PS MAYFLOWER: at Morgan on the Murray River in South Australia

It' a quiet and peaceful holiday town these days, but the two hotels and the magnificent Landseer Warehouse are solid proof of the role Morgan once played as a thriving port on the River Murray. And inside the tearooms of what used to be the Morgan Railway Station, John Seton takes us back to the days when the riverboats and trains, worked overtime sending goods to Adelaide as South Australia fought to win trade from those dreaded Victorians further upstream.

"The railway played a pivotal role in the history of Morgan. In 1864 the opening of the Echuca railway line upstream, diverted a lot of river traffic to Melbourne, so the South Australian government opened a line from here at the northwest bend at Morgan to Port Adelaide to recapture some of that lost river trade".

The line from Morgan to Port Adelaide also meant the riverboat captains no longer had to complete the journey all the way to Goolwa, an epic 320 kilometre trip. By the 1880's this historic river port was booming.

"24-hour shifts on the wharf, six trains a day used to leave here with freight. It was a very busy port".

And on their journeys the riverboat captains drew their own rolling maps on sheets of linen.

"The early riverboats never had any windows and the rain came straight in and made it damp and then he rolled it on, so it stayed damp and stained it".

"And what's that?"

"That's where he put his cigarette".

But there are no stains on Brice Douglas' charts, even though his vessel "The Mayflower" goes back to the early days of river trade on the Murray. This charming little paddlewheeler was commissioned in 1884.

"The Mayflower has a fascinating history. But one of the most interesting stories relates to its first owner, a legendary man named Daniel Alexander or Black Alex to his mates and his enemies".

"He came over from the West Indies, interestingly the only black man that ever owned a paddlewheeler. And he worked on some wheelers and then had this one built for him. And he was quite a character, loved the ladies I believe he was a huge big fellow reputed to be the strongest man on the river. He could pick up half a tonne of iron and carry it, and also had the reputation for the best talker on the river. He was also the best swearer I was told, so quite a colourful character in every sense of the word".

"The Mayflower" was known as a dew runner, able to glide by on water just eighteen inches deep. That meant she could trade on the rivers like the Lachlan and the Murrumbidgee where the larger paddlewheelers couldn't go".

But Black Alex's days as a backwater entrepreneur were numbered as the Banks moved into repossess his beloved Mayflower.

"Well, they chased him right down the Darling and eventually caught him at Wentworth and there was one of the biggest fights even recorded on the river, including using iron bars and everything, trying to wrestle the boat off him. So that's what happened, he lost it to the banks".

Black Alex later worked as a cook on the Austral and sadly drowned in the river. The Mayflower continued work as a trader and later as a fishing vessel under the Kraeger Family. In 1984, Brice found her and fell in love with this piece of riverboat history.

You can hop on board when a flotilla of riverboats makes its way downstream to Morgan in September as part of the Centenary of Federation Source to Sea event. Brice will take passengers on board to inspect the Mayflower and a host of other paddlewheelers as they relive the days when the Morgan wharf was one of the busiest in South Australia. The Morgan Museum is open on request. Contact the caretaker in the Station Master's house on Riverfront Road.