The Nimbin was a steel screw steamer built in 1927 at Copenhagen, that was the first motor vessel placed into the New South Wales coastal trade.

It was owned and operated by the North Coast Steam Navigation Company and was the first Australian registered merchant ship to be lost during World War II when it struck a mine laid by the German auxiliary cruiser Pinguin.

Some hours later an air force plane from RAAF Base Rathmines saw the survivors and directed the coastal ship SS Bonalbo to the scene to retrieve them.

A feature of the vessel is the accommodation for the crew, who have, for Instance, a bathroom fitted with hot and cold showers, in fresh and salt water.

The three lifeboats are fitted with patent disengaging gear, which it is claimed, can be set afloat by unskilled hands in the space of half a minute.

Beedie on June 21 with a cargo of 305,000 superficial feet of Baltic pine from Hargshamn, Sweden, and completed the journey to Sydney in 65 days, arriving on 27 August.

During the delivery voyage the vessel ran into a gale in the Red Sea (the so-called “calm belt”) which continued unabated for four days.

[2] Upon passing out of the Red Sea, the vessel then encountered the full force of the monsoonal winds, which persisted until it reached Colombo.

The North Coast Steam Navigation Company's then new motor ship left Sydney on the afternoon of Tuesday 13 September 1927 on her maiden voyage in the coastal trade.

[4] Nearly a year later in mid-October 1928, while coming in across the Richmond bar, the Nimbin touched the northern wall lightly, causing the steering gear to be carried away.

A heavy cable was passed on board and an attempt was made to tow her off, but a fall in the tide had left the Nimbin more firmly wedged on the sand.

Captain Raymer of the Nimbin stated that the vessel was travelling at half speed in a heavy haze, which was hanging low over the sea, when the stranding occurred.

[7] In late December 1934 the Ulmarra was partly disabled by the loss of a propeller blade which was snapped off by a submerged object in the Clarence River.

[9] While coming down the coast in July 1938 the Nimbin came across the coastal motor vessel Comara, which had a mechanical breakdown where a bolt had broken and some cogs were partially stripped in the engine room.

[10] Early in World War II, the German auxiliary cruiser Pinguin had laid a number of minefields between Newcastle and Sydney as well as off the eastern and southern coasts of Australia.

[11] A month later, on 5 December 1940, the Nimbin was the first Australian registered merchant ship to be lost when it ran into a mine off Norah Head on the Central Coast.

He found a great deal of wreckage floating on the surface with the amphibian sighting the wreck site within ten minutes of the explosion.

Because of the seas and the extent of the wreckage, he was unable to taxi close to one large piece of the flotsam, to which he could see a group of men clinging desperately.

Flying low, he signalled to it with an Aldous lamp, informing it of the position of the wreckage and directing it to steam immediately to the scene.