History

Norship Marine was established by the Fry family in 1984 initially to service a growing needs of the eastern and gulf prawn trawler fleet as well as the boating community of Cairns. The Fry family’s involvement in Cairns includes the world renowned shipbuilding and ship repair company NQEA founded in 1964.

These days Norship Marine’s facilities cater for all manner of vessel types and operations. The company’s friendly staff has steadily grown both in number, skills and expertise to reflect the ongoing demands for its services.

The original 160 tonne travel lift was complimented with the locally designed and constructed RF400 travel lift machine in 2009 to lift larger vessels and in particular the Australian Navy and Border Force Patrol Vessel fleet. This now means that tugs, multihulls, motor yachts and other large craft are now able to be serviced at the facility.

Ray Fry also established Northern Engine Reconditioning Company (NERCO) in 1974 which he later sold to Cummins. Norship recently reacquired this capability and has re-invigorated this facility to re-establish this long lost capability back into the Northern Australian industry as “Norship Engineering”.