Cundletown and Lower Manning Historical Society and Cundletown Museum will receive an 'in kind' grant towards the restoration of the cream/milk boat Sunlight, originally built in 1933.
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The grant has come from the Maritime Museums of Australia Project Support Scheme.
The scope of the project is to do conservation work on the vessel to bring it back to its original condition, as much is is possible, aided by photos and information provided by workers who had worked at the Lower Manning Dairy Co-Op.
The work will be supervised by ship right Graham Steber and will be undertaken when monies can be obtained by grants or other sources.
Until then, the vessel is located in a temporary boat shed, which is under construction only awaiting the covering such is used on orchid houses and blueberry tunnels, which is at present unable to be obtained due to COVID-19 and imports being restricted.
When this structure is completed it will allow the timbers to dry out in preparation of restoration in the near future.
This temporary boat shed was made possible by the generous donation of funds from a member of the extended cream/milk boat fraternity.
Sunlight was built in 1933 and launched on December 9 that same year. The builder was William Ryan Shipyards.
She has spent all her working life on the Manning River becoming an oyster boat after being decommissioned by The Lower Manning Dairy Co-Op and sold off.
In the not so distant past, Sunlight and other cream/milk boats chugged up and down the Manning River and its tributaries, collecting the milk or cream for consumer consumption. The vessel also regularly took passengers to and from Taree.
Housewives and their families going shopping, to the doctors, to hospital to have their children, or any other appointment, would catch a ride to Taree in the morning, returning on the afternoon run. School children used the vessel as a means of transport to school in Taree.
In times of flood, the vessel would take farm families off the islands to safety, assisted by her sister boats and the Ryan built cream boats of Peters Creameries. With the advent of refrigerated milk tankers, bridges over the river and the evolution of the highway, the need for this form of river transport ceased.
A year ago, the executive of Cundletown and Lower Manning Historical Society and Cundletown Museum were made aware that the hull of the Cream/Milk boat Sunlight was coming on the market.
After much discussion amongst themselves and the members, the decision was made to offer to purchase this unique vessel as a significant historical artifact of the Manning Valley, to be preserved for the benefit of the community. As the vessel was the last of its kind left on the Manning River, preservation was vital.
After negotiations with the owner, an agreement was reached with the vessel being purchased by the Cundletown and Lower Manning Historical Society and Cundletown Museum, and relocated to the grounds of the museum.
The display features the boat being drawn up onto a drydock by a winch which came from 2nd Taree Sea Scouts.