This month’s Sticky Beaks outing was an interesting one.
After loading the bus with our coffee, tea and biscults and tasty cake slices kindly donated by Norman the 9 Sticky Beaks were ready for another adventure.
We headed off this month to Mannum to explore the Paddle steamer called ‘PS MARION’. Upon arrival into Mannum we set up for a quick coffee and cake break before entering the Mannum Museum for a Sticky beak. Very interesting information and displays of Mannums past paddle steamers and written history and photos of their past floods. Next stop was ‘behind the scenes’ tour of the PS MARION.
We were very fortunate to have William Quinn (Buster) with us because Buster has been and still is a volunteer on the Marion for around 13 yrs and there isn’t much that he doesn’t know about this paddle steamer. Taking us on board and behind the scenes he gave us a full run down on its history.
Having being built as a barge in1897 at Milang by AH Landeers for Mr G Fowler of Adelaide.
A 20 hp Marshell steam plant was installed in 1900 and is still in use today.
Engine is a twin cylinder 11 inch bore with a 16 inch stroke.
Length is 111.8ft. (34m)
Breadth 22ft Depth 5.9ft.
Paddle wheels are 14 feet diameter with12 paddles on each side.
Gross tonnage is approx 180.
Murray Council it is based now in Mannum.
With overnight cruises she can carry 28 passengers and 12 crew.
Still in active use today she is crewed by all volunteers.
It is believed to be the oldest original steam driven overnight passenger vessel operating in the world.
This was a very interesting tour and we all appreciated Busters knowledge and guided tour
After our great lunch at the Community Club in Mannum we headed to Murray Bridge for the traditional soft serve ice cream.
Then heading for home we detoured of slightly to check out what Malcolm John’s gets up to in his backyard shed. With so much dedication and skill Malcolm makes
Graders, Motorbikes etc etc out of pine. The pictures gives you some idea of his skills.
This bulldozer is 1959 Catapillar D6. It took 250 hours to build. Absolutely amazing effort by one man. Thank you Malcolm for letting us Sticky beak your shed. Home safe and satisfied from a great day out enjoyed by Norman, Trevor, Wayne, Ron, Rob, Mel, Buster, Kevin and myself.
On our next trip we head off to Port Adelaide where we are booked to Sticky beak over the Clipper Adelaide which has now been shifted to high ground for further renovations. If you would like to see the Clipper please put your name forward at the MOSH. We set off at 09.00am on the 3rd Tuesday of every month.
Cheers Gerry.