The South Steyne Floating Restaurant

South Steyne floating restaurant, Darling Harbour, Sydney

The South Steyne is one of Sydney’s old ferries. We passed it while walking through Darling Harbour on our recent holiday in Sydney. It is permanently moored there now and is used as a floating restaurant and function centre. It has a long an interesting history. The following is taken from its website:

The S.S. South Steyne is a 224′ (70 metre)
long steamship making it the world’s largest operational steam ferry. Built in Leith, Scotland for the Port Jackson and Manly Steamship Company, the South Steyne was launched on April 1st, 1938 and on July 7th 1938, it steamed the 22,000 kilometres to Australia arriving on September 19th the same year. The South Steyne has been an icon of Sydney since 1938. As the famous Manly ferry, it crossed between Circular Quay and Manly over 100,000 times over its 36 years, carrying well in excess of 92 million passengers.

You can read more about this ferry on its website here.