– a gentle paddle up an iconic river –
We had decided to follow the iconic Murray River along the Victorian border and were headed to Sea Lake after a brief stay in Rutherglen. An overnight stop was in order and Echuca conveniently presented itself as a way point on Google Maps. That’s no coincidence by the way. The same thinking has no doubt featured in many, many other people’s plans over the centuries and partly explains how it became the largest inland port in Australia.
We had arrived late the night before and decided that we couldn’t leave town without partaking in the obvious tourist draw card, a trip on an old paddle steamer along the Murray River. We had booked a morning cruise on the SS Alexander Arbuthnot. It wasn’t the usual thing we would go for, but if in Rome….!
We started with a nice breakfast at local vegan cafe, Sweet Meadow near the port area. A tasty and healthy start to the day.
We had booked our paddle steamer tickets a few weeks earlier – definitely recommended, especially in COVID time as we noticed that a few people had shown up only to be turned away!
The we made our way directly to “old Echuca” as some of the locals call it – this is the Port end of Murray Esplanade. The crowds hadn’t arrived yet – it would be chockful of people within about an hour! The Port of Echuca building is right at the end of the road.
It turned out that having bought our tickets online via the Port of Echuca (rather than directly from the tour operator), we were able to get an early entry onto the boat via the Port museum. So we had an opportunity to visit the museum exhibits minus the crowd as well!
After a quick wander around the museum we seated ourselves at the back of the boat and managed a photo of the SS Pevensey docked nearby. Not in as quite a good condition as our boat – the SS Arbuthnot.
It wasn’t long before the rest of the passengers joined us and we set off. We enjoyed prime position views as we gently cruised down the river.
There were a number of private boats moored along the edge of the river, including this beauty:
As we cruised, the friendly boathand, engineer and captain gave us a rundown on the history of shipping at Echuca and the workings of the boat.
We also learned the reason why the Murray River seemed to be so low during our visit. That day, 15 May, was actually the last day of irrigation season. Presumably, if we were to visit a few months from now, the River would be more full and would probably take on a completely different character.
We had hoped to follow the cruise with a visit to the historical sawmill that lent its name to the boat – the Arbuthnot Sawmills. The SS Alexander Arbuthnot was once a barge used by the sawmill before its conversion to a paddle steamer. Unfortunately, the mill is only open from Monday to Friday, with a tour available at 2pm on those days. As it was Saturday, we therefore needed to change our plans and settled on a walk through Gunbower Island State Forest at Koondrook.
We knew we wouldn’t be able to complete either of the loop walking trails given that we had to be in Sea Lake by 5pm, so we chose to only walk 1.5km return.
We managed a few nice views of the creek, but to be frank the walk, which was mostly through logged red gum forest, wasn’t particularly notable. Personally, I wouldn’t recommend it. If I had the time on my hands, I would probably replace it with other activities in Echuca – of which there are a few. Or if you’re headed to Sea Lake, like we were, leave early and catch more of the town in the afternoon daylight.
And by the way, if you are headed in the direction of Sea Lake, here’s another possibility for a brief stop along the way. This was Lake Tutchewop – I like an expansive lake view!
If you’d like to knoe more about Sea lake, then click here to see our next post.
find out more at the echuca website: https://www.echucamoama.com/
