Engineering

Bridges, dams and a whole lot more big things: and the stories behind them.

Loading the Spirit of Tasmania

The Spirit of Tasmania is a roll-on/roll-off ferry that carries road vehicles as well as passengers between the island state of Tasmania and the rest of Australia. Two vessels operate the service across Bass Strait – MV Spirit of Tasmania I and MV Spirit of Tasmania II. So how are cars loaded onto it?

Remembering the other Queenscliff-Sorrento ferry

I’ve previous written about the history of the Queenscliff-Sorrento car ferry, but today I’m looking at a different ferry service that plied the same route – the passenger ferry that stopped off at Portsea on the way across Port Phillip Bay.

Postcard featuring Sorrento - Portsea - Queenscliff ferry 'J.J. Farnsworth'

How Australia used to pay for infrastructure

With the 2013 Victorian and Federal budgets having been released in the past week, the spotlight is on funding major infrastructure projects across Australia. So how does the government pay for the big infrastructure projects we need to avoid choking on our own growth? And how did we do it in the old days?

"You have two weeks to leave your mark on Melbourne, forever"

Exploring Ford’s former chassis plant

Geelong is a city that was built on manufacturing, and the Ford factory has been a large part of it since it commenced operations in 1925. But what happens when one of those factories closes?

Entire factory now empty

Loading the Queenscliff-Sorrento car ferry

A while back I wrote about the history of the Queenscliff – Sorrento car ferry and the two very similar vessels that are used on the service – MV Queenscliff and MV Sorrento. So how do they get such a massive ferry into the berth and loaded up with around 80 car during a 20 minute turnaround?

Empty car deck of the MV Sorrento