APAM- List of Paddlers Part 1 Modern and Restored Vessels

[thewharfonline]

As far as I'm aware it's not a Liba Liba Roderick, they all seem to still look the same and I'm pretty sure none are double story like that.

The new one looks interesting.

Hero and "un-named' could almost make a Murray River Warship company with their colourings.

However it's good to see people experimenting with new colours.

Any further details of the 'un-named' at Wentworth Roderick or Michael for that matter, looks interesting.

[Roderick Smith]

I am looking through the program:
8. PV Miralie
9. PV Chalka
10. PV Kulyne
18. PV Matilda (didn't appear)
25. SWPV Rusty
26. PV Mosquito
27. PV Impulse
28. PV William Albert
29.  52 ft [16 m] PV constructed over 2006-07 at Nichols Point for Robert Ferguson, registration AEV899N.
32. PV Shiralee
33. SWPV Risbey
34. PV Settler
39. Cookies boat, SWPV, 50 ft [15 m]
41.  PV Matthew James
The program did not list PS Ruby, or PV Iraak or PV Yarrara, all of which were present.
One surprising non appearance was PS Tarney: It is locally based, was launched for the 2004 rally, and did appear at the 2006 Ferguson tractor rally.
Conclusion: the mystery boat is entrant 29.


Regards,
Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

[ljhall]

Hi Roderick,

Is the 'PV Matthew James' a re-built version of the 'Mary Ann Replica' or the 'Lady Augusta Replica' ?
I heard that one of them had been broken up and that the other one was going to be re-constructed and re-named 'Emily Jane'.


Thanks,

[Roderick Smith]

Hi Leith,
Many of your questions have been answered already, spread over multiple threads.
The two big ones are in Research:
APAM - the director's cut.  This was started by Sean B, and was to be a history of every major vessel which survived.  It has got from Albury down to Swan Hill, and stalled while Sean completes his year 12 (the final year of secondary schooling).  Michael S has added a chapter or two.
APAM - list of modern and preserved paddlers.  This was started by Sean B, with an Excel list of all paddleboats viewable to day: historic ones, and modern boats built in old styles.  I worked my way from sea to source putting in a photo of each, with with very little history; I also included modern boats built like pontoon houseboats (but not yet the Liba Liba hire fleet).  Many others contributed to this thread.
I have posted an index to one of the APAM threads.
As well, there are lots of threads on specific locations (Echuca news), events (Koondrook bridge centenary, Murray River cruise) and boats, sprinkled over the Research and Preserved forums.
There are shots of Matthew James in its current guise, including one of me steering it to a Ferguson tractor rally at Wentworth.  It is the former PS Lady Augusta lookalike, named now after the owner's deceased son.
Both replica boats were built on privately-funded hulls; both have had the borrowed steam equipment returned to owners; both been transferred to the hull owner for modification to traditionally-styled paddlevessels.
Matthew James is moored somewhere upstream of Mildura.  It has been fitted with a diesel; the wheelhouse has been enclosed.  The next two projects (as time permits) are to enclose the centre section to form a day lounge, and to rebuild the paddleboxes with a different shape.  About 8 weeks ago, the owner took it up the Darling for 60 km, then brought it back for Junction Rally.  I don't know of the progress on conversion of Mary Ann.  IIRC, the work is being done at Colignan.

I will try to create a better index to the threads, and the contents of each thread (and then stick it in the files section), but not until after my late-running July issue is printed.  Equally, if you are reading the whole lot, you may care to list the contents of each page of each thread (name of boats appearing in text, name of boats appearing as photos).

Regards,
Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

[Roderick Smith]

It is easier for viewers if I put the photos here initially, on page 13.
After the viewing flurry ends, I will shunt them into sequence over pages 1-12, and leave this message as just a pointer to them.

First three:

Incredible was moored at a private marina (where I was a guest with Jessie II).  However, because of thick weeds underwater, I couldn't cruise to the end of the line to get a bow photo.  I had cruised into the mooring ok, but to leave I was towed out to clear water by a tinnie.

The barge behind Hebe holds the excavator which the owner uses for his business (excavating moorings).

The SWPV houseboat style is more common than I realised (most have twin outboard motors), and is more practical than I realised: it doesn't get fouled by weeds at moorings or in shallow sections and lakes.  The owners of sternwheelers at Wentworth were quite enthusiastic about the manoeuvrability of their boats.

