The boatbuilding industry grew from a Neutral Bay workshop
This year is the 90th anniversary of the death of Norwegian-born boatbuilder Lars Halvorsen (1887-1936), a man who did much to transform the boatbuilding industry in Sydney Harbour from his Neutral Bay workshop.
Lars was the son of boatbuilder, Halvor Andersen and, as such, he became ‘Halvorsen.’ The boy learned his trade from his father, and WWI was good for the young artisan, living in a neutral country at a time when there was a demand for boats.
But the post-war years were less fortunate. A boat wreck and the loss of that investment forced the family to relocate from Norway to Cape Town, South Africa, in 1923. They then moved to Sydney two years later.
Lars arrived in the port city in 1924 carrying a letter of introduction from his Cape Town informant, a ‘leg up’ which was enough to quickly secure a commission, a vessel called Sirius, likely the namesake of the flagship of the first fleet of European ships to enter Sydney Harbour in 1788.
Lars rented a boatshed at Drummoyne in January 1925 and worked there with his eldest son, 14-year-old Harold, who remarkably had travelled alone as the deck hand of a cargo vessel. Bergithe Halvorsen and the six other children, Carl, Elnor, Bjarne, Magnus, Trygve and Margit arrived in February. Lars rented larger premises in Careening Cove, North Sydney, in June 1925. The family duly followed. The business moved to neighbouring Neutral Bay in 1927.
Although much of the business was concerned with working boats and smaller pleasure craft, it was in North Sydney that the family business became associated with the construction of luxury motor-boats that would become generally known as Halvorsen cruisers.
There was the White Heather in December 1926 and the Glory in January 1928. But it was the ‘sumptuous’ 75-foot motor cruiser Miramar II, begun in 1929 for Stuart F Doyle, that Harold recalled ‘got us going in a big way.’ Costing an astonishing £12,000, the vessel was launched in Neutral Bay in 1930, the same year the family was naturalised. Despite the hard economic times, there followed another 15 motor cruisers by October 1936 when Lars died.
Harold had come to specialise in boat design, learning from his father. In 1935 he designed the firm’s stock model 55-foot sea going cruiser powered by two 36 horsepower engines. Harold became chairman of the newly formed business, Lars Halvorsen Sons, the following year. In 1938 the Neutral Bay yard had nearly £30,000 worth of boats underway and a workforce of more than 300 men. Such was the recognition and celebrity attached to the Halvorsen cruisers that their launching frequently received mainstream press coverage.
The last cruiser was built in 1980. Vintage Halvorsen boats still change hands for tens of thousands of dollars.
Historical Services, North Sydney Council