PV Bungunyah (Australia)

[Roderick Smith]

This is a new vessel, and is exploiting very high river levels to make an unusual maiden voyage.
...new paddle boat, 'Bungunyah', recently launched (~Oct.10) and with one short maiden voyage under her belt. Bungunyah is the name given to the ancestoral inland lake which was formed by the Pinaroo block uplift...

I am finding it very hard to locate an online map which makes the river geography clear.
Try http://mapsof.net/australia/static-maps/gif/murray-darling-murrumbidgee-map

This one doesn't label any of the smaller tributaries, and I think has the anabranch linkages wrong (particularly Wakool and Edwards, the subject of this voyage):
www.murrayriver.com.au/river-management/murray-darling-basin-commission/


The vessel had been moored at Beveridge Island, Murray River, downstream of Swan Hill.
It set forth in December, downstream (requiring Nyah Bridge to be lifted, and probably Tooleybuc too), and turned right into Wakool River, then upstream 28 km to Kyalite.  This town once had a rolling bascule bridge, as both the Wakool and Edward rivers were navigable to Deniliquin, and right through to where they left the Murray as anabranches.  Wakool River was the original Murray course, and has a noble bed, normally with very little water.  The Murray which we know today was formed when a geographical fault caused a diversion via Barmah Choke to join Goulburn River.
I don't know if the vessel snuck up a further 4 km to the confluence of the Edward and Wakool (I did that on Wed.29.12).
Today (Sun.2.1) it is setting out down the Wakool, back into the Murray, and on to the Murrumbidgee junction, then up the Murrumbidgee to Balranald.
This will make it the first paddleboat there for 50 years.  Back in the days, the river was navigable to Balranald and Wagga Wagga in most seasons, and to Gundagai occasionally.  The swing bridge at Balranald has been replaced with a low-level road bridge.  Although the water is at flood level for voyaging clear of snags, the boat will be unable to proceed further (there are also weirs at Maude and at Redbank).

Footnote: That type of bascule bridge is known as the Coraki type (named after the location of the first one built in NSW).  The counterweight for the hinged span rolls down the curved track on the adjacent span.  The Kyalite one was built in 1912.  It seems to have been a modification of an earlier fixed-height bridge.
See the history of a survivor at www.rta.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/index.cgi?action=heritage.show&id=4300642

Regards,
Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

[Roderick Smith]

I have just been phoned by a crew member.  The goal was achieved, and the town of Balranald went beserk in recognition.

PV Bungunyah left Kyalite on Sun.2.1, and went upstream to the Wakool & Edwards confluence, then hastened downstream while it still had vital clearance to get under the concrete bridge on a rising river.
Monday was a transit day, including a slow passage up the Murrumbidgee.  This wasn't just fighting the current, but avoiding snags, floaters and overhanging trees with a two-deck paddleboat.  My own boat would have had an easier time.
The boat reached Balranald on Tues.4.1 early afternoon, and made four celebratory passages under the concrete road bridge with the whistle blasting.  The town just about ground to a halt, and citizens young and old flocked to the river to witness the first paddleboat there since 1956.  Many brought family photo albums or vivid memories of their younger days; the local paper got the coverage.  There is an open inivitation for boats of any flavour to appear at Balranald for the 2011 water festival.  If the water holds, we will.

The downriver return commenced on the same afternoon, and was delayed by promptly-rectified bearing trouble.

Bungunyah is now planning to voyage to Mildura to join the March fleet to Renmark to celebrate the centenary of PS Industry.

Regards,
Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

[Roderick Smith]

I contacted the editor of the local newspaper: Riverine Grazier, based in Hay.  The paper is weekly, and doesn't have a reporter at Balranald.  The end is result was that the article was written by me (based on a telephone conversation from a crew member): two emails interleaved.  The photo came from the local tourism manager.

Regards,
Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor