Echuca

On the broad, slow-moving waters of the Murray River, Echuca Wharf stands as a living monument to the riverboat era that once stitched the interior of a continent together. Built in 1865 from towering river red gum, the wharf’s original 75-metre length (once 332 metres) still bears the grooves of wool bales and the ghosts of steam-driven commerce. Today, the world’s largest fleet of operating paddle steamers — including the venerable PS Adelaide (1866) and PS Pevensey (1911) — churns the chocolate-brown water, their rhythmic *thump-thump* and billowing stacks evoking a time when the Murray was the highway of the colonies. Aboard, polished brass, Tasmanian blackwood panelling, and open decks invite you to surrender to the river’s unhurried pulse, while the port’s restored cargo sheds house workshops where shipwrights still practise the vanishing arts of caulking and steam engineering.