Alexander Arbuthnot and Pevensey Paddle Steamers

The Paddle Steamers Alexander Arbuthnot and Pevensey tied up at the Echuca Wharf.
The Historic Port of Echuca precinct is an authentic working steam port, home to Australia’s largest fleet of steam-driven paddlesteamers.

Although its major commodity has changed from wool to people, Port of Echuca still operates much the same as it did in the 1860's, with our shipwrights and steam engineers providing a vital role in the Port's operations today, just as they would have in the late 1800's.
The ship was built by the Arbuthnot Sawmill at Koondrook, in 1916, as a barge, and named after the sawmill's founder. She was fitted with an engine and superstructure in 1923. The engine was built by Ruston & Hornsby of England and was once used in an earlier boat called The Glimpse. The ship towed empty barges to the nearby forest to collect logs; then back to the mill where the logs were cut up into lengths of timber. The boat worked at the mill until the 1940s. It was then sold to charcoal producers at Barmah. Eventually in 1947 it sank. Volunteers from Shepparton raised it in 1972 for use at the International Village theme park. In 1989 the Alexander Arbuthnot was bought by the Port of Echuca for further restoration. Currently the Alexander Arbuthnot carries 47 passengers per trip at the Port of Echuca.
PS Pevensey is named after a sheep property on the Murrumbidgee River called Pevensey Station. The paddle steamer was built at the Moama slipway in 1911 by Permewan Wright & Co. Ltd.

Pevensey collected bales of wool from sheep stations and brought them to the Echuca wharf. From the wharf, it was loaded onto trains and taken to Melbourne for export overseas. Pevensey could carry 815 bales of wool and a total of 2000 bales when barges were towed along behind.
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