Australian National Lines
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The Australian National Line (ANL) was formed on 1/10/1956. As the Australian Costal commission with the passing of the Australian coastal shipping commission act. The organisation, took over forty odd ships previously operated by the Australian shipping board which, had been formed in 1946 by the Australian federal government.
The company entered into the ferry business in 1959, as the Tasmanian Steamers said that they would be pulling out of the run and their ship the SS Taroona which was becoming totally inadequate, only being able to carry 30 cars, which had to be winched aboard. With there being no replacement, the Federal Government decided that the Australian National line should take over and would be provided with a subsidy. So an order was placed at the New south Wales dock yard at Newcastle for completion in September 1959. The new ship was named Princess of Tasmania and was the first roll on / roll off ferry in the southern hemisphere and the largest, she entered the Melbourne – Devonport route on 23/9/59.
The new ship and route where such a success for the ANL, that they needed to order a cargo only ship, to be named Bass Trader.
With the passenger numbers going so well on the Princess of Tasmania and cargo going very well also, ANL decided that a regular passenger service from Sydney to Tasmania should be re-established. An order was placed with Cockatoo Docks & Engineering company Pty Ltd. The new ship was christened Empress of Australia on 18/1/1964. Empress of Australia made her maiden voyage from Sydney to Hobart on 16/1/1965 The Empress of Australia operated from Sydney to Hobart and Sydney to Bell Bay / Burnie and back.
With the princess of Tasmania going so well from Melbourne, there needed to be more capacity on the route so, ANL again ordered a new ship to be built at New south wales dockyard where the Princess was built also. The new ship would be bigger than the princess, but have smaller passenger capacity, but larger cargo space an early example of the Ro/Pax concept. The new ship was christened on 17/2/1969 as the Australian Trader. On 24/6/1969 Australian Trader set out for her maiden voyage to Devonport. The new ship operated a rotation between Bell bay, Devonport and Burnie.
On 27/6/1972 'Princess of Tasmania left Devonport for the final time, ANL sold her to Bahamarine Ltd, Nassau and she left Australia for the very last time on 7/10/72. When the Princess of Tasmania left the route the Australian Trader swapped with the on her route and Empress of Australia replaced the Princess of Tasmania on the Melbourne - Devonport trade. ANL announced that Australian trader would be withdrawn from service being replaced be a new ship named Bass trader. On her final arrival in Bell bay the crew went on strike the ship remained idle for two months. Finally on 24/9/76 they gave up and she sailed to Sydney, laid-up and offered for sale. The sale was completed on 16/1/1977 to the royal Australian Navy as a tanning ship.
In 1983 the Tasmanian government where seeking from the federal government funds to charter a supplement ship, being Scotia prince, St Patrick II, Stena Baltica or Odysseus Elytis but it was rejected. In 1984 ANL announced that they would not be continuing on in the ferry business and the Empress would be withdrawn in 1985 and sold. This was then put into the hands of the Tasmanian government which subsequently formed the TT-line and got the capital to buy a ship from the federal government.
After the creasing of the ANL's involvement in the Passenger trade it let them to concentrate solely on bulk freight and cargo. In 1998 the French company CMA CGM, bought ANL from the Australian Federal Government.
CMA CGM operate over 80 bulk carriers on all of the world's major shipping lanes. As part of CMA CGM, the shipping company is part of the world's third largest shipping operator. ANL now employs over 3,000 staff globally and moves 240,000 cargo containers per year..
Commercially, ANL has completely control over the North-South directional trades, while the company manages 20+ East-West directional trades on behalf of it's parent - CMA CGM. In October 2006, as part of the announcement that CMA CGM was establishing CMA CGM Systems as a joint venture with IBM, it was revealed that ANL would integrate with parent company systems by 2008.
ANL were infamously involved in the Tasman Bridge disaster in Hobart, Tasmania in 1975, as the owner/operator of the Lake Illawarra.
