Like West Auckland’s answer to Noah’s ark, the Toroa ferry has been perched by the Lincoln Rd off-ramp for the past 24 years.
The Toroa was the last of Auckland’s steam ferries. It’s believed in its hey-day it ferried more than 70 million passengers around the Waitematā harbour and to the inner islands of the Hauraki gulf
Peter McCurdy, president of the Toroa Preservation Society, remembered being a passenger on the boat when he first moved to Auckland.
“The first time I was on this one was a trip to Islington bay, Rangitoto and Mototapu,” he said.
These days the only commuters the Toroa sees were the ones driving along the Northwestern Motorway.
But the Toroa Preservation Society were determined to change that, painstakingly restoring the old boat.
“The usual gang is 10 on site and there’s another eight or nine who come on special occasions or when they haven’t got a clash” McCurdy said.
The boat, which turned 100 this year, had clearly seen better days. It was retired from service in the 1980s and almost ended up as landfill at Westhaven.
Early restoration efforts suffered a huge setback when the Toroa sunk off Birkenhead wharf in 1998. It was a month before she could be refloated causing widespread damage
The planks on the hull would be replaced using a mixture of old Kauri and new macrocarpa, McCurdy said.
“We had some wonderful trees from Henderson, park that suffered from the cyclone and the Council has donated those. So we we’ve been milling those for for new planking.”
But before the outside could be done, the inside needed to be finished.
Finding parts for a hundred-year-old boat meant the Preservation Society needed to be resourceful.
Brand new steel framing was custom made in the UK, while other parts had been scavenged from other vessels including former Navy frigates The Wellington and The Canterbury.
Some components had stood the test of time though, including the Toroa’s engine.
Robert Brown, another member of the society, keeps the engine running regularly to prevent it from seizing up.
“It was dismantled after the boat sunk at Birkenhead Wharf and cleaned… and it it had been worked on for a long time at Birkenhead wharf. The pistons aren’t there at the moment, it just needs a couple of rings and it it’s all there”
Like all the ferries of it’s time, the Toroa was steam powered, but once it was back on the water its boiler would no longer be heated by burning coal.
“Because of all the carbon pollution, we’ve done a trial on compressed wood waste from an outdoor factory. It’s squeezed out in a tube about 60 to 70mms in diameter and broken into short lengths, and it burns really hot. You just have to stoke carefully and there’s not too much smoke.
“But it’s carbon neutral. The tree absorbs it, and then we burn it. It’s not like coal.” Brown said.
McCurdy estimated they could have the boat back on the water in five years, but that’s only if they could get the $5 million they needed.
“The longer it takes, the more that sum increases,” McCurdy said, “fundraising has become much, much more difficult for everybody, really. In recent years.”
The boat was open for tours as part of the Auckland Heritage festival. They would run for three consecutive Sundays, starting on September 21. RNZ.
