Hull

The hull sits inside the former Lars Halvorsen Sons Pty Ltd Boatyard at Putney, grounded and still, its surface worked over by years of rust and peeling paint. Broad sections of the outer skin have lifted away, exposing the layers beneath. What colour the hull once was is difficult to say now. The yard around it is quiet. Lars Halvorsen Sons Pty Ltd built their Putney complex from 1939, having relocated from Neutral Bay to land on the Parramatta River purchased in 1937. The site had an older history beneath it: the former Squire's Brewery, established by emancipist James Squire around 1798 and recognised today as an archaeological layer under the boatyard's concrete and timber. The Halvorsens built over a colonial industrial site without knowing the full depth of what lay under the slipways. The yard operated five slipways capable of handling vessels up to 90 feet and 100 tons. During the Second World War, the workforce peaked at around 350, producing Fairmile motor launches, fast supply vessels, and air-sea rescue boats for the Royal Australian Navy, the United States Navy, and the Royal Netherlands Navy, among others. The combined contract value of wartime production exceeded £1,000,000. After the war, the yard shifted back to leisure craft and racing yachts. In 1962, Gretel, designed by naval architect Alan Payne and commissioned by Sir Frank Packer, was launched at Putney. She was Australia's first America's Cup challenger, and the first challenger to win a race in the Cup in 28 years. Boatbuilding at Putney wound down through the 1970s. The Commonwealth acquired the site around 1980 and converted it to a Royal Australian Navy repair facility. Australia Defence Industries Pty Ltd took it over in 1989. Later it became Putney Marina. The photograph was made in 2018. The hull in the frame is what remained.