A 100-year-old paddlewheeler, ‘Pride of the Murray’, was recently removed from the Murray River in Echuca and will be transported on a mega trailer more than 1700km to its new home in Longreach.
More than 40 people, a 26-metre long and 8.7-metre-wide trailer, 700-horsepower prime mover, police escort and nerves of steel were needed to lift the 100-tonne vessel.
To add to the complications, the old wooden boat needs to be kept wet during the trip and be back in the water within seven days.
Undertaking the first ever mega marine move in Australia of this scale, with a boat this age, is tourism entrepreneur Richard Kinnon of the Longreach-based ‘Outback Pioneers’.
“This is believed to be the largest haulage of a marine vessel this old ever undertaken in the Southern Hemisphere,” Mr Kinnon said.
The haulage team consists of two pilots leading a police escort, with the prime mover pulling the trailer being a 700hp FH16 Volvo rated to 220t. The trailer itself is a 12-line Drake Gooseneck Float, rated at 192t.
“Everyone thinks I’m mad. To build a purpose-built boat from scratch would have been a significantly cheaper option but it didn’t meet my own brief which is for our Longreach-based tourism operation to remain true to history.
The vessel will be restored in Longreach over the coming months and it is hoped it will be operational in June.
“The incentive for me and the Kinnon family is millions of tourists will get to enjoy riding the ‘Pride of the Murray’ on the Thomson River for another 100 years,” Mr Kinnon said.
