Melbourne’s MV Queenscliff ferry gets a modern makeover and a new terminal

Melbourne’s Port Phillip Bay is a large natural harbour just south of the city, enclosed by the Mornington and Bellarine Peninsulas. Crossing this stretch of water more than ten times each day is Searoad Ferries’ MV Queenscliffe, a sturdy car-and-passenger ferry that is a familiar sight for both locals and tourists.

The vessel has now been given a complete overhaul courtesy of local practice Lucy Marczyk Design Studio, whose recent Solis Houseboat project was an earlier foray into nautical design.

Inside MV Queenscliff

A ferry is a very different beast, however, particularly a 60m vessel capable of carrying 700 passengers. As well as making the ferry an ambassador for the region, the new MV Queenscliff interiors also needed to be hard-wearing; the boat does up to 4,000 crossings each year, sailing from the peninsula villages of Queenscliff to Sorrento.

Marczyk and her team have assembled a specification that combines high-quality contemporary furniture with recycled elements, bold graphics, and nautically themed colours. ‘We aimed to debark from the functional and practical ambiance traditionally found in ferry vessels to create an engaging experience for passengers,’ Marczyk says. ‘It’s an experience that creates a sense of place. And one that is uniquely Australian.’

As well as an onboard café serving fresh food from both peninsulas, the fit-out includes a children’s play area and revived bathrooms, giving what the designers describe as a ‘nod to luxury cruise liners featuring a tongue-in-cheek laminate-look marble, complemented with backlit porthole mirrors, and French navy compact laminate partitions’.

The glamour continues with the furniture specification, which includes Fritz Hansen ‘Nap’ chairs, Emeco ‘1 Inch’ chairs by Jasper Morrison, and Philippe Starck brushed-aluminium stools, as well as Konstantin Grcic’s ‘Bell’ chairs from Magis, Mario Bellini’s ‘Bellini’ chair from Heller, and Flos ‘Mayday’ lights. The designers also included Bjarke Ingels Group’s ‘Gople’ lamp for Artemide.

Custom colours throughout make references to maritime culture and local navigational landmarks, with interactive digital information screens to show passengers the area. Marczyk’s studio designed the bespoke latitude and longitude Axminster carpet as well as the bespoke banquet seating, while a locally sourced dinghy has been repurposed as part of the play area. The bench seating is made from recycled pier timbers, taken from old wharves in the bay.

The refreshed and revived MV Queenscliff is now sailing from a new award-winning terminal building, designed by F2 Architecture, which makes a dramatic statement with its curved metal roofs above the dunes. 

Lucy Marczyk Design Studio, LucyMarczyk.com, @LucyMarczyk

F2 Architecture, F2Architecture.com.au

MV Queenscliff is operated by Searoad Ferries, Searoad.com.au