SS Australis 86cm with Lights (1968–1977)

The SS Australis in her grey hull livery is the ship most Australians actually remember. From 1968 until her final departure from Sydney in December 1977, she wore this distinctive scheme – light grey hull, white superstructure and the famous blue Chandris funnels with their bold white “X” — as she carried tens of thousands of new settlers to Australia and New Zealand. If your family arrived aboard the Australis in the late 1960s or 1970s, this is the ship as you saw her from the wharf.

While our SS Australis (1965–1967) model captures her original all-white Chandris livery, this edition faithfully recreates her later appearance. Chandris repainted her hull grey in the late 1960s after the white hull proved impossible to keep pristine on the long Europe-Australia run, and she remained the only ship in the Chandris fleet to wear grey. Her mainmast was also removed around this time – a detail accurately reflected in this model. For anyone who sailed aboard her between 1968 and 1977, this is the definitive Australis.

Key features of the SS Australis Grey Hull ship model with LED lights:

• Dimensions: 86 x 12 x 30cm (33.9 x 4.7 x 11.8 inches) – 1:255 scale
• Faithfully painted in her 1968–1977 livery: light grey hull, white upperworks, red antifouling and blue Chandris funnels with the white “X”
• Plank-on-frame construction with individual wood strips applied to the hull
• All windows, portholes and deck details carved directly into the timber – no stickers or decals
• Warm LED lighting illuminates the decks and superstructure
• Finely detailed lifeboats suspended from davits, with railings at bow and stern
• Built entirely with wooden and metal fittings — no plastic components
• Mounted on a polished wooden stand with a brass SS Australis nameplate

The SS Australis in her grey hull years (1968–1977)

By the late 1960s, the Australis was the workhorse of the Australian migrant trade. Built in 1939 as the SS America – the pride of the United States Lines – she had already lived several lives, including wartime service as the troopship USS West Point, before Chandris Lines purchased her in 1964 and refitted her at Piraeus as a one-class liner for more than 2,200 passengers.
Her early Chandris years saw her in a gleaming white hull, but the relentless round-the-world schedule made the white finish impossible to maintain. The solution came in the late 1960s: her hull was repainted a practical light grey, giving her the unmistakable profile she carried for the rest of her Australian career. In this livery she completed her legendary three-month round-the-world voyages – Southampton to Fremantle, Melbourne, Sydney, Auckland and home via the Pacific and Panama – bringing British, Greek, Dutch, German, Italian and Yugoslav migrants to a new life in Australia.
She survived a serious galley fire in October 1970 between Auckland and Suva, with her crew battling the blaze for over nine hours while passengers stood at lifeboat stations – a testament to the ship and the people who ran her. When P&O withdrew Canberra and Oriana from line voyages in 1975, the Australis became the world’s largest express liner still in regular scheduled service.
Her final voyage from Sydney on 17 December 1977 closed the era of assisted migration by sea. For the thousands of families who lined her rails on the way to a new country, the grey-hulled Australis remains one of the most emotionally significant ships in Australian history – and this model preserves her exactly as they remember her.