{"id":585931,"date":"2026-04-04T23:34:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T23:34:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/585931\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T23:34:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T23:34:20","slug":"restoration-begins-on-historic-pride-of-the-murray-paddleboat-in-longreach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/585931\/","title":{"rendered":"Restoration begins on historic Pride of the Murray paddleboat in Longreach"},"content":{"rendered":"

On a riverbank in outback Queensland, a century-old wooden paddleboat awaits revival. But maybe not for much longer.<\/p>\n

Pride of the Murray sinks<\/a><\/p>\n

A 98-year-old paddle wheeler has sunk in the Thomson River at