Mannum SA South Australia
Australia
Frequently Asked Questions
Paddle steamers tie up along the bank at Mary Ann Reserve, under the gum trees, right at the foot of the main street. Mannum sits about 80 kilometres east of Adelaide on the Murray River.
Because the Murray's first paddle steamer was built here in 1853 by William Randell, opening a century of commercial navigation on the country's largest river. The boiler of that pioneer, the Mary Ann, now stands at the centre of the reserve that carries her name.
A museum built around Randell's old dry dock, the only surviving example of its kind on the lower Murray. Its rooms cover the era when wool, wheat and passengers moved by the dozens of steamers, and the great flood of 1956, whose marked levels on the town's walls give pause.
A paddle steamer launched in 1897, one of the last in the world still driven by a wood-fired steam engine. Moored near the museum, she runs trips according to the calendar; the rest of the time she sits at the bank, black funnel and red wheels reflected in the brown water.
Mary Ann Reserve and the Mannum Dock Museum on the bank, the main street with its historic hotels, then a ride on the cable ferry. Three signposted walking routes link the main heritage sites, with maps at the information centre inside the museum.
The link between the two banks for generations, in the absence of a bridge: free and running around the clock. Locals use it the way others use a lift, and leaning on the rail for a crossing gives an unfamiliar view of the bank and its cliffs.
At the two historic hotels on the main street, the Mannum and the Pretoria, which serve meals and cold beer facing the current. Their verandahs make an ideal lookout over the ferry coming and going.
Yes. Downstream of town, the Hermann Gass bird sanctuary walk winds along boardwalks among the river red gums, the domain of cockatoos and pelicans. Pelicans also work the anglers on the wharf near the ferry.
Yes, about ten kilometres away: they run down the Reedy Creek gorge after winter rain. The one-kilometre trail, steep in places, repays the effort with good views of the rock walls. Outside the rainy season the flow can be slight.
Australian dollars and English. Cards work at the museum, the hotels and the main street cafés, though services in a small river town stay limited.