I have six more for this series: three per day.

Regards,
Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

[Roderick Smith]

Nalta Yuki is not a paddleboat, but is associated.
It replaced PS Industry for the job of towing punts from the maintenance yard at Morgan to the sites where they are operated.  By having punts instead of low-level bridges, the river remains navigable.  Since the 1960s, high-level bridges have replaced punts at Goolwa, Blanchetown, Kingston-on-Murray and Berri.  The correct rules for crossing the cables with a boat are to give a long blast at the approach marker (100 m or 200 m in advance), the operator will respond with a flashing red light (wait) or green light (come through at 4 knots, 7 km/h).  Some busy punts don't bother: the riverboat skipper has to judge that the punt has just arrived and offloading, hence the cables will be slack.
In 2006, Nalta Yuki hauled barge Dart at the upper end of the voyage marking the 50th anniversary of the 1956 floods (PS Oscar W hauled the barge at the lower end).

North West Bend is one of the significant points on the river, and for the boats travelling on it.  Having flowed generally north of west for 2200 km since rising in the highest parts of Great Dividing Range, this is the point where the river turns due south for the final 300 km to the sea.  This is also the location of the pump, taking Murray water to serve Eyre Peninsula towns, including Whyalla.  The hull was upriver of the bend.  The pumping station is half way round the bend; the photograph was taken as I returned downriver.

Regards,
Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

[Roderick Smith]

This PV is moored only a few kilometres upriver of North West Bend,
just below Cadell.  This town was named after one of the two pioneering Murray steam-navigation captains.
When the Randell Cadell 150th anniversary fleet passed through, several paddlesteamers called at the bank so that local schoolchildren could inspect them.
The town was an enthusiastic supporter of the planned but cancelled Morgan - Koondrook/Barham cruise earlier this year.  It would have been the assembly point for the fleet, which would then form a procession in line astern to enter Morgan.

Having discussed Murray River punts yesterday, I enclose a photo today of the one at Wellington, taken on my June cruise.  They come in two sizes, both with two vehicle lanes.  Small holds eight cars; large holds 12 cars.  This is a large, as the crossing at Wellington is quite busy.  It is the most direct route from south-east SA and Victoria to the popular Fleurieu Peninsula holiday zone (which includes Goolwa) and the Langhorne Creek winery area.  All punts are named after birds.  IIRC this one is 'Swan'.  Jessie II is moored at the floating jetty which serves Wellington Hotel.  In March, with the boat on the trailer returning from Goolwa Wooden Boat Festival, I lunched at this hotel while waiting for PS Marion to come up the river, returning from the festival to Mannum with an overnight stop at Murray Bridge.

Regards,
Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

[derekwarner_decoy]

Hi PD's......Roderick.....in the snap of SWPV_GypsyEllen,.... she appears to have an outboard - outrigger additional flotation on the PORT side under  her beautiful  :respect2 corrugated iron out house...or would you call this a bathroom & DunnY on floats  

Is this the case :?: or just an optical illusion ....I assume there would be the same on the STDB side which would contain the kitchen & stores area

Anyway with her deck chairs as shown :vacat .....would be a beautiful way  to spend a few days   or   for Gerald......

[Roderick Smith]

Gypsy Ellen isn't mentioned in Parsons.
Plowman stated that very little is known until a c2000 refit, when the galvanised side cabins were added.
That book showed a port side photo.
I had a photo up earlier in this thread, then removed it.  I might have reinstated it, but here it is again.  It came from a magazine article (IIRC 'Walkabout', an Australian travel magazine).  Probably pre 2000, on fashions as well as on the lack of a starboard galvanised-iron extension.

Update in the light of Derek's posts: It appears that the sponsons were widened as part of that work, and hence the need for outrigger floats arose.

Regards,
Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

[derekwarner_decoy]

PD's & .......Roderick.....if you look back at the ....SWPV Gypsy Ellen. Thurs.11.10.07.....Port 1/4 stern on snap...you can clearly see the corresponding OUTHOUSE angular roof line Stdb side....as viewed through the life buoy

[Roderick Smith]

The final three photos from my recent cruise.

