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Port of Echuca

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captain oddsocks
captain oddsocks
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5 out of 5
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The Port of Echuca

The Port of Echuca

Part museum, part railway station and part working wharf, entry to the Port of Echuca is by the ticket-booth where the old steam engine and elevated footbridge are visible behind the tall picket fence. The best value is with a combined ticket. The adult price for a cruise is $18.50, and entry to the port is $11.50, but the combined ticket for both is $24, (a $6/20% saving). There are further discounts for seniors, children and families. Cruises run at set times through the day; the first at 10:15am and the last at 3:45pm, but it doesn’t matter what time you arrive, as you can explore the port and its displays at your own pace until your cruise is ready to depart, and catch up with anything you missed when your cruise returns.

The first building you’ll come to inside is the small railway station; only a few feet wide, but with space enough for the stationmaster’s desk and equipment, yellowed old timetables, and a small display about the filming of All the Rivers Run.

You’ll then walk around the end of the railway line, where vintage engines and carriages are loaded with historic farm equipment. Over the tracks is the wooden cargo shed, which houses most of the indoor displays, including a ten-minute audio-visual presentation, a diorama of the port in the 1880s, ropes as thick as a man’s arm, and the PHILADELPHIA sign that the Pevensey wore during her short but brilliant film career.

You can easily spend an hour going through the exhibits in the cargo shed, but if the steam whistle calls you for your cruise, you can enter and exit as many times as you like.

The external parts of the port that are included in your entry ticket are the Sawmills and the Star Hotel. The Sawmills are accessible along the boardwalk to the north of the wharf and display steam-powered machinery and wood-milling techniques. The Star Hotel has reopened as a hotel and is not a bad place for a drink, but the main reason to call in is to see the secret underground bar and escape tunnel.

Visiting the port for the first time since childhood, the most interesting things to me were;
• The redgum wharf today is around 75m long, but at its peak in the 1880s it was 332m; (almost a quarter of a mile for you imperial folks).
• There were once 79 hotels in Echuca, including the Cricketers’ Arms, the Builders’ Arms and the Horse and Jockey. (Echuca had around 4,000 residents at the time and today its 15,000 residents make do with only 12 pubs).
• The steamers use around 1 ton of wood/hour when loaded and when unloaded can scrape through shallows of as little as two feet deep, which is quite amazing when you consider that they are over 100 feet long, 20 feet wide, and weigh more than 100 tons.
• The panoramic view from the top of the wharf.

From journal Echuca; Australia's Paddlesteamer town

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