The Swan and the Hero - Two very unusual vessls by Graeme Andrews / PS Hero has her own support berth at Echuca, 2009.

In something more than 50 years of pottering around vessels of many types I’ve had the pleasure of meeting some amazing craft. Some have been gigantic. Some have been tiny. Some have been massive, almost obscene in their display of human arrogance. Others have been notable for a display of their owner’s sense of humour.
One of the most notable of these was seen in a creek at Frankston, Victoria in 1978. This little half cabin putt-putt was half flooded, being stuck under a small wharf. It’s name? Health Hazard! Yeah.
Swan shows her lines on Port Jackson in 1974.More recently at Moama on the Murray River I was re-introduced to what is probably the oldest motor boat in Australia and one of the two or three ‘oldest’ anywhere. On the previous day I had the pleasure of making a photographic tour of one of the oldest paddle steamers in Australia. I say ‘oldest’ because she is, officially, a reconstruction of the original Hero but it is likely that there is now little other than a few token original parts involved.
Hero seems to be a very good example of the fabled ‘Paddy’s Axe’ which had lasted many generations, needing only a few new heads, some new wedges and an unknown number of handles. Whatever she is, Hero is a magnificent example of just how well something can be done when the owner has the enthusiasm and sufficient means to sustain that energy.
Swan’s somewhat cluttered interior, seen in 1974.Hero is part of the owner’s business and is available for very personal charter, of which more later.
The other vessel is not quite as old as Hero but Swan’s hull, which was overhauled in the 1970s, still has her original engine, furnishings and upholstery.
I ‘met’ Swan first, when I was invited to tell her story in the long defunct Australian Seacraft magazine. When I met Swan for the second time, she was in a large shed, on a purpose-built trailer and her owner was hoping to sell her as a going concern in her third century!
Built in the late 1880s as a pulling boat, carried by the missionary ship John Williams, Swan was used to carry missionaries from the ship to shore, pulled by several of the ship’s seamen. Late in 1890s she was sold and her new owner converted her to something very new fangled – a motor boat. Her hull was deepened and a cabin was fitted, along with beautiful internal furniture.
Swan at rest in her Moama garage, 2009.In 1897 Swan was fitted with a Union Gas internal combustion engine with one cylinder. It ran at 300 revolutions per minute and pushed Swan at about five knots. She may well have been Australia’s first motor boat, she is certainly Australia’s oldest.
In 1973 Keith Henderson bought Swan from the original buyer’s son after the son became too old to run her.
Henderson overhauled the engine which had never been out of service, and was assisted by a friend who was a member of the Sydney Maritime Museum.
Internally Swan offers beautifully made joinery with sliding drawers and doors and little odd bits that intrigue the viewer. The engine was obviously built by a steam engineer. There are rows of drip feed bottles and two oil valves and running the engine requires constant oily attention by the engineer. The engine starts easily, if the correct procedure is followed – second swing of the starting handle, every time.
Looking over this beautiful launch one is struck by the fact that she might well have been described as a ‘gentleman’s small launch’.
I was surprised to find her in Moama. Since I wrote about her in 1974 I had often wondered where she was. Her owner has her for sale.
As he says, “I’ve two steam and one motor paddler to worry about and that’s enough for me.”
He told me that Swan is taken out on the Murray every now and then and that she is in really fine condition.
The en suite master ‘cabin’ might well be the finest ever on the Murray.Swan should be in a nautical museum – motor vehicles much younger and in large numbers find such places of repose – but that approach was made some years ago, to no avail. Perhaps one of Afloat’s wooden boat enthusiasts might like a ‘gentleman’s small launch’?’
On the other side of the Murray, just a little upstream lies the blue-grey PS Hero at her own berth. Hero was, originally, built in 1874 by the same builder who built the 1866 Adelaide, actively on show at Port Echuca.
Do you fancy your back being scrubbed in a period bathroom?In 1942 Hero was one of the several paddlers employed in collecting and delivering firewood to the local sawmills. In 1956 she moved downriver to Boundary Bend and it was here she caught fire, was burnt out and sank. She lay in the shallows for about 30 years and that was where I first saw her.
In 1989 Echuca hoteliers Gary and Irene Byford bought Hero and started the long process of re-creation. In 1998 the hull was dragged ashore and, loaded on a semi-trailer, was carried to the Moama slipway. Here the hull was re-furbished and re-planked and in 2000 Hero was afloat once more.
Hero’s dining/boardroom has all electronic necessities.Over the next several years she was given a new superstructure and fitted out internally as a luxury passenger boat with all mod-cons and no detail overlooked. It all looked original.
The original engine was re-machined and placed back in commercial working order while a new boiler was built to the original specifications. Wondrously, all the machinery is on public display when running.
Hero is 28m long and can carry up to 75 day passengers. She carries up to six overnight passengers in three double suites, in a style no inland river paddler of the past ever offered.
Hero’s boiler is a replica. The engine is the original much rebuilt.Hero also offers facilities for board room meetings with all expected presentation facilities and electronic necessities.
She carries a working traditional wood fired galley and a full-house professional kitchen for dining in style.
Hero also accommodates wedding parties and honeymoon cruises. She offers day cruises and up to three-day overnight cruises with all found. She’s fully licensed.
Enquiries might be made to HERO, PO Box 174, Echuca, Vic, 3564 or to enquiries@hero.net.au