THE BOAT
The Wangi Queen Showboat has always proven to be a desirable subject for oil painters as well as watercolour artists and artschool sketching groups. Her unique lines and old world design attract model builders and boating enthusiasts to copy and admire her wherever she plies. Her charming presentation remains a remnant of a former age when craftsmanship was paramount.
Built by Gordon Beattie from timber cut from the Watagan Mountains and transported to Empire Bay on the Central Coast by bullock teams, the teak timbers in her upper deck joinery were recovered from the decking of a sailing ship wrecked on North Head several years earlier and were reputed to have 'been at sea' for sixty years before that. Her grey ironbark scantlings and beech planking shows very little deterioration due to constant and devoted attention of her successive owners. Norman Hegarty, Nicholson Brothers, Stannard Brox, Graham Burgess and more recently Bill & Sue Gibson have perserved her with loving attention.
The vessel was launched on the 22nd of September 1922, just as another famous Australian, Henry Lawson, was laid to rest in Sydney. No better accreditation could be applied to any historical artifact than to be linked in some way to Australia's greatest literary giant.
Originally, the Wangi Queen was known as The Ettalong, and operated as a ferry service on the Central Coast's Brisbane Water. In 1938 she was purchased by Norman Hegarty and became The Ettalong Star and ferried Sydney-siders around Sydney Harbour. In 1951 she was sold to Nicolson Brothers and became The Profound, before being bought by Graham Burgess in 1974 to become the Wangi Queen and cruise around Lake Macquarie. In 2003, current owners Bill and Sue Gibson purchased her and she remains on Lake Macquarie to this day.
No expense has ever been spared in preserving and maintaining the Wangi Queen to the best possible standards, so that future generations will see and appreciate the finer boatbuilding craftsmanship of that bygone era.
