Restored paddle steamer set for River Murray return
A 118-year-old paddle steamer transformed by dozens of dedicated volunteers, is expected to be running cruises along the River Murray by December.
Thousands of donated hours have been spent over the past 15 years restoring the PS Canally, once the fastest steamboat on the river, back to its former glory.
Mid Murray Council and the community volunteers involved in the project, anticipate cruises on the historic boat will become a tourism drawcard for the district and neighbouring river towns.
Mid Murray Maritime and Heritage Board chairman, and Mid Murray councillor, Kevin Myers is the brainchild behind the community project.
“We have volunteers who are carpenters, welders, and a lot of people who have retired from various trades,” he said.
“Everyone has a little niche.
“They have performed ongoing work the whole time and this will continue.
“One volunteer is a retired electrician, and he is doing all the electrical work.”
The restored PS Canally features a galley, bathroom, and an old-fashioned woodstove will be installed.
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Inmates from Cadell Training Centre have also been contributing to her transformation by painting the rooms and walls.
As well as the contributions by volunteers, the project so far has cost $1.5m including $446,000 received from the Federal Government’s Murray-Darling Basin Economic Development Program in 2021.
After spending two years in Mannum undergoing a major part of its transformation, the PS Canally finally returned to Morgan in February.
Fans of the paddle steamer and the hard-working volunteers followed her two-and-a-half-day journey home via Walker Flat, Swan Reach, and Blanchetown on social media.
She was greeted at Morgan by about 50 people, many from other River Murray towns.
Later that month, the PS Canally steamed to the boat slip at Berri and was assessed by a surveyor from Maritime Survey Australia who is also generously donating his time.
“If we were a private commercial operation, we would be paying him a lot of money to do this job,” Mr Myers said.
“But because it is a heritage vessel, he does this for free,” he said.
“He also surveys the PS Industry at Renmark, and he doesn’t charge, he must just have a love for these historic boats.”
The surveyor will give the final safety approval for the PS Canally to take paying passengers on cruises, hopefully by the end of the year.
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As part of the process, the surveyor also conducted a test in April to determine how many people the boat could safely carry on cruises by placing four 1000L drums, each weighing one tonne on board.
A brand-new merbau wooden deck was constructed for the boat by a Goolwa-based shipwright who was contracted to do this work at Mannum.
Myers said renovating the PS Canally was no different to working on a house.
He said handrails were also installed as part of the safety requirements the boat needed to meet to carry passengers.
A fire alarm system, emergency lighting, and plumbing system suitable to handle grey water, black water, and freshwater have also been put in.
Myers said the 2022/2023 River Murray flood and the Covid-19 pandemic caused some delays to the project.
He said due to the high river levels during this period and the fact that the boat was moored behind a levee bank at Mannum, volunteers were unable to work on the project for several months.
“The only way people could access the boat was to put a tinny in the river to check on it,” he said.
The Mid Murray Maritime and Heritage Board and Mid Murray Council are also hoping to collaborate with the neighbouring District Council of Loxton Waikerie to run cruises from the Waikerie riverfront in the future.
The PS Canally will use a mooring site formerly used by the now Loxton based Murray River Queen paddleboat, when Waikerie was its home.
“It is in a bit of disrepair after the flood, but the District Council of Loxton Waikerie is more than willing for the PS Canally to moor there when it visits Waikerie, Mr Myers said.
“It may also involve Cadell Training Centre prisoners to tidy up the mooring site and help fix it,” he said.
“At one stage there were plans to remove it, but we have shown interest in it and explained that it is still a safe and stable mooring facility.”
Myers said the boat is expected to be officially recommissioned next year during the Morgan Living River Festival planned for June.
