Huddart Parker

It was one of the seven major coastal shippers in Australia at a time when shipping was the principal means of interstate and trans-Tasman transport.

Huddart Parker ceased to be an independent company in 1961, when it was taken over by Bitumen and Oil Refineries Australia Limited.

The trading activities each built up through the gold-rush era and beyond led to a linking of the businesses of their descendants and successors, to become Huddart Parker & Company.

The 1895 agreement between the two lines pooled the Auckland – Sydney profits and losses; the Melbourne – Launceston profits were divided 4⁄7 to the USSCo and 3⁄7 to Huddart Parker; and the Sydney–Hobart passenger trade was excluded but the cargo and stock trade was divided 2⁄3 to USSCo and 1⁄3 to Huddart Parker.

By 1890 Traill had moved the company from offices on the wharves at Geelong to 466 Collins Street, in the heart of Melbourne.

Wimmera was sunk on 26 June 1918 following collision with a German mine north of Cape Maria van Diemen, New Zealand, killing 26 passengers.