31 August 1923 Falie
South Australia’s Jubilee sailing ship Falie was bought in the Netherlands by the Spencer Gulf Transport Company on 21 October 1922 and arrived at the Semaphore anchorage on 31 August 1923, after encountering rough weather in her passage across the Bight from Western Australia. From then on she was used for trade around South Australia transporting wheat from the West Coast and the Gulf. In 1936 she was put into interstate trade and carried timber to Tasmania.
In 1940 the Navy Department requisitioned Falie for service and she was sent to Sydney. Commissioned as HMAS Falie on 4 October 1940 she was used as a tender to HMAS Rushcutter, the shore-based naval station at Rushcutter’s Bay. As an examination ship her job was to check the bona fides of ships approaching the port. In 1943 Falie was used as a store carrier in the north-east area moving stores into and around New Guinea. She arrived back in her home port or Port Adelaide after her war service on 16 October 1945, although the Naval Charter was not terminated until
2 August 1946 and Falie resumed work as coastal trader. Her last trip was to Kangaroo Island on 20 June 1982 and she was then put up for sale. Fortunately the Jubilee 150 Board bought her for the people of South Australia and after being restored and refurbished she continued to make a valuable contribution to South Australia’s maritime traditions.
Robert Sykes and Gordon Pickhaver, Falie: Portrait of a Coastal Trader, Falie Project, 1985.