The joyriding speedboats of Sydney, which included Manly Fun Pier (wharf), Luna Park, Clifton Gardens & Farm Cove were the Joyce Bros of Neutral Bay's; Kalowa, Kalowa Two, Kingfisher & Kookaburra as well as Kookaburra (2) from the west side of Manly pier. Kookaburra (2) was last run from Luna Park and harbour and amoungst the last owners were Van Gelder and Caporn. This is the only boat known to survive and is with the Sydney Heritage Fleet. Only Kookaburra (1) was a Chris Cfaft.
Ken Breakspear ran Miss Speedie, Lets Go, Lets Go too and Hi Ho from a bombscow off the east side of the pier from the 1930's. These first two were Chris Craft.
'Kangaroo' was run by Halvorson from 1928 at Clifton Gardens.
It would be unfair to ignore a fairly recent boat also called Kookaburra (3?) which is a replica of a 28 ft Hacker craft by Phillips, which has run commercially from Manly and charter from the east of Manly (fun pier). This was over 10 years ago and the boat was last seen at Castle Cove with a charter of it from Balmain.
I have not included the current RIB's and Jet Boats.
There is no known survivor boat of those days although I owned a barely restorable 22 ft Chris Craft Cadet which had come from a family at Kangaroo Point with a known history. This had the name 'Miami' on the stern.
Please contact me if you have info or an interest.
Paul Judd
ctpjudd@optusnet.com.au
