Fremantle Bucket Dredge (1894-1926)

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Image of bucket dredge Fremantle c.1894 (Department of Maritime History, Western Australian Museum)

Description

Steam Powered Bucket Dredge

Construction

Iron

Size

length 45.7m beam 8.8m depth 3.6m

Built

1894 for £20,000 by Simons and Co. of Glasgow, Scotland. Bucket ladder was 22m long with 32 buckets. New Hull was constructed at Arthur Head in 1924

Owner

Government of WA , Public Works Department

Sunk

1926 towed by tugs and sunk with explosives

Location

1km west from Stragglers Rocks

Latitude/Longitude

(-32.063350, 115.603833)

Sinking

In January 1936 Fremantle was sold to scrap metal merchant J.E. Hall of North Fremantle for £120. Hall intended to beach the Fremantle alongside the wreck of the Kwinana in Cockburn Sound and to proceed to cut up both vessels for the scrap iron. But he was unable to give the authorities the guarantee that the work would be completed within the stipulated time, so he removed the boilers, machinery and fittings at Victoria Quay and towed the hulk out to be scuttled near the Stragglers Rocks. The Fremantle played an important role in the construction of the Fremantle inner Harbour particularly in the early stages when access was prevented by the presence of a rocky bar across the entrance in 1896. The Fremantle continued to work in the harbour for many years. Around 1908 it went upstream to dredge channels in Perth waters.