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.
Melbourne is the mainland port of the ferry, with the ferry operating out of a terminal at Station Pier in Port Melbourne.
Loading of the Spirit of Tasmania for the overnight voyage starts in the afternoon, with dozens of semi-trailer loads of freight being loaded onboard the vessel.
The ferry arrives bow first into the berth, with vehicle access to the cargo decks via two sets of ramps – each at a different height.
Deck 5 on the upper level is loaded via a door in the forward deck.
Deck 3 on the lower level is loaded via a pair of doors in the bow, located just above the waterline.
Altogether there are five vehicle decks on the Spirit of Tasmania:
- Deck 1 and 2 are single ended, and are only accessible via a ramp at the front of deck 3.
- Deck 3 has the highest clearance and runs the length of the ship.
- Deck 4 doesn’t appear to exist.
- Deck 5 runs the length of the vessel, but has restricted clearances along the centre lanes.
- Deck 6 is a mezzanine level above deck 5.
Semi-trailers are the first to be loaded into the cargo hold.
Truck drivers drop off their trailers in the freight yard, with specialised ‘roro tractors’ being used to load them into the confined space of the cargo decks.
The passenger terminal is located next to the ferry, and is located over two levels.
Passengers bringing their cars along for the trip are required to pass a security inspection on arrival at Station Pier.
They are then sent to the far end of the pier to queue for boarding.
The stern of the Spirit of Tasmania has multiple loading ramps, which are used to unload the vessel at the Tasmanian end of the voyage.
As for passengers on foot,they much a much less salubrious entry to the ship – this austere looking doorway located just above the waterline near the stern.
Bonus footage
Some footage from YouTube.
First off, arriving at Station Pier in Melbourne and being loaded into deck 2, followed by driving off at the Devonport end.
And the view from the upper deck – being loaded onto deck 5 at the Melbourne end of the voyage:
And finally – dry docked in Sydney.
And another one
Turns out not all freight is loaded onto the Spirit of Tasmania by roro tractors – it appears that some owner-drivers take their own truck across the water to Tasmania, rather than just dropoff the trailer at the terminal.
@natz_adv driving onto the spirit of Tasmania #fypシ #foryoupage #tiktoktruckers #trucking #truckinglife #manthings #satisfying #bluecollar ♬ original sound – Nathan Franklin
So they can just drive off at the other end.
@natz_adv Reply to @ragdollmum hope that answers your question #bluecollar #satisfying #truckinglife #trucking #tiktoktruckers #foryoupage #foryoupage ♬ original sound – Nathan Franklin
Further reading
- Checking in procedures at the Spirit of Tasmania website
- Loading the Queenscliff-Sorrento car ferry
I still remember fairstar the fun ship – and the TV jingle
A TV commercial from 1992:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yxf4Z1ApoL8
And more about the ship:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TSS_Fairstar
That’s not the TV commercial with the jingle. The jingle goes ‘Fairstar the fun ship, there is so much fun on the one ship!’ A google and youtube search fails to locate the jingle. Does anyone have an old VHS tape from the early 1990s with the jingle they can upload to youtube?
The loading procedures are pretty bad. In Melbourne you get a thingo to hang on your mirror only for them to ask for it back about 5 minutes later… Boarding involves sitting in your car for 2 hours(so do a maccas run before hand). When the right hand lane and left hand lane start to move as they are the first on, people in the middle lanes decide ‘hey if they’re going I’m going’.
The other thing that seriously needs to be redesigned is the car decks. It seems they have been designed for the original mini. It is really really hard to get in or out if you are in the middle lane of cars or even on the outside because the space between your car and the car next to you is so small.
Anyone else feel the same?
You would think that with current TT Line ferry fleet having been in service for over a decade, they would have refined the boarding process to be as efficient as possible.
Loading the Queenscliff-Sorrento car ferry seems to be a much smoother process – through they don’t require the convoluted maritime security processes in place at Station Pier:
http://wongm.com/2013/02/loading-the-queenscliff-sorrento-car-ferry/
Access to Garage G1 and G2 isn’t from the front of the ship, it is in the middle. If you enter at the bow you drive all the way to the stern, turn around and then drive back the other side to get to the ramp. That is shown in the first bonus video, u-turn at 2:14, down ramp at 2:24.
Something I find interesting about Garage G6 is that it can be hosted up to allow for more tall vehicles on G5. In the second video at 1:27 you can see that G6 on the left is raised, but G6 on the right is down with a ramp up to it.
And there is a ramp between G3 and G5, it is what was used before that added the second higher ramps at both Melbourne and Devonport.
Thanks for that correction Stephen – I’m guessing that arrangement enables the below deck area to be used most efficiently, with the engine room at the bow.
The additional ramps between decks and the movable mezzanine on deck 6 are interesting – it would be quite the labyrinth. Good thing passengers aren’t allowed to go wandering around the car decks during the voyage!
After going through security check at Melboune we went through another similar check after arriving in Devonport which was time consuming and a waste of money to us.
One assumes that we might have picked up some contraband in Bass Strait from a helicopter or pirate ship! LOL
Was it a quarantine check – Tasmania does have their own list of banned imports:
http://www.quarantinedomestic.gov.au/destination-tasmania.html
If so, in the case of southbound voyages on the the Spirit of Tasmania it might make sense to combine the security check on boarding with the Tasmanian quarantine check.
[…] down at Port Melbourne I found trucks being loaded onto the Spirit of Tasmania for the voyage that night. It moved to Geelong in October […]