Alexander Arbuthnot

The Alexander Arbuthnot is the last paddle steamer built as a working boat during the riverboat trade era on the Murray River, Australia. Vessel history The ship was built by the Arbuthnot Sawmill at Koondrook in 1916, as a barge, and named after the sawmill's founder. She was fitted with an engine and superstructure in 1923. The engine was built by Richard Hornsby & sons, Grantham Lincolnshire, England and imported for Melbourne's Centennial international exhibition of 1888-89, and later installed in the paddle steamer Glimpse in 1889, then re-used in Arbuthnot in 1923. The ship towed empty barges to the nearby forest to collect logs; then back to the mill where the logs were cut up into lengths of timber. Barges towed upstream could be left for loading then floated back downstream on the current while the steamer returned to the mill and took another barge upstream. The boat worked at the mill until the 1940s. In 1942, the Alexander Arbuthnot was replaced by the PS Hero and sold to Barmah Charcoals of Barmah. There it transported charcoal from the forests at Yielima and Barmah to Echuca. In July 1942, it was reported that the Arbuthnot returned from Picola to unload 700 bags (over 15 tons) of coal to a railway truck at the Echuca wharf - an activity that hadn't been seen in several years. In early September 1942, it was recorded as delivering 946 bags of charcoal from Yielima. The vessel was then bought by George Newman, a partner of the company, in 1943. The A.A. sunk at its mooring in 1947, when the river began to rise rapidly.