• Friends of the PS Canally

    A 1907 paddle steamer being restored at the Port of Morgan by a dedicated team of volunteers.

PS Canally is a side wheel paddle steamer, originally launched in 1907, being restored in Morgan by a dedicated team of volunteers.

Built in Koondrook NSW near Echuca in Victoria by RW Beer to take cargo, passengers and work as a trading boat, she was fitted with a steam engine from a locomotive in 1912. At first she largely traded wool from Echuca up the Murrumbidgee River, but then traded dried fruits from the Riverland settlements between Berri and Morgan in South Australia before being used as a work boat in the construction of the lock/weir system on the Murray River in the early 1920s. By 1925 she was in the hands of the Ministry of Public Works NSW and by the 1930s she was in private hands again and based around the Euston region in NSW. The 1940s saw her stripped of her machinery and turned into a barge used to carry firewood for Victorian Railways. In the 1950s she was used as a barge behind the PS Hero which was destroyed by fire in January 1957. The Canally was left tied to the landing at Boundary Bend and through neglect and inattention, eventually sank at her moorings.

In 1998 The Rivers and Riverboat Historical & Preservation Society raised the Canally from the depths of Boundary Bend and began restoration of the hull. In mid 2010 ownership was transferred to the Mid Murray Council and she was carefully towed to Berri for stabilisation of the hull.

In 2011 the Canally moved to her new home at the Port of Morgan.

Phil Reed, Chairperson
0409 608 538
reed.pw@bigpond.com
PO Box 75 Morgan SA 5320

Friends of the PS Canally

A 1907 paddle steamer being restored at the Port of Morgan by a dedicated team of volunteers.