Paddlers alive and well in Australia

[Paulrjordan]

I have just spent an hour going through the sites that new Member Jim
(Stein) sent from Australia.

On one, which lists Paddle Wheelers of the "Murray River" I counted 53
OPERATING Paddle wheelers, 9 under restoration and a further 5 under
CONSTRUCTION!!! Only two were declared "non-operational. Somebody
had once told me "If you want to see sidewheelers..go to OZ"

This living museum must be a constant source of inspiration to model
builders in Australia, and I am hoping that many will follow Derek and
Jim to Paddleducks. Well I guess we've found the location for the
First Paddleducks International Model Paddlefest in 2005!!!

I'm opening a subfolder in our PADDLE SHIP RESEARCH CENTRE folder
called "Paddlewheelers in Australia" and will include all the links
Jim sent us with any more as they come in. Bookmarks can be found at

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Paddleducks/links

Thanks, Jim, for opening our eyes to this wonderful collection of
vessels.