ORION

Photographer Frederick Garner Wilkinson (1901-1975)

Date21 November 1935

Object number00041658

NameGlass plate negative

MediumEmulsion on glass

Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection

Terms

DescriptionThe Orient Line passenger liner ORION was photographed at No 8 Woolloomooloo Bay, Sydney on Thursday 21 November 1935. The ORION arrived from London on her maiden voyage on Thursday 7 November 1935 and left for Brisbane at 4am on Sunday 10 November 1935, returning on the 15 November 1935. This image was captured at around 12.55pm from a ferry travelling near the Domain Baths.
HistoryORION was a passenger ship of the Orient Steam Navigation Company that was launched in 1935 and built by Vickers-Armstrong Ltd. The 23,371 ton vessel left on its maiden voyage from London to Brisbane, Australia on 28 September 1935. Its design introduced a new emphases in Australian passenger ships and when launched was the largest ship to be built for the Orient Line. The vessel travelled on the Australian passenger run making stops at Gibraltar, Toulon, Palma, Naples, Port Said, Suez, Aden and Colombo.

In 1939 ORION was refitted for use as a troop transport during World War II. The ship suffered damage from some minor attacks during its five year war service. In 1946 it was handed back to the Orient Line to resume passenger runs and was refitted to hold more passengers, and the tonnage increased to 23,696. In 1963 it was returned to England and withdraw from operation, becoming a hotel exhibition ship in Germany before being scrapped in 1963.
SignificanceThis photograph is part of the F G Wilkinson Photograph Collection, comprising more than 700 glass plate negatives of ships in Sydney Harbour between 1919 and 1936. The collection provides an extensive and well-documented coverage of the changing styles of shipping in the port of Sydney before the gradual decline of the coastal trade, and in a period which was probably the peak reached by commercial shipping in Australia. The backgrounds also reveal the changing face of the city and harbour foreshores.