Murray River Queen now has a website:
www . murrayriverqueen.com.au

I wish now that I had taken a close up of a paddlewheel: much smaller than the usual Murray-Darling type, and of a different style.  They looked like some of the European styles which I have seen on the modelling pages.  Perhaps they are feathering?

Regards,
Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

[Excelsior]

Re the Gypsy Ellen: For a while now I've been convinced that she is a boat which was briefly profiled in Brian Marshall's book "Paddleboats of the Murray-Darling River System".  In his profile of the HELENA Marshall mentions that she was built from the body of an old railway coal truck, Plowman notes something similar about the Gypsy Ellen.  The superstruction has been completely rebuilt, but if you look at pictures of the Gypsy & the Helena you'll note that the section of deckhous directly forward of the sternwheel & the stairs leading to the roof deck are identical.  According to Marshall the Helena was built in 1986 at Wemen.

[Roderick Smith]

I can't find a copy of Marshall in my collection.
Mac's theory sounds plausible.  This would make the hull 2.4 to 2.75 m wide.

I was reminded of this one.
I enclose a photo of MV Maranoa in Torrumbarry lock.  Although not part of the Randell Cadell fleet, the boat had come up the river on the same rise.
The hull had been a steam loco tender.
I didn't run a tape measure over it; if the owner hadn't told me, I wouldn't have guessed.
He was fuelling the diesel engine on recycled cooking oil from the fast-food industry.
This boat is normally kept near Robinvale or Wemen.
The coincidences are strong: perhaps the same builder?
The distinction between a tender and a coal wagon could pass unnoticed to a paddleboat auther.

I will have to search.  In the 1970s two railway tenders were floated at Echuca to provide the buoyancy to salvage a hull.  A frame was placed over the two tenders, then the hull was winched up onto the frame.  A series of photos was published in a Victorian railway magazine of the era (not mine, which I started in 1989).

Regards,
Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

[Excelsior]

Your post on the Maranoa jogged a memory Roderick.  So I looked back in Marshall's book & found an entry for a a stern wheeler built at Swan Hill in 1982.  Looking at your picture, they are definately the same boat.  The picture in the book doesn't clearly show a sternwheel, but below the overhanging deck at the stern there is something that may be a small wheel.  So maybe it was removed at some point, or possibly the author was incorrect.  Marshall doesn't mention a railway tender, but rather states the vessel "... has incorporated in its design a former steel railway sleeper..."  Is this in addition to the tender, or a misunderstanding by the author?

There are some fairly large errors in Marshall's book (ie listing the original decoy still being operational in Perth).  Although the intent of the book doesn't seem to be as serious as Parsons, but rather an introduction to the boats.  That being said he does have information which Parsons doesn't.  A prime example is the Banyula, which we know existed but Parsons doesn't mention at all...

By the way Roderick, your recent photos have been brilliant.  Not that your earlier ones weren't, but you seem to have changed your style.  Or have you got a new camera?

[Roderick Smith]

I have scanned the rear view of MV (former SWPV) Maranoa.  The railway-tender ancestry shows better in this angle.  The dip down is typical of tenders used on lighter steam locos.  The raised portion housed the coal bunker, providing gravity feed to the outlet chute, where the fireman could scoop the coal to the firebox door.  The boat has been built with a lengthy bow added to the rear of the tender, and just a small amount of stern added to the front.  Typical tenders of this style were 6 to 6.5 m long over the body.  Maranoa is much longer: so much extra was added, that I wonder what the benefit was in starting with a tender?
I do have the owner's address somewhere, as I was following up that meeting with some research on the origin of the name.
Maranoa River is an upper Darling River tributary.
Maranoa Gardens, in Balwyn (Melbourne), specialises in exclusively Australian and NZ native trees and shrubs.
We may meet again over 8&9.12 at the Canally centenary celebrations.  Maranoa is normally based in this area, and will be among the invited guests (every local boat is invited; Paddleduckers could group and hire a locally-based houseboat).  I will be there with Jessie II, and will cruise 60 km to the top of the Euston Weir pool.

There are a couple more photos, and a mini history of the boat, on the owner's website: http://members.iinet.net.au/~hoppi/Maranoa.html

The older photo of Gypsy Ellen looks as if the hull is quite narrow, consistent with being converted from a railway tender.

My developing theory is that the tenders used for the hull salvage were the ones used for building the boats: not because such a headstart was essential, but because they were available.

Regards,
Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor