This year’s 100th anniversary of the launching of the paddleboat Alexander Arbuthnot at Koondrook will be celebrated at a community event at the Koondrook Wharf and Apex Park on Friday, October 27 from 4pm – 7.30pm.
The event is funded through a $24,500 grant from the Foundation for Rural & Regional Renewal (FRRR). During the event, interpretive signage will be unveiled showcasing the extensive research from the Barham Koondrook Historical Society and volunteers on the local paddleboat history.
PS Alexander Arbuthnot is so named after the former owner of the Arbuthnot Sawmills at Koondrook, Alexander ‘Squire’ James Cooke Arbuthnot. His father, Alexander ‘Sandy’ Arbuthnot was the founder of the sawmills.
The hull of PS Alexander Arbuthnot began life as a barge built in Koondrook by shipwright Charles Felshaw in 1916. In 1923, the affectionately known ‘AA’ was commissioned and then towed to Echuca for the fitting of engine, boiler and superstructure and commenced its new job as a working steamer towing barges laden with red gum logs from the nearby forests for the Arbuthnot Sawmills.
AA’s typical schedule involved towing two outrigger barges upstream from the mill, with two men to each barge, dropping them off at a landing where the barges would be loaded with logs and then floated, unaided by the steamer, downstream back to the mill. Meanwhile, AA would return to the mill, collect another barge and ply downstream to Campbell’s Island, where it would await the loading of the barge and tow it back. Each barge was capable of transporting about 300 tons for red gum logs.
AA worked at the mill until the 1940s, being replaced by the PS Hero and on sold to charcoal producers at Barmah, who used her to bring bagged charcoal to the Echuca Wharf during World War II. In 1947, after the war ended, she became redundant and eventually sank.
A group of volunteers from Shepparton raised her in 1972 for use at the International Village Theme Park but in 1989, PS Alexander Arbuthnot was bought by the Echuca City Council for further restoration by the Port of Echuca.
Recommissioned in December 1994, AA now spends its days taking up to 47 passengers on cruises.
The Alexander Arbuthnot, currently owned by the Campaspe Port Enterprise, will be in attendance at the celebration, river levels and completion of a routine inspection permitting.
Koondrook Development Committee president, Tom Chick, said preparations are going very well.
“Everything is going very well. Patrica [Tom’s wife] has just completed putting together a lot of the history that the Barham Koondrook Historical Society has gathered for us.
“We’re anxiously awaiting to know if they can get the Alexander Arbuthnot onto the drydock in Echuca for its annual hull inspection.
“It was actually due (the inspection) late last year but the drydock got damaged in the 2022 floods.”
With the fate of AA attendance in the lap of the river gods, the team of volunteers’ attention is focused on the production of the interpretive signage, art show and kids activities.
“We’re still going to have the unveiling of the interpretive signage that recognises Koondrook’s place on the Murray River and its history and the very important contribution to riverboat trade and activity.”
Local school kids have been working on artworks for the competition and an open category art competition is available to everyone with a river, riverboat and bush theme, with judging by people’s choice.
Entertainment will abound on the day with the Billy Tea Bush Band, magic by the Amazing Mister Mike, Turtles Australia and even Roberts Model Paddle Steamers.
This article appeared in The Koondrook and Barham Bridge Newspaper, 10 August 2023.
