Reminiscence: The last voyage of MV Bulolo
03 February 2011
BY TERRY EDWINSMITH
WITHIN A FEW MONTHS of my arrival at Taurama Barracks near Port Moresby in 1967, as part of Australia’s commitment to educate Pacific Islands Regiment servicemen, Christmas vacation was imminent and what better way to see the country as a new arrival than to go on a cruise around TPNG’s coastline.
Advertisements in the South Pacific Post invited readers to make a passage on the Burns Philp & Co Ltd-owned MV Bulolo for a New Year’s Eve trip from Port Moresby to Madang via Samarai and Lae and then on to Rabaul before returning to Port Moresby.
The voyage had originated in Sydney before proceeding to Brisbane and Port Moresby as part of Burn Philp’s mail steamer service, run on behalf of the Australian government, to islands in the Pacific.
MV Bulolo was built in Glasgow in 1938 and commenced trade between Australia and PNG ports the same year as a cargo-passenger ship making about eight voyages a year. When World War II intervened, the ship was converted to an armed merchant cruiser boasting seven six-inch guns, two anti-aircraft guns as well as depth charges and small arms.
HMAS Bulolo commenced convoy escort duties to the United Kingdom and the next two years were spent almost entirely in the Atlantic Ocean. She was then converted to a Landing Ship Headquarters, employing extensive communications equipment, and she saw service in North Africa as the flag ship of Commodore Douglas Pennant, Naval Commander of Force G.
On Empire Day, 24 May 1944, King George VI visited the ship to review the assault craft of Force G from her bridge as preparations for the D-Day landings on the Normandy coast were made.
Bulolo returned to South East Asia in 1945 as a headquarters ship for reoccupation duties. The ship’s battle honours were impressive and many Burns Philp merchant navy personnel remained with her throughout the war.
She recommenced civilian cargo-passenger duties in 1948 and the mail steamer service became a vital link between Australia and its Pacific territories. The regular sailings brought news, passengers, parcels, presents and social activity at island ports.
All manner of people came to the wharf to witness the comings and goings, unloading machinery, loading copra, as Bulolo made her contribution to commerce.
After Christmas in 1967, I embarked on the ship, which was flying the red, white and blue tri colour Burns Philp flag with a black and purple scotch thistle emblem super imposed on the central white colour. In charge was Captain Brett Hilder, newly married in Brisbane prior to the voyage and as famous as his ship.
I didn’t know it, but this was to be the Bulolo’s last voyage.
Read Terry Edwinsmith’s full tribute here: The last voyage of MV Bulolo
Hi, my husband Alan Cowell was 9 years old in 1965, his father Horrie Cowell worked for the Dept of Civil Aviation, they lived in Port Moresby etc, they also had a voyage on the the Bulolo back to Australia.
Posted by: Barb Cowell | 19 September 2024 at 02:14 PM
I signed twice onto TSMV Bulolo as a ship steward in the late 1950's and again in the early 1960's.
It was a most enjoyable ship to work on, with its exciting itinerary traveling from Sydney to Brisbane then through the Coral Sea and around the Pacific island ports of Port Moresby, Madang, Samarai, Lae and Rabaul, back to Port Moresby then back to Brisbane and on to its home berth at Burns Philp Wharf in Sydney Harbour. A round trip of about two weeks.
Back in Sydney to unload cargo and passengers, then a replenishment period preparing for new passengers, loading fresh supplies, cargo and passengers for about two weeks, then off again on its Island odyssey run. It was a most enjoyable journey,
In my life storybook, Erskineville to the Bush, printed by Venture Publishing in the USA, I tell of the unfortunate time I fell overboard in the Coral Sea and my rescue, to be faced with a severe dressing down by the ship's captain, Bill Wilding. My poem, Man Overboard, also tells this story.
My book is a composite of many nostalgic and memorable instants in my adventurous, sometimes reckless, youth.
Posted by: Stephen (Steve) Langley | 22 November 2023 at 12:06 PM
From Trove (National Library of Australia)
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/91236552?
Search Fails To Find Man In Sea
SYDNEY, Wednesday - The 70-mile wide air and sea search for a man who today fell overboard from the Burns Philp steamer,
Bulolo, was abandoned tonight.
The search, one of the biggest ever organised, was carried out by 30 craft from the Port Macquarie fishing fleet and three aircraft.
The man, whose name will not be released until next-of-kin have been informed, fell overboard early today about four miles off
the coast between Crowdy Head and Jacking Point south of Port Macquarie.
Posted by: Lindsay F Bond | 26 January 2023 at 08:40 PM
Hullo - I have a newspaper cutting that has no date attached, and am wondering if you have come across this incident in your research.
The article reads:
___________
Crewman Lost from Tourist Ship
Brisbane: Wednesday.
A crew attendant, Leslie Clancy, disappeared off the tourist liner, the Bulolo, three miles off the NSW coast early today.
After a fruitless four hours and a half search, the liner abandoned efforts to find him and steamed on for Brisbane.
It is believed Clancy, whose mother lives in Paradise Street, Banyo, Brisbane, was last seen about 4.30 am today.
He was reported missing about 7am and the liner began immediately to search for him.
