History and Description
SS Yongala was a steel passenger and freight steamer built in Newcastle upon Tyne, England to special survey for the Adelaide Steamship Company, at a cost of £102,000. She was launched on 29 April 1903, was registered in Adelaide, and took up the busy passenger route linking the gold fields of Western Australia with the eastern ports of Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. Following company tradition, the vessel was named after the small town of Yongala in South Australia, a word from the Nadjuri language which meant "good water".
The vessel was propelled by a large triple expansion steam engine driving a single propeller. The engine was built by Wallsend Shipway and Engineering Co. and she could attain an official top speed of 15.8 knots (29 km/h). However, in her previous 98 trips, it was recorded that Yongala often reached 17 knots (31 km/h). Five single ended steel boilers working under natural draught supplied steam of 180 pounds-force per square inch (1.24 MPa) pressure. At 15 knots, Yongala's engines burned approximately 67 tonnes of coal per day. A powerful direct acting steam windlass and capstan was fitted on the forecastle head, and seven winches with derricks and derrick-posts, and two steam cranes were provided for efficient cargo handling. Electric lighting was fitted throughout the ship with a duplicate generating plant. She was also provided with refrigeration facilities for the carriage of frozen cargo. A specially arranged steam and hand steering gear was fitted in a house at the after end of the fantail and controlled from the bridge.
In 1906, Yongala was transferred to the Brisbane–Fremantle route and during that time, Yongala was the first vessel to complete a direct trip of 5,000 kilometres (2,700 nmi) between Fremantle and Brisbane, the longest interstate trip at that time. During the winter months from 1907 to early 1911, Yongala was operated on the east coast run from Melbourne to Cairns, as the Fremantle–Brisbane route became quieter at that time of year.
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