Did you know the world’s first purpose-built container ship was built in Newcastle?

MV Kooringa

MV Kooringa was built by Australian company Associated Steamships in partnership with McIlwraith, McEacharn & Co and commissioned in May 1964. It was built at the New South Wales State Dockyard in Newcastle as a “custom-designed cellular container ship to handle 20-ton containers”.

The 6,750-ton ship was designed to handle 10,000 tons of containerised cargo in 36 hours by being loaded and unloaded simultaneously. It entered the Melbourne-Fremantle trade in 1964, arriving at Fremantle Harbour on 19 June that year. Two more purpose-built container ships, MV Kanimbla and MV Manoora joined the regular service in 1969, and the three ships continued to operate until 1975 when competition from rail freight made the service non-viable.

The ship was named after the now-closed mining town of Kooringa in South Australia.

MV Kooringa was scrapped in 1992.