First Steam Assisted Sailing Ship in the Colony

The Sydney Monitor

14 May 1831

We have to congratulate the Colonists on the arrival of the Sophia Jane, a vessel fitted up to be worked by steam, the engine being on board. She left England the 18th Dec. but brings us no papers. She touched at the Cape.

Her capacious size (256 tons) will bring all the produce of Richmond and the banks of the Hawkesbury and Brisbane Water to Sydney once a week, carrying back the owners thereof and the articles they buy in Sydney for their use.

Half the carts and horses will now be useless at the Hawkesbury.