The Cruise on the Emmylou

When the boys returned we headed down to the port and purchased our tickets for the one hour cruise on the Emmylou. This is the restaurant, Oscar W, where we had dinner the night before - and where I left my purse on a chair - I went back and retrieved it.

The P.S. Emmylou is a Murray River paddlesteamer, driven by a completely restored 1906 steam engine, and built to the highest world classification standards. She was built locally during 1980-82 in the style of the 19th century paddleboats, and is perfectly at home in the Port of Echuca, residing with the very few remaining paddlesteamers of the past. She is 30 metres long and 10 metres wide, steel hulled and timber decked.

The Emmylou is in fact the only wood-fired paddlesteamer in the world offering regular overnight cruising. Fuelled by redgum logs and named after US country and western singer Emmylou Harris.
http://www.murrayriver.com.au/murray-river-paddle-steamers-965/

This next photo is for Fiona...........

P.S. Pevensey is named after a sheep property on the Murrumbidgee River called Pevensey Station.In the old days P.S. Pevensey carried 120 tons of cargo. The Pevensey collected bales of wool from station properties and brought them to the Echuca wharf. At the Port of Echuca the wool was loaded onto trains and taken to Melbourne for shipping overseas.

The Pevensey is special because it is an authentic paddlesteamer with its original steam engine. Today the Pevensey is known to people all over the world for its role as “Philadelphia” in the Australian television mini-series ‘All the River Run’, made in Echuca in 1982-1983.

http://www.echucapaddlesteamers.net.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=49&Itemid=60

 There were hundreds of trees like this one, just holdijng on. No wonder we used to be frustrated as kids when we went yabbying in the Condamine and the little suckers would pull the meat on the end of the string into the tree roots just like these.

 The Murray River flag first appeared at Goolwa to honour the first Paddle steamer on the Murray River, the Mary Ann, on the barge Eureka. It is the only flag in the world named in honour of a river.


The flag was described by a reporter of the Australian Register as "the flag bears a red cross with four horizontal blue bars. The Cross being charged with five stars as emblems of the colonies while the upper corner, is taken up with British connections which is depicted by the Union Jack. It has been named, we understand, the Murray River flag and it has been said that the blue bars represent the four major rivers that run into the Murray river, the Murrumbidgee, Lachlan and the Darling."

 This sign marks the point at which we were 1712 km from the mouth of the Murray.

 This boat went past as we were walking away, blowing her steam and her horn. It's a magnificent sound and gives me a chill!!

Now my dream of sailing on a paddleboat on the Murray River has come true. I don't know what inspired the dream. Maybe it was because I grew up on a riverbank; maybe it was the tv series "All the Rivers Run" that I watched as a 20year old; I suspect it was a combination of both mixed in with a love of all things Australian:

Music
Bushwackers, Ants Bush Band etc;

Poetry
Henry Lawson (Andy's Gone With Cattle, The Glass on the Bar, Sweeney (that my Dad used to sing when he'd had a few too many Pilseners), Mary Called Him Mister, Middleton's Rouseabout, Scots of the Riverina, The Shearer's Dream (that I have a memory of my Grandmother reciting);
Banjo Paterson (Waltzing Matilda (I once bought a reproduction of the original transcript of the music, intending to one day have it framed - that might be my Christmas present this year if the framer is able to flatten out the page after it being rolled up in a cylinder for twenty odd years), The Man, Clancy (that I once recited for a family friend to tape) and my all time favourite, Lost, from where this blog gets her name - "The old man walked to the sliprail and peered up the darkening track "-and I have a very strong recollection of my Grandfather reciting it. I can still hear his voice and inflection at certain intervals and the desperation of the mother that he was able to portray.
Anonymous - My Brother Ben and I - another poem recited by my Grandfather that used to send shivers up and down my spine. I tried to pick out a verse to post but I couldn't choose a favourite - so I guess I now have a good idea for some future posting - my favourite Australian poems in full. Bet you're all looking forward to that one!!!
Bernard Espinasse - Marion Lee - "To the Wanderer's Rest at the foot of the Rise...." - again recited with passion by my GF. As a ten year old, I wanted to be as brave as Marion Lee.
I think it was GF, William Thomas Wormwell, who planted my love of bush poetry all those years ago. Nowadays, if I hear a bush poet, no-one comes near "Farth".

Legends
Well there's only one really - Ned.

Now that I've had a nice time reminiscing about my childhood I'm off outside to plant - lettuce x 2 punnets, roma tomatoes (because I had such great success with them two years ago and haven't really matched since), zucchini, cucumber, silverbeet, basil, thyme, sage and some thumbelina zinnia.