APAM- List of Paddlers Part 1 Modern and Restored Vessels

[Excelsior]

It's not really that worrying.  Just think, if there are a lot of boats for sale, and with the global economy going the way it is, the value of these boats will go down.  So, if you're in an ok position financially, they may become affordable.  With oil prices going the way they are, they'll be very expensive to run though.

I'd love the Mayflower.  Would strip her back, put in a small portable & rebuild her the way she was as a one deck fishing boat.

[Stempost]

G'day Roderick and others, Akuna was listed on the 'boat-brokers.com.au' (South Australian site). The direct link doesn't appear to work, but she will come up under this site if you just google her. There are some great internal and external photos of her on that site, but the price???
Paddle Cat (listed @ $85,000 not $65,000 as I said) is on the murray river trader section of the murrayriver.com.au site, but the site is not working either.

If I may buy into the discussion, I think boats naturally come up for sale due to owners getting older and wanting to move on, or to trade up into bigger boats etc, but the local council doesn't help. You can't buy a new river berth (even if you could afford it) due to the current moritorium and there will be no new berths on the river until all the eco studies are completed.
There is no encouragement to buy these boats when council considers them (eg:Henry Charles) not to be a  historic vessel and that they are also illegally berthed by being in the port area. There are disputes over renovated vs replica boats, between Port Authority and tourist operators, etc etc. The falling river levels continue to be of grave concern.
I hope they can manage to sort it all out and just get along together.

Trevor. 

[Roderick Smith]

Thanks Trevor,
my problem had been not navigating the site correctly.
Some boats have individual ads on the home page, including Madam Jade (which I didn't mention yesterday).
The others are listed by clicking on state.
http://www.murrayriver.com.au/trader/vic-results.htm
It seems that all Murray ones are listed under Victoria, not NSW.
I found Matilda (sold a year ago, now in lower SA), Florence Annie and Paddlecat.

Moorings at Deep Creek come at 100 000 to 120 000, but I believe that the marina has a policy of no paddleboats, just boxes on pontoons.

Regards,
Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

[ljhall]

Well, I knew that moorings were expensive, but I didn't think that they were that high !
At the Heritage Steam Festival at Echuca in 06, I was chatting with the owners of the 'Bessie Ann', not quite sure what you would call this one, but their friends used to call it an aquatic toolshed (or words to that effect.)
I have seen some other photos of it taken during the 2003 Sesquincentary flotilla near Echuca, at that stage it had 4 tiny paddles fitted to it.
The 2 wheels in the middle of the stern had covers over them and were next to 2 outboard motors, not sure if these wheels were just for show or not but the other 2 wheels were, they were located at the outer edges of the stern and looked a bit like Dethridge Wheels, - the kind of wheels that are used in irrigationchannels/canals.
Anyhow, back to the mooring issue, basically the couple that own it had a mooring for it somewhere, - can't remember how much it cost them though, and they later decided to ditch the idea and take the boat out of the river and keep it on a large boat trailer on their property at Dingwall, VIC. (near Kerang).
The couple were hoping to take it further downriver to the Boundary Bend & Robinvale/Euston district for a fishing trip.
They decided to take the 4 small paddle wheels off, but for some reason they left the 2 covers in place.

[Roderick Smith]

New member Mike Smith located the vessel in Nov.06.  Extracted from his message:
...Wooden Boat Centre at Franklin, 48km south of Hobart on Huon River...hull of a boat (30-35 ft long)...had the classic lines of a Murray River paddle boat...in a yard next to the centre.  The hull was not in the best of shape as it was missing some timbers and the angle iron frames the timbers were bolted to were fairly corroded.
He has sent me five photos.  I enclose the first one today, and will place the other four when I get back from chasing Spirit II from Yarrawonga to Albury.

Regards,
Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

[ljhall]

Thanks Roderick,

I was beginning to think that the old girl had vanished into thin air !
Just looked up Franklin, TAS. on 'Google Maps', as I'm not familiar with Tassie.
She's in worse shape than I thought, but hopefully salvageable, - I reckon she's in slightly better nick than the 'Bull Frog'.
Hopefully the other photos will reveal more about the level of deterioration etc.

[Roderick Smith]

Mike Smith (no relation) has sent this scan of PS Roy history.
I am attaching it here as a pdf.  If the method works (and you will have to click on it to view), I will shift it to an earlier APAM lop page, where the rest of the Roy material sits.
If the technique doesn't work, I will convert it to jpg and place it back with the rest.

We now have bits on PS Murray Queen on pages 15, 16 & 17.

Regards,
Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

[anth]

yet we still have no images of roy's powerplant.....

can only hope

Anthony

[ljhall]

Hey Anthony,

From what Iv'e heard the Roy's machinery has been in pieces for a while, it's a pretty tiny unit, I think it's only a 1 or 2 n.h.p. engine.
There's an old black & white photo of it in 'Ships of the Inland Rivers', by Parsons, - it's in the 1st part of the book before the alphabetical listings start.
I have the 2nd & 3rd editions and I'm pretty certain it's in both of these.

