History

Captain Cook Cruises was formed in 1980. At that time it was owned by Boat Torque Cruises as a subsidiary business and was operated completely separate to the Rottnest ferry service.

In 1982 Tony Baker was appointed General Manager of Captain Cook Cruises and John Goodbody was a casual engineer with the company. After the America’s Cup defence in 1987 the company was put up for sale. Tony and John purchased the business under the name Vyscot Pty Ltd trading as Captain Cook Cruises on the 1st July 1987. It is in no way associated with Captain Cook Cruises Pty Ltd based in Sydney.

The company has expanded considerably since then when two vessels were in operation – the MV Captain Cook and the MV Swan Explorer. In May 1988 the Captain Cook was given a major re-fit and new superstructure. In May 1990 the vessel Jolly Jumbuck and the trading name Swan River Scenic Cruises was purchased. The vessel was completely rebuilt and renamed the Swan Princess. In October 1992 the vessel MV Perth was leased from Metrobus. We operated this vessel until our lease expired on 30th September 1997.

The MV James Stirling was built in 1995 and successfully launched on October 16th. This now operates as the flagship of our company.

On September 11th 2002 we took ownership of the entire upstream operation formally owned by Boat Torque Cruises. This encompassed 3 vessels and additional office and jetty space. The 3 vessels were the River Lady, Lady De Vine, and River Bells (formally the Mystique).

Since then we have established ourselves as the premier operator of vessels on the Swan River. Not only have we continued to improve our reputation on the Perth to Fremantle route but we have also established ourselves as the market leader on the Perth to Swan Valley route.

Since 1987 the company has specialised in day tours between Perth and Fremantle as well as many charter options. During this time we have prided ourselves on offering a professional approach to the industry, good value for money and better service than any other ferry operator in Perth. Through good management and a strong customer service focus we are now able to offer our services on most parts of the Swan River. Our reputation in the marketplace is of the highest quality, however unless we continually strive to improve then all of this counts for nothing and domination of the market can and will cease to exist.