Ferry master David Greentree clocks up more than 40 years navigating between Newcastle and Stockton

For others, it's a crucial time-saving service to get to work in Newcastle.

For David Greentree, being at the helm of the vessel is the only job he's ever known.

The Newcastle ferry master has notched up 40 years on the job, and even before that, he had been navigating the harbour crossing for another company for about six years.

His colleagues joke he could traverse the 650 metres between Newcastle and Stockton with his eyes closed.

"It's a good job ... there are worse offices," Mr Greentree said from the wheelhouse of the ferry.

"This is my home away from home."

Mr Greentree was just a 15-year-old boy from Stockton when his mother helped him get a gig on the ferries.

"I've only ever had one job," he said.

"I know nearly everyone in Stockton, I reckon, over 40 years."

He gets a g'day all the time from his regular passengers, and often spots dolphins in the river.

"I've seen whales come in around the horseshoe and out again, just one whale and her calf, only ever seen it once though," he said.

He's seen the harbour covered in debris after a flood, so the water wasn't even visible.

He's seen pumpkins, pigs, and cows float down as well.

He recalls when Newcastle made waves around the world when the bulk carrier MV Sygna ran aground at Stockton in May 1974.

It was a strange sight again, Mr Greentree said, to look over towards Newcastle amid massive storms in June 2007 to see the Pasha Bulker ship looming from behind the headland, where it had run aground at Nobbys Beach.

"[There was a] big storm then I looked ... and there was a big ship parked down there," he said.

"It was huge."

Stormy seas sometimes hit the harbour, and there have been days when waves have crashed up over the windscreen, Mr Greentree said.

There's one thing that's always eluded him, which might bring comfort to some.

"I've never seen a shark ... it's one thing I haven't seen," Mr Greentree said.

The ferry master is up just after 3am when on the morning shift, and heads to a dock near the Fishermen's Co-op at Wickham.

He does safety checks on the vessel, checks the engines, starts it up, then heads down to the Queens Wharf terminal to start what could be up to 40-odd runs a day from about 5am.

It means he gets to see the sunrise, or sometimes the sunset, which he loves.

While that never changes, the rest of the skyline has, at least on the Newcastle side.

"It's changed heaps over the 40 years I've been here," he said.

There were no high rises back then, there was an ice works and a floating dock for ship maintenance nearby, the active railway line, and a person used to sell tickets before passengers went through a turnstile.

At almost 61, Mr Greentree said he won't be driving ferries forever but expects to see out his working days on the water.

The Stockton to Newcastle service has been running continuously for 125 years.

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