The Tacoma Preservation Society (TPS) is undertaking a complete restoration of the Motor Fishing Vessel (MFV) Tacoma. It is Australia’s first purpose built purse seine fishing boat. As a tuna clipper, it changed the course of pelagic fishing in Australia.
With the help of many volunteers and sponsors, this project commemorates the story of the pioneering fishing Haldane family from Port Fairy, the construction of one of the most historically significant vessels ever built in Australia and the impact this vessel made in the development of the tuna and prawn fishing industries in Port Lincoln in South Australia.
Members of the TPS are a group of individuals who believe a boat is seen at its best in the environment for which it was built – the sea.
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News
The Advertiser SA Weekend Magazine: “In Tuna with History”
Seventy years after a humble timber boat helped build the fortune of Port Lincoln, the MFV Tacoma is heading back to the edge of the continental shelf - and a devoted band of custodians is determined to make sure her story is never lost. We're on board the historic 84-foot wooden clipper the MFV Tacoma on a voyage that celebrates ...
2027 Men’s Tuna Poling Fishing Trip #1
2027 Men's Tuna Poling Fishing Trip #1 Friday 12th February to Wednesday 17th February Experience life aboard a 1950s tuna clipper Scan the horizon searching for schools of SBT Experience the smells and sounds of the engine room Enjoy a night at anchor around the galley table, warmed by the AGA cooker Stand in the lofty pilots house amid the ...
2027 Men’s Tuna Poling Fishing Trip #2
2027 Men's Tuna Poling Fishing Trip #2 Friday 26th February to Wednesday 3rd March Experience life aboard a 1950s tuna clipper Scan the horizon searching for schools of SBT Experience the smells and sounds of the engine room Enjoy a night at anchor around the galley table, warmed by the AGA cooker Stand in the lofty pilots house amid the ...
2027 Ladies’ Tuna Poling Fishing Trip #1
2027 Ladies' Tuna Poling Fishing Trip #1 Friday 5th February to Monday 8th February 2027 Experience life aboard a 1950s tuna clipper Scan the horizon searching for schools of SBT Experience the smells and sounds of the engine room Enjoy a night at anchor around the galley table, warmed by the AGA cooker Stand in the lofty pilots house amid ...
2027 Ladies’ Tuna Poling Fishing Trip #2
2027 Ladies' Tuna Poling Fishing Trip #2 Friday 19th February to Monday 22nd February Experience life aboard a 1950s tuna clipper Scan the horizon searching for schools of SBT Experience the smells and sounds of the engine room Enjoy a night at anchor around the galley table, warmed by the AGA cooker Stand in the lofty pilots house amid the ...
Standard: “Emotional Welcome Home for a Reel Piece of History”
It was an emotional homecoming for the Tacoma when it sailed down the Moyne River into the town it left more than 70 years ago. To the sound of school children chanting, bagpipes playing and the boat's horn blaring, it docked at the Port Fairy wharf in front of a large crowd of onlookers. It was definitely an "Emotional Welcome ...
Tacoma Returned Home to Port Lincoln
The Port Lincoln based 84-foot wooden tuna clipper MFV Tacoma returned to Port Lincoln this afternoon (6th April) after a sixteen-day voyage and visit to Port Fairy, 73 years after it was launched at Port Fairy. Two of the original 1952 crew were onboard from Port Lincoln, 90-year-old Jack Bellamy and Tacoma Preservation Society (TPS) President and Skipper Ross Haldane. The ...
Tacoma is going home to Port Fairy … and YOU are invited to greet her!
The water depth of the Port of Port Fairy is tight for the Tacoma. "In the work we've done preparing for this event, beneficial dredging is being done at a couple of specific spots in the channel," Ross Haldane said. It took the Haldane brothers seven and a half years to build the MFV Tacoma. It was launched on the ...
Tacoma is going home to Port Fairy – #2
Weather permitting, the MFV Tacoma will steam from Port Lincoln with a crew and eight paying passengers and arrive in Port Fairy on the high tide on Monday 25th or Tuesday 26th March. The vessel will be moored in Port Fairy until 1 April and be open to the public. The Mayor of Port Lincoln Ms Diana Mislov is planning ...
Tacoma is going home to Port Fairy
The historic Port Lincoln based 84-foot wooden tuna clipper MFV Tacoma is returning to Port Fairy, 73 years after it was launched in the town. The MFV Tacoma was built by brothers Bill, Alan and Hughie Haldane on the banks of the Moyne River between 1944 and 1951. This is the second serious attempt to enter the Moyne, after strong ...
