A recent interstate road trip with lifelong friend Martin Bryan, led us to a glide on the Murray river. Aficionados of wooden boats ogle at the age of Echuca’s paddle steamers. We took the PS Adelaide, claimed by the owners to be “the oldest working wooden hulled paddle steamer in the world”. She was built in 1866. This  claim deserved research and I will refer to the result below.

What I’m personally more interested in is the mentality… the relentless determination.. that drives this group of volunteers to show up every week and chip away at what must at times seem like an infinite task.