Cheers,

[ljhall]

I found some photos of a few wrecks which haven't already been covered on our site !!!
These photos are a few years old, - taken during the Sesquincentenary in  the Spring of 2003.
They are of the Hulks of the 'P.S. Sapphire' located on Moorna Station, downstream from Wentworth,
The 'P.S. Wardell', which is sitting in a Creek just over the S.A. Border, and of the 'Emerald Barge' possibly located near Chowilla Woolshed.

[ljhall]

Have spent a couple of hours doing some searching and have pics of assorted Paddleboats from the Eastern States, most of which haven't already been featured on this site !

Queensland:

The 'Captain Sturt' Paddle Wheeler, owned and operated by Dreamworld at Coomera, built in 1980/81, and commissioned on Dec 15, 1981. She operates on a man-made Moat inside the theme park.
The Captain Sturt is a smaller, diesel powered replica of the 'Mark Twain' at Disneyland in California.
She isn't actually a fake Paddleboat, the Stern Wheel does actually propell the boat, but she runs on rails under the water line, just like her sister ships overseas.
She used to look like a floating wedding cake, but has since been repainted in 'bright' colours, - I think I prefer the white with black trim.

The old 'Maid of Sker' C. 1884/85 is still sitting in Bischoff Park in Nerang, I saw her recently, but I didn't have a camera or the time and I can't find any up to date pics of her either.
Since late 2003, she has been re-furbished, re-painted and re-located a few hundred yards closer to the road way, acting as a gateway to the Nerang Township.
She now has replica paddles fitted, don't know why, as there was nothing wrong with the originals, and the current ones look a bit tacky, with very thin rims and very few floats.
Local Service Clubs have built a ramp up to near the Deck Level, but that's as far as you can go, as there is no entry permitted onboard.
Not that there's much to her, she's basically an iron hull with Paddle Boxes similar in size and shape to the ones on the 'Adelaide'.
The boat also has her Boiler and quite a tall Funnel, and as I said before...(new wheels), but no Steam Engine, and very little Super-Structure, so basically you can see the whole boat from the outside anyway.

I was out on a job down on the Gold Coast earlier this month when I noticed a very presentable and very American looking Stern Wheeler, called the 'Riviera', it turns out that she's for sale, and is decked out just like a modernised Queenslander House internally, (with a slight Mississippi influence).
The 'Riviera' is about 60' in length, triple decked and painted out in Green and Cream, I don't know any more about this Vessel as yet.

Slightly further north in Brisbane, the 'Kookaburra River Queens' (already featured), still ply the Brisbane River, but not as often as the owners would like, they were both recently sold yet again, and have been suffering from a lack of patronage, apparently too many people are opting to go on the City Cat Ferries instead, but I'm at a loss to understand this as they are 'completely different' vessels.

The 'Brisbane Paddle Wheeler', with the Fake Red Stern Wheel is now owned by Bris Vegas Cruises and is moored downstream from the City near Brett's Wharf, the Vessel is 31 years old and recently under went a re-furbishment which included new diesel engines.

The Steam Tug 'Forceful' is still moored at the Maritime Museum, nothing much has happened to her in a while, the Museum is currently still trying to raise enough funds to bring the Vessel back to Survey standard.

I haven't included  'Thomson Belle' out at Longreach as she features in a thread of her own, I'm not sure on whether she's been operating lately though as the Thomson River flooded and would still be quite high.

There are 2 Paddleboats way up North, at Cairns, the 'P.V. Louisa' operates on Trinity Inlet and the Cairns Harbour, and at Port Douglas, the 'P.V. Lady Douglas' operates from Marina Mirage and cruises up Dickson Inlet, this Vessel is newer than the 'Louisa'.

New South Wales:

The 'P.V. Nepean Belle' and 'P.V. Jandra'still operate at Penrith and Bourke respectively and the 'P.V. Hawkesbury Paddle Wheeler' operates from the Old Windsor Wharf at Windsor just west of Sydney.
This Vessel was re-furbished, re-located and re-named some years back, it was previously the 'Lane Cove Paddle Wheeler', and operated on the Lane Cove River nearby. the National Parks and Wildlife Service banished her from the River, due to the fact that her wash was degrading the river banks.
The Hawkesbury Paddle Wheeler now operates in a similar way to the Nepean Belle.

Victoria:

The 'P.V.Begonia Princess' is on Lake Wendouree and is the sister vessel to the former 'Golden City', gutted by fire almoost 2 years ago, actually work has already started on the 'Golden City' Replica, the photo of her hull being rotated by a Crane was taken in Nov. 07, so things are definitely happenning.

[ljhall]

OK, I'm hoping to be able to post a few photos this time !

[ljhall]

Just a few at a time !

[ljhall]

Here is part of the Brisbane Fleet, hopefully !!!

[Roderick Smith]

See www.riverlandboatsales.com.au/william.html
2 deck, 2 yo, 20 m x 8 m
Open plan design - Upstairs Bedroom B/I/R
Diesel motorised 96Hp Inter Neauz
Mooring available

I saw this one at the 2006 Wentworth Junction Rally.

The same site reveals that SWPV Samuel Clemens has been sold.

Regards,
Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor