World Time Clocks

[Eddy Matthews]

Hi all,

I've changed the World Time Clocks page so it should be more useful to our members - Places such as Mexico City, Hawaii etc have gone and been replaced by cities which are more meaningful to our members.  The clocks displayed are now:

Your local time
Madrid
New York
GMT
Vancouver
Toronto
Tokyo
Melbourne
Los Angeles
Hong Kong
Auckland

I think that covers the main time zones our members are in, but if anyone wants another one added please yell - Just give me the nearest major city to the timezone you want.

[thewharfonline]

Melbourne huzzah...I think some of our Aussie members might like Brisbane as a city time zone, maybe

[Eddy Matthews]

According to the listing I have Melbourne and Brisbane are in the same time zone Sean???

[derekwarner_decoy]

Sean - its OK, we have big shoulders here in NSW where we call time as AEST [Australian Standard Eastern Time] & this also corresponds to Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney, Guam in the Pacific, Port Moresby in PNG, Hobart in the Apple Isle and last but not lease Vladivostok which is just straight up that watery highway from Sydney over the equator, past the Inland Sea of Japan & I'am pretty sure the RUSKIES have a big naval base ehere that same invisible line touches USSR soil

Having said this I do agree that Melbourne is not the economic or cultural epicente of Australia, and twice a year when all the rest of the Eastern states go to day light saving, Brisbane stays in the dark ages - so my vote must be for Sydney with arguably the most beatutiful natural harbour in the world - it has everything  :vacat ,   , it is also   - Derek

[thewharfonline]

Victoria has Echuca though, Paddle Steamer Capital of the world remember mwa ha ha ha!

On the line of Sydney harbour though I scrounged through my parents album and retrieved a ncie shot of one of the two stern wheeler cruise boats that sail on the harbour going right past the Opera House, old shot though! Some of you may know them from the "new orleans KFC" ads on the box! My best wishes for the families of New Orleans too.

I think melbourne deserves the right as a cultural epicentre though, it's a nice Hub and evryone knows Australia as Sydney Opera house or Kangaroo so I say Keep Melbourne down with Sydney! Melbourne has a nice little steam ship too for the Yarra!

[jock]

Then again Melbourne has been voted the most livable city in the world.
Voted by the magazine "The Economist" in 2002 and again in 2004

[AlistairD]

 
 

 
Victoria has Echuca though, Paddle Steamer Capital of    the world  
   
I always thought that was Dresden in the modern era (9    operating paddlers), and the Clyde in earlier times.  
   
Alistair

[thewharfonline]

Echuca has wayyy more than 9 operating paddlers!

6 are tourist steamers with the hero on its way thats 7
then theres the Etona and Ranger 2 authentic boats thats 9 then barmah, adventurous, pericoota, james maiden, iron dry, gemma, and at least 2 others I can't remember names for thats  16! I think

[AlistairD]

 
 

 
Echuca has wayyy more than 9 operating    paddlers!

6 are tourist steamers with the hero on its way thats    7  

ADELAIDE, ALEXANDER ARBUTHNOT, CANBERRA EMMYLOU, and PEVENSEY, I make that 5 paddle steamers, I am referring to paddle steamers  that run for the general public, not paddle motor vessels, or rich men's    toys.  
The Dresden steamer run daily and look like paddle steamers,    to the eye of somebody in the Northern Hemisphere, the River Murray paddlers    look home-made, with a traciton engine boiler and machinery and various odd    bits of wood.  
   
Alistair, about to duck for cover  

then theres the Etona and Ranger 2 authentic boats thats 9 then barmah,    adventurous, pericoota, james maiden, iron dry, gemma, and at least 2 others I    can't remember names for thats 16! I think



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[Waverley]

Hi all

Have to agree, largely, with Alistair here - I doubt if I will ever visit Echuca, but all the paddlers look to me to be a bit on the small and "primitive" side - at least in terms of machinery. And the Dresden boats run regular, scheduled services and carry passengers from pier to pier, performing the duties for which they were built rather than the river equivalent of "trips round the bay". I don't want to knock the efforts in Australia, but do any of these boats survive in anywhere approaching original condition? I'm sure that none were built as floating restaurants!

As close runners up to Dresden, may I also nominate:-

Lucerne - 5 paddler steamers in regular service on Lake Lucerne

Geneva & Lausanne - 4 paddle steamers (one, PS MONTREUX recently converted from motor vessel) and two paddle motor vessels in service, one paddle steamer undergoing major overhaul, one paddle motor vessel laid up waiting finance for new (steam) engine.


Link had been posted before, but here it is again

http://swissitalianpaddlesteamers.com/intro.html

And, of course, anywhere WAVERLEY happens to be!

However, Sydney may well be the harbour ferry capital (possible contender, Hong Kong) while Melbourne looks to be way up there for trams.

Sean, if you do what most young Australians seem to do, you will visit Europe in a few years and you'll get a chance to see for yourself why we enthuse about these fleets - make sure you let Paddleducks now you're coming & I'm sure you'll get a very warm welcome.


Regards

David

[thewharfonline]

Ok....grrr now I'm angry!

If we count Pride of The Murray as a paddle vessel thats 6, but don't count it off as authentic because it is built up rom the old c24 barge which like many other paddlers- Pevensey etc, was done.

You have to also think paddler high time here was during the depression, our river is tight, I'd like to see some of your monsters navigating the sharp twists and snag filled gaps of a river we have, a steamers were made hardy, not flimsy and pathetic like the missippi steamers that could easily be ripped to shreds. Our steamers were built to last, and still do mostly as sunken hulls because it was no longer economic to run them. The passenger steamers did best, but the others were built faster and cheaper so that the companies could get there business up the darling or further along the river before it dropped to less than a puddle. Conditions are hot in australia if you didn't notice which leaves the engine rooms open. Engines were bought with what money people had and we didn't have such a massive engine producing capability, our engines (traction yes) were imported through Europe and then placed in our boats, they do the job thats needed. More desperate people installed Locomotic engines to their steamers. We had something like 242 paddlers on the river and almost them same amount of barges. They weren't built for the ocean, they weren't (all) built grand like the mississipi paddlers, they were built to do a job, and they did it!

And now their job is being forgotten, their story lies like the forgotton hulls on the bottom of the river. The paddlers opened up Australia, the river system allowed 4 states to recieve goods and trade.

So you guys come here, bring your own monster steamers and boil with your boilers, crack up on the snags and get stuck in tight corners!

Oh by the way, snags and overhanging trees were also responsible for destroying deckhousing, paddle boxes, ripping off towlines and roofs...if you're going to be replacing things why make them fancy, it clearly could happen more than once.

Don't knock off our steamers before you understand their story, or have experienced what it is like out here and the hardships our country faced, only then can you truly understand our paddlers.

Alistair you can come out now, it's safe!

Oh and Eddy our paddlers are renown for paddler racing! But if you want to know more about that, get me on another board!

Well I feel like I got my two bobs worth in, I might check what hoemwork I ahve to do! Oh and please go ahead and write your tales of your steamers, I think its a good way to learn about the worlds favourite boat!

(Oh and remember over 200 paddlers...who can meet that amount?)

[derekwarner_decoy]

thank you Sean :post, you have handled this situation with great eloquence   - fancy someone 1/2 the way around the world not understanding the beautiful simplicity & fit for purpose design of our OZ vessels - hard wooden benches or chairs :gather on deck for our women & men folk dressed to the high Sunday nines eating roast dinner [could have even been roast kangaroo] - these early pictures proved they were quite happy & didn't need velvet covered cushions stuffed with duck down -  Derek

[thewharfonline]

It was about the scenery too, and the simple machinery, and the sparks flying at night, and the large foglamps lighting up the bend...thats the romantic part

I'm glad I could prove OUR point Derek, and I'm glad you liekd it