Australia’s oldest surviving colonial-era boat will become a centrepiece at the Australian National Maritime Museum after spending more than a century buried beneath Barangaroo.
Workers discovered the nine-metre vessel in 2018 during excavation works for the Sydney Metro. Layers of tidal sand, wharves and industrial development had hidden it beneath the harbourfront as the area gradually changed over time.
Archaeologists quickly recognised the scale of the find, identifying it as the oldest known colonial-era boat of its kind in Australia, now known as the ‘Barangaroo Boat’.
A glimpse into early harbour life
Crafted from locally sourced Sydney Blue Gum, Stringybark and Spotted Gum, the boat offers a rare window into early 19th-century boatbuilding. Builders constructed its hull using the “clinker” technique, fastening overlapping timber planks together to create the small, hard-working vessels commonly used at the time.
Experts believe the boat transported goods across Sydney Harbour and along the Parramatta River, when waterways formed the backbone of the colony’s economy.
Since its discovery, the vessel has undergone years of detailed conservation. Carefully dismantled into 294 individual timber pieces, it was transported in a refrigerated container to prevent further degradation.
Conservators treated each piece with Polyethylene Glycol, a stabilising agent used to preserve major international shipwrecks including the Mary Rose, Bremen Cog, Batavia and Vasa. They gradually saturated the timbers in the solution over 18 months before snap-freezing them and sending them to Victoria for specialist freeze-drying.
Preparing for permanent display in NSW
Now in the care of the Australian National Maritime Museum, work is underway to reassemble and prepare the vessel for public display—bringing a long-hidden piece of Sydney’s maritime past back into view.
The National Trust of Australia (NSW) recognised the exceptional conservation efforts behind the Barangaroo Boat project with a Heritage Award in the Objects category following its seven-year restoration project.
NSW Minister for Transport John Graham said the discovery was a fitting by-product of one of the city’s most ambitious infrastructure projects. “Sydney Metro is the most modern form of transport in Sydney, and it is a nice bit of symmetry that it was construction of the metro line that unearthed the nation’s oldest colonial era boat,” he said.
“This is a piece of Australian history we are determined to protect for many more centuries to come. “I want to thank those who carefully excavated the boat, preserved it and the Australian National Maritime Museum for giving it a permanent home so generations to come can get a unique look at what was life on Sydney Harbour in the early 1800s.”
While the museum has yet to confirm a display date, the vessel will eventually join its broader collection tracing Australia’s deep relationship with the sea—from First Nations watercraft to modern maritime engineering.
