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PS Adelaide

Vessel numberHV000393

Builder George Linklater

Designer George Linklater

Previous owner D Blair & Partners

Previous owner Murray River Sawmill & Co

Previous owner McCulloch Carrying Co.

Previous owner AB Rowe & Sons

Previous owner Echuca Apex Club

Vessel type Paddle Steamers of the Murray-Darling

Date1866

DimensionsVessel Dimensions: 32.16 m x 5.18 m x 0.71 m (105.52 ft x 17 ft x 2.33 ft)

DescriptionPS ADELAIDE was built by shipwright George Linklater in 1866. The owners were JG Grassie and S&H Officer. The wooden hull is 32.16 metres long. It was planked in red gum over iron frames.The engines were two single cylinder steam engines made in Australia by Fulton and Shaw. They gave a total of 27 kw or 36 hp.

It was used initially at the Murray Downs homestead to carry wool to Echuca and bring family members to the town for shopping or other excursions. It was soon used to tow wool barges and was engaged in this trade until 1872, when it was purchased by Blair and Partners to be used as a logging steamer for their mill Murray River Sawmills. The paddle boxes were rebuilt to a square configuration early in their ownership. Once or twice a week it would tow up to three barges laden with logs cut from the Barmah Forest area. Road transport only took over this role in this area in 1957, at which point PS ADELAIDE was retired after 91 years of operations.

It then spent a brief time further down the Murray River in South Australia before being returned to ECHUCA in 1960. It was removed from the water and set into the ground at Hopwood Gardens as a monument to the riverboat history of the Murray. It was surrounded by a rose garden until a project was begun in 1983 to return the craft to the water. By 1984 it was floating again and in 1985 the Prince and Princess of Wales re-commissioned PS ADELAIDE in a ceremony on their tour of the region.

PS ADELAIDE remains afloat as an attraction at the Port of Echuca along with other paddle steamers and the restored wharf precinct. It operates occasionally and is able to carry up to 49 passengers. Remarkably, PS ADELAIDE still operates with its original Fulton and Shaw engines.

Prepared with assistance from the Register of Australian and New Zealand Ships and Boats compiled by Mori Flapan; www.boatregister.net
SignificancePS ADELAIDE is a paddle steamer from the Murray River on the border between New South Wales and Victoria. It was built in 1866 at Echuca on the Victorian side of the river, and is the oldest wooden-hulled paddle steamer still in operational condition in the world. It has strong associations to the Murray River region, having operated for nearly a century - from 1866 until the late 1950s - almost exclusively around the town of Echuca on the Murray River, where it remains in 2010. It was restored to working order between 1983 and 1985. The PS ADELAIDE displays the initial semi-circular paddle box arrangement, and is complete with its original Australian made engines.

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