FERRY TALE ENDING AS BAY EYESORE MOVES ON:

After two years stranded, Queen of Melbourne finally leaves Corio Bay

AFTER costing its owner tens of thousands of dollars in fees, a stranded ferry left to languish for more than twoand-a-half years on Corio Bay has finally sold to an international buyer.

The Queen of Melbourne set sail from Geelong on Friday, bound for the South Pacific where another chapter will be written in its colourful history.

The ferry had been idle in Geelong since May 2015, following a string of incidents that began in Europe and stretched through the Middle East and into Australia.

For the past 18 months authorities had been charging $200 per day for the ferry to berth at Corio Wharf.

It had earlier been left about 200 metres offshore, but was moved due to fears it could break loose and cause damage.

Victorian Regional Channel Authority harbour master Dilip Abraham yesterday said the Queen of Melbourne was to be used as a passenger ferry servicing islands in Fiji.

“She is making steady progress to Fiji — it should be there in a few days,” he told the Geelong Advertiser.

Mr Abraham said the long-term mooring had not posed a major issue for the authority but he was pleased that it had found another use.

“It wasn’t too big a problem. It was always going to be a matter of time,” he said. “The owner had been looking for a buyer for some time.”

Farooq Qamar bought the vessel in Norway for $300,000 and planned to operate it as a party boat in Melbourne.

He hired a crew to sail it to Melbourne in September 2014, but an on-board mutiny that threatened to turn violent forced Spanish authorities to intervene.

Mr Qamar hired a new crew in Morocco but the 45m ferry was damaged in heavy weather in the Red Sea off Egypt.

After battling a cyclone off West Australia’s coast — and seeing eight crew members detained and then deported — another crew was engaged for the vessel’s final voyage from Fremantle to Melbourne.

However another onboard standoff, and the failure to secure sites at Docklands and Williamstown, left the ferry stranded in Corio Bay.

“(The Queen of Melbourne) is making steady progress to Fiji — it should be there in a few days.” VICTORIAN REGIONAL CHANNEL AUTHORITY HARBOUR MASTER DILIP ABRAHAM

Picture: MIKE DUGDALE The Queen of Melbourne in Corio Bay on May 18, 2015. STRANDED: Some of the many articles from the Geelong Advertiser covering the plight of the Queen of Melbourne during its two-and-a-half-year stay on Corio Bay.