2026/2027 Tacoma General Cruises & Trips
2026/2027 Tacoma General Cruises & Trips Boston Bay Cruise Harbour Cruise Blessing of the Fleet Cruise Taylor Island Cruise Cost: Boston Bay & Harbour Cruises: A minimum of $2,000 for a maximum of 49 passengers. A limited number of places are available for the Taylor Island & Blessing of the Fleet trips. What we provide: Complimentary coffee, tea and water ...
Creek to Coast – Tacoma
Creek to Coast: The Haldane brothers and the beginning of tuna fishing in Port Lincoln 8th June 2019 Tuna fishing in Port Lincoln, where it all began. This is a story about three young men who had a dream - not a little dream, but a big dream - and being young and fearless, they made their dream happen. The Haldane boys, ...
Boating Facility Levy – Peter Treloar MP
SA Parliament Hansard - Boating facilities levy 19th October 2017 Mr TRELOAR (Flinders) (12:55): I rise today to support the very excellent motion brought to us by the member for Chaffey: That this house- (a) acknowledges the importance of having safe and adequate boating facilities across South Australia for boat owners and fishers; (b) condemns the state government for leaving ...
Society taking tuna to market
Port Lincoln Times: Society taking tuna to market 20th March 2017 The Tacoma Preservation Society is hoping to branch out with its tourism trips by offering Adelaide shoppers a taste of South Australian tuna. For the first time the society supplied an Adelaide supermarket with tuna caught during its February/March tuna poling trips. A three-day women's trip was unsuccessful in ...
Pictorial Annual Taylor’s Island wool clip run by the MFV Tacoma
Annual Taylor's Island wool clip run by MVF Tacoma Taylor's & Tacoma, 21st November 2016 MFV Tacoma: 84ft, launched 1951 at Pt Fairy, Victoria. A gracious wooden boat on it's annual wool clip run. VIEW FULL GALLERY
Preserving Tacoma, a new life for a historic tuna boat
Preserving Tacoma, a new life for a historic tuna boat Signals Quarterly, Sept/Oct/Nov 2016 Thousands of wooden fishing boats are slowly rotting in a quiet grave - a backyard, a muddy mangrove swamp or a lonely boatyard. One vessel saved from this fate by a group of volunteers is the MFV Tacoma, a South Australian tuna clipper from the 1950s, ...
Tacoma program raises $15,000
Tacoma program raises $15,000 Port Lincoln Times, 21st July 2016 MORE than $15,000 has been raised for local charities over the past three years through the Tacoma Preservation Society's charity program. Secretary Leonie Sawyer said groups that had benefited from the program included Meals on Wheels, the National Servicemen's Association, the Royal Flying Doctor Service, Novita and more. The society ...
“Young Men and the Sea”
Young Men and the Sea Great Ocean Quarterly, 2014 Stroll the boardwalk of any fishing hamlet and it's hard not to reflect on past times: boats arriving with salty fishermen, rusty hooks and fish scales drying in the sun. Canvas drumming in the wind, bending to the heavy air of southern chill; wet, cold salt on a sun-carved face. Along ...
Three Men & A Boat – The MFV Tacoma Story DVD
Three Men & a Boat - the MFV Tacoma Story DVD The three men are pioneering boat building brothers Bill, Alan and Hughie Haldane and the boat is the MFV Tacoma, built on the banks of the Moyne River at Port Fairy in Victoria and launched in 1951. It is Australia's first purse seiner tuna clipper. It raised the technology ...
Three Men & a Boat – The MFV Tacoma Story
Three Men & a Boat - the MFV Tacoma Story The three men are pioneering boat building brothers Bill, Alan and Hughie Haldane and the boat is the MFV Tacoma, built on the banks of the Moyne River at Port Fairy in Victoria and launched in 1951. It is Australia's first purse seiner tuna clipper. It raised the technology and ...
Three Men & a Boat – the MFV Tacoma Story
Three Men & a Boat - the MFV Tacoma Story The three men are pioneering boat building brothers Bill, Alan and Hughie Haldane and the boat is the MFV Tacoma, built on the banks of the Moyne River at Port Fairy in Victoria and launched in 1951. It is Australia's first purse seiner tuna clipper. It raised the technology and ...
Come Aboard...
The MFV Tacoma is moored at the end of Sandy Point Drive, off Laguna Drive in stage two of the Port Lincoln Marina.
Volunteers work on the preservation of the vessel every Friday. If you’d like a tour of the Tacoma, guides can show you around. The cost is $15.00 per person. Tours start from 10.00am.
