"My girlfriend said she would look for a house and I would look for a boat, but then she realised houses are expensive and maybe we should just live on the boat. Houses are well and good, but you can't move your house, can you?"

After almost two weeks of uncertainty, and six months' worth of mud drying on the weary paddle wheeler's hull, Longreach tourism company Outback Pioneers revealed the boat would not be able to cruise again.

It's an ignominious resting place for the 99-year-old wooden paddle wheeler, which attracted national headlines when it was trucked nearly 1,750 kilometres from country Victoria to Longreach in May 2022.

In a truly mammoth and unique transport task, an historic 100-year-old paddlewheeler will make its way across three states, travelling on a 1700-kilometre journey to its new home.