From ship to shore

Pilot Vessel Mavis III

The Australian National Maritime Museum’s grant and internship program, the Maritime Museums of Australia Project Support Scheme (MMAPSS), offers funding and assistance to regional museums and organisations. Last year the Queenscliffe Maritime Museum in Victoria received support to develop a Vessel Management Plan for its recently acquired pilot boat, Mavis III. By Carolyn McKinnon.

PV Mavis III arrives, 19 March 2020. All images courtesy Queenscliffe Maritime Museum

The character of Queenscliff is shaped by its early-19th-century maritime connections and its location near the entrance to Port Phillip from Bass Strait

01 Queenscliffe Maritime Museum’s Administration Manager John Sisley (left) and John Micalleff, volunteer Collection Manager (right), during a visit from Jeff Hodgson (centre) of the Australian National Maritime Museum.

02 PV Mavis III with (left to right) Queenscliffe Maritime Museum members Captain Dean Zanoni, Jack Beazley and Daniel Cayzer. 01

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For more information about the Maritime Museums of Australia Project Support Scheme (MMAPSS), or to apply for a grant or internship, see sea.museum/grants, phone the coordinator on 02 9298 3743 or email mmapss@sea.museum

QUEENSCLIFF IS A SMALL VICTORIAN coastal town popular as a holiday hotspot, but it is also a town whose community is proud of its vital contribution to the safety of Victoria’s maritime industry for more than 180 years. Queenscliffe Maritime Museum Inc has been helping to preserve this legacy and history since 1986, and last year its Committee of Management welcomed to its collection the pilot vessel Mavis III, which was donated by the Port Phillip Sea Pilots service.1 The history of the pilot service is a key platform of the museum’s collection. Conserving the vessel for display is a new challenge for the maritime museum volunteers, and one that is being supported with expert advice from the Australian National Maritime Museum to develop a Vessel Management Plan (VMP). Three days after PV Mavis III was craned onto the site in March 2020, Australia and our museums went into the first Covid-19 lockdown. When borders opened between Victoria and New South Wales in May this year, Jeff Hodgson, Assistant Fleet Manager from the Australian National Maritime Museum, was finally able to make a site visit to assess the vessel and begin the plan. This will provide the blueprint to guide the volunteers in their vision for conserving Mavis III. In a town with long maritime traditions, the Queenscliffe Maritime Museum is lucky to have among its members its vice-president, Captain Dean Zanoni, a current sea pilot descended from a Queenscliff fishing family, who is passionate about introducing children to the pilot vessel and his maritime heritage. Jack Beazley, a life member of the museum, was shipwright for the Port Phillip Sea Pilots for 50 years, and Daniel Cayzer, from Cayzer Boats, is a fourth-generation Queenscliff boatbuilder. Their advice and assistance on the project will help to continue Queenscliff’s maritime traditions. The character of Queenscliff is shaped by its early-19thcentury maritime connections and its location near the entrance to Port Phillip from Bass Strait. Migration and the gold rush increased shipping to Victoria’s ports of Melbourne and Geelong during the 1840s and 50s. The dangers of entering the bay, and navigating the ‘Rip’ into Port Phillip, grew. In response, the first pilot service began with George Tobin in 1839, launching whaleboats from Queenscliff’s shore. Lighthouses were built to provide safe navigation lines and tide information, and the pilots and local fishermen manned the first lifeboat rescue service in the town.

Today, two pilot services operate 24-hour pilotage through the Heads, bringing some of the largest container ships into Melbourne. A vessel traffic service continues to watch from Point Lonsdale lighthouse; vehicle and passenger ferries link Sorrento and Queenscliff across the bay; and boatbuilding and maintenance continue at Queenscliff Harbour. The Port Phillip Sea Pilots operate their pilot station from the same beach as the first pilot did 182 years ago. The Port Phillip Sea Pilots are the longest continuous sea pilot service in Victoria and when they retired the cruising pilot station Wyuna in the 1970s, a new shoreto-ship service began with fast launches, reducing pilot transfer times. PV Mavis III was built in 1994 and served 26 years at the Heads. The bare hull, built by Chivers Marine in Western Australia, was completely fitted out in the Queenscliff workshops of the pilot service to customise it to the conditions of the Rip and Bass Strait. The Queenscliffe Maritime Museum displays artefacts from the pilot services, including the Wyuna wooden workboat, an extract of the logbook of the Mavis (1875) sailing pilot vessel, a model of The Rip pilot vessel, and video and oral histories from pilots and launch masters. With PV Mavis III joining the collection, the volunteers and staff are keen to interpret the ‘ride through the Rip’ experience of pilots transferring through the Heads to the ships, with visitors boarding the vessel and enjoying audio-visual presentations.

Carolyn McKinnon is the secretary of the Queenscliffe Maritime Museum.

For more information, please contact maritimequeenscliffe.org.au/ The Queenscliffe Maritime Museum was previously profiled in Signals No 106 (March 2014).

1 There are two correct spellings: Queenscliff (the town) and Queenscliffe (the borough).