Rise and fall of the paddle steamer -inland river transport

In my last post I suggested that the history of inland river transport threw a clear light on economic competition between the colonies, competition that affected the history of New England. However, the rise and fall and now rise of the paddle steamer (the ships were all paddle steamers) is an interesting story in its own right.

1836 saw the establishment of the colony of South Australia. The possible use of the Murray River as a highway to draw traffic and business into South Australia from the pastoral interior attracted early attention. In 1850, just fourteen years after the colony's foundation, the SA Government offered a prize of 2,000 pounds each (a very substantial sum) for the first vessels to reach the junction of the Murray and Darling rivers. Two vessels, the Mary Anne and Lady Augusta, did so in 1853.

Between 1855 and 1859 a serious of adventurous voyages established the practical limitations of navigation along the winding sometimes tortuous river systems. A series of inland ports grew up: Bourke, Menindee and Wilcannia on the Darling; Balranald, Hay, Narranderra and Wagga Wagga on the Muurrumbidgee; Wentworth, Mildura, Swann Hill and Echuca on the Murray. Ultimately nearly 200 vessels were built to service the trade.

I have spoken before of the cost advantages of water versus horse or bullock drawn land travel. Even though the distances involved along the rivers were vast, the river vessels provided a more cost effective option for inland grown wool. This attracted freight, freight that the mercantile interests in each colony were keen to attract.

Initially Goolwa at the mouth of the Murray in South Australia was the main port. However, the river mouth created real problems for navigation, leading the South Australian Government to build a horse tramway (Australia's first public railway) from Goolwa to the nearby blue waters of the Southern Ocean at Port Elliot.

The freight business was too lucrative to allow South Australia's position to remain unchallenge. The Victorian Government quickly began to build a railway reaching Echuca in 1864. Echuca was only 250 kilometres (155 miles) from Melbourne, and the new line changed the shape of river trade. From this point, the majority of the steamers from the Murrumbidgee and Darling went upstream to Echuca instead of downstream to Goolwa. Measured by number of ships, Echuca became Victoria's second busiest port.

Fourteen years later (1878), the railway from Adelaide finally reached the Murray at Morgan. South Australia could again compete with Echuca, attracting Darling and lower Murray traffic. However, this newly acquired advantage was short lived.

NSW had begun its own railway building program. During the 1880s these lines at last reached the navigable waters of the inland rivers first at Wagga Wagga, then at Albury, Narandera and Hay. In 1887 the railway reached Bourke, a line directly designed to capture Darling traffic. Freight previously sent by ship to Echuca or Morgan was now sent to Sydney.

From the beginning of the shipping trade there had been discussions about the need for works to improve river navigability, especially on the bigger Murray. As early as 1863 an intercolonial conference resolved that action should be taken to improve Murray navigation. However, no action was taken.

NSW was the core diffficulty. While improvements to river navigation might improve the position of NSW pastoralists, they would also damage the revenues of NSW's growing railway system. It was not until 1917 that the states signed the Murray River Waters Agreement establishing the Murray River Commission. The new Commission began work on river improvements in the twenties, but by then the growing number of motor vehicles had sounded the final death knell for river shipping as a major transport mode.

Some shipping survived. However, the real resurgence of the paddle steamer came not from freight but from carriage of tourists who provided a far more lucrative marketplace. Today, steamers such as the PS Adelaide shown in the photograph and operated by the Port of Echuca again ply the Murray.

Source: Australian Heritage Commission, australia our national story, Chapter 2, "Ports and Shipping, 1788-1870, http://www.ahc.gov.au/publications/national-stories/transport/chapter2.html.

Inland river transport - an aside

I have just been reading with interest the story of the rise and fall of shipping on the Murray Darling River system.

While some of its headwaters lie in New England and some New England wool was probably shipped out on it, the Darling River itself lies to the west of New England, the Murray River far to the south. Much of the history of shipping on the broader Murray Darling river system is therefore peripheral to the history of New England itself. However, there is one feature that is relevant.

The navigable parts of the Murray Darling system flowed through three colonies/states, NSW, Victoria and South Australia. During the colonial period, each was completely independent with their own taxation systems. Each colony maintained a series of boarder posts collecting tariffs on goods entering the colony. Each competed with the others for control of trade.

The history of shipping on the Murray Darling throws a clear light on this competition. This is relevant to New England because, as I suggested in an earlier post, its history too was affected by fights for control of trade and economic activity.

As an economist as well as historian, I am well aware of and indeed agree with the general arguments in favour of competition as a device for improved economic performance. However, as an historian I can also see that just because something is does not mean that it was preordained to be. Those who control the levers of political and economic power can and will shift the playing field in their direction. General arguments about the state or national interest (essentially my interests versus yours) have a long and sometimes slippery history.

I will therefore write up the history of inland shipping in a later post.

Photographic Frustrations part resolved

I managed to part resolve the photographic frustrations mentioned in my last post by a simple change in search methods.

I had been searching using general terms, ships grafton, for example. By searching on specific companies, North Coast Steam Navigation Company for example, I found a lot of new material not just on ships and shipping, but also articles on people and activities in some way associated with the companies. I ended up downloading several hundred pages of material - I still find it much easier, faster and more enjoyable to read printed pages - for later reading.

Photographic Frustrations

It is almost a fortnight since my last post. I have not been completely idle. I have been frustrated.

I decided that I should start adding photos to the site. A photo really does tell a thousand words in bringing dry text alive. So I started trawling the web looking for public domain shipping photos in the first instance. I could not find any.

It is astonishing that regional centres in New England - Grafton is an example - that have a rich history do not provide photos in support. What does it matter if the photos are copied? Every attributed copied photo spreads the story. But I don't think that the real problem lies in worries about copyright. I think it's just that they have not thought about it.

If anyone out there can help me find photos, please help.

More positively, I have used some of the background material I have been collecting on the wool industry to start a new section, "On the Wool Track" on the Regional Living Australia site - see http://www.regionalliving.com.au/index.cfm?p=2332