored lounge where historic photographs and artefacts of both restoration projects decorate the walls. Down in the engine room, the steam engine and boiler are still in place and enthusiasts can go below decks to view it.
Sadly, due to deterioration, the steam engine is non-functioning. Instead, the vessel relies on a twin 160kw diesel engine. It might be seen as inauthentic that Australia's first steamboat is no longer steam-powered, but there are many more interesting elements to the boat than that.
For almost 20 years the William the Fourth travelled the river and coastal waters of the Hunter, transporting passengers, cargo and correspondence. Built locally of local timbers and fuelled on local coal in an era of Advance Australia it is fitting that this vessel was chosen as a Bicentennial project to celebrate European settlers pride of nationhood, ingenuity and enterprise.
The Billy also provides us with a window to our past. It speaks of a time, before rail and roads, where rivers connected towns and water was the most reliable route. It gives us insight into the expanding commercialisation of the Hunter region and the industries that would continue to be a mainstay of the area: timber, coal, agriculture and shipbuilding.
HH You can visit William the Fourth on weekends at Newcastle’s Honeysuckle precinct, near the Maritime Centre. Every 4th Sunday of the month the boat takes passengers on cruises of Newcastle Harbour (check COVID rules).