Dec.12 Australian Railway History (published by Australian Railway Historical Society) contains a detailed analysis of traffic flows of NSW & Qld wool byriver & rail to Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney & Brisbane, and how the flows were distorted by predatory rates. It is heavy slogging, and the author's interpretations are very NSW biassed.
Included are several photos from Hay Historical Society, which I have never seen before. I enclose the two river ones.
PS Ulonga and barge passing through the swing bridge at Hay (opened by Sir Henry Parkes in 1874 and replaced in 1973) on its way down Murrumbidgee River to either Swan Hill or Echuca, where the wool bales will be unloaded onto Victorian Railways wagons for the journey to Melbourne. Paddlesteamers featured prominently in the wool wars between the colonies of Victoria, SA and NSW; so much so that the NSW government lamented the fact that it had spent so much of the colony's resources constructing the south-western line from Junee to Hay.
Barge Ada at Hay. Ian Ronald writes: "Travelling upstream was permitted at night but going downstream it was considered too dangerous for going round a sharp bend, the barge could swing out too far and crash into an overhanging tree on the bank. The barges were towed with a large stout line and were steered by a wheel which was fastened to a narrow platform extending the width of the barge; this of course had to be raised as each successive tier of wool was loaded ...". The large steamers carried 300-500 bales and the larger barges 1200-1500; the record is credited to PS Pevensey and barge Kulnine in Aug.1931 when they took somewhere about 1900 bales. (Hay Historical Society Proceedings No. 1 pages 17-18).
PS Ulonga was one of three identical (or very similar) vessels. PS Pevensey (preserved today at Echuca) was another. The other was PS Wanera, converted from barge TP. The hull survives today. Ada survives on the bank at Echuca, and was craned further away from the slipway in Aug.12,
I was in Hay on Tues.13.1.70, but could not have walked over that swing bridge: the train was timetabled for a stop of only 80 min; the station was at the north end of the town; the bridge was at the south end. I may well be confusing it with Balranald (over which I did walk during an overnight stay). By the time I was back by tour bus (~1976) and car (~1977), the new bridge had replaced the old. From memory, it was the only swing bridge on the Murray-Darling system. Most were the tower-type lifting bridges; a few were bascule (and only on the tributaries; none over the main Murray).
Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor
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