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The SS Gippsland tied up at the Mitchell River Wharf, Bairnsdale. There is a butter factory in the background. The screw steamer 'Gippsland' was a timber-hulled passenger ferry built by Peter Tierney, at Paynesville, for J.C. Dahlsen & Co., of Bairnsdale, in 1908. It was the largest and fastest steamboat to operate on the Gippsland Lakes with a top speed of 14 knots, powered by a large triple-expansion steam engine built be D.& R. Buchanan & Brock, of South Melbourne. The vessel was used for largely excursion trips between Bairnsdale and desinations like Lakes Entrance and Paynesville on the Gippsland Lakes. In remained in operation until the end of the era of steamers on the Gippsland Lakes, just prior to WWII, being sold to Captain Hegarty in 1937 and relocated to Sydney Harbour.

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