The Bulolo left Sydney yesterday for Brisbane and New Guinea, carrying 120 passengers.
___________
At the top of the article cutting 'THE A...' is written. I'm not sure what newspapers circulated in Brisbane. I've searched Trove but have found nothing.
I found this cutting 20 years ago in my father's possessions after his death. I've done extensive work in recent times on my Clancy family but have found no Leslie.
_________
The newspaper could have been The Age or, more likely I think, The Argus.
The Pacific Islands Monthly of October 1957 mentioned this tragic incident which seems to have occurred on 4 September 1957.
Trove has the extract from PIM here:
https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-320273875/view?sectionId=nla.obj-364242532&partId=nla.obj-320330612#page/n73/mode/1up
If there is a reader who has any further information about this incident or about Leslie Clancy, I invite you to share it with Kathleen - KJ
Posted by: Kathleen van Barneveld (nee Clancy) | 26 January 2023 at 01:57 PM
I travelled from Sydney to Brisbane aboard Bulolo in 1947.
The exact date of travel is not known but I have a photograph which shows that we, my mother, myself and three siblings, were in Dalby, Qld, on 25th June 1947.
The Aus Maritime Museum think that I have the wrong ship or the wrong date. My parents knew what ship we were on so I disagree. Perhaps Bulolo carried passengers on it’s way to the refit?
I would appreciate any thoughts or information. I also have an undated photograph of the family on board prior to departure.
An amazing ship!
Posted by: Diane Fitton | 18 January 2023 at 01:55 PM
My family (Waller) returned to Australia from three years living in Wewak where my father worked then for the Department of Civil Aviation on the Bulolo.
The year was 1966, the year before she was decommissioned.
As a 10-year old this was an extremely exciting adventure. I still remember the sounds, smells and excitement of a very rare opportunity that could never be repeated in this day and age.
I look back on this now understanding the history of the special ship and realise I am in a rare breed of people that got to do this thanks to my father (John Waller) and his sense of adventure. RIP.
Posted by: Mark Waller | 03 January 2022 at 09:47 PM
Reading Terry's article has bought back so many fond memories of our experience on MV Bulolo, on which we sailed from Brisbane to Port Moresby in mid-1963.
Over Christmas 1964, my mother, two brothers and I enjoyed the same cruise as Terry to Lae, Madang and Rabaul.
When we reached Lae, my mother had organised for us to fly to Wau, where I had been born in 1956. I clearly recall picturesque Madang harbour and Rabaul, also a special place as this was where my older brother was born in 1953.
Shortly after returning to Port Moresby from that cruise, we flew to Australia to resume our lives as a family, finally settling in Sydney.
Our time in New Guinea is a part of my life that I hold dear and reading this article has reminded me of how precious that time was: attending school, making friends. Life in PNG was very different to living in Australia.
Although I was born in New Guinea to Australian parents and 'still call Australia home', I realise how lucky I was to have had the experience of living in another country as a child.
Thank you Terry for bringing back such wonderful memories.
Posted by: Katherine Best | 29 August 2021 at 08:50 AM
I have found some old black and white photos of my uncle leaving Brisbane on the Bulolo in December 1960, bound for PNG. Would the group be interested to have them?
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Hi Catherine - If there is a story (doesn't have to be long) to go with them, we'd be delighted. Would you be sending scans or hard copies? KJ
Posted by: Catherine Mahoney | 07 March 2021 at 10:45 AM
Is it possible to access passenger lists for voyages of the Bulolo in the 1960s?
Posted by: John Egerton | 15 September 2020 at 10:38 AM
Hi there all, I was born in England in 1939. With my parents and my two sisters, I travelled to Sydney on the MV Bulolo after its post-war refit.
Being eight years at the time I was most intrigued by all the workings and history of the vessel. I became most friendly with the Scots chief engineer. My parents often commented on my developing Scots accent.
We travelled by the Mediterranean and Suez Canal, calling in Port Said and Suez. The most memorable time of the voyage was encountering two cyclones in the Indian Ocean. How the ship survived is a miracle.
We called in at Fremantle on the way to Sydney where we disembarked.
Posted by: A J (Tony) Hagen | 03 June 2020 at 09:17 AM
I was so excited to see this great story of the Bulolo's last trip. I have had the joy of making two voyages on this wonderful ship.
The first in 1954 travelling from Brisbane to Rabaul (on which I had my eighth birthday), and the second in 1956 when we returned to Brisbane for leave.
I have great memories. The first trip was very rough as we went through the edge of a cyclone between Moresby and Samarai, the second was magically calm.
Incidentally, my father, Carl Gurney, was a small ships master in New Guinea waters for about 40 years. Memories from great times past.
Posted by: Graeme Gurney | 29 January 2014 at 01:34 PM
The photo shown is definitely not the TSMV Bulolo.
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You're right, Peter. Now fixed - KJ
Posted by: Peter Lyne | 14 May 2011 at 08:28 AM
This article made me remember my own trip on the Bulolo from Sydney to Port Moresby. I enjoyed the detail and the nostalgia - a fitting tribute to the adventurous life of a great ship.
Posted by: Di Harwood | 08 February 2011 at 08:26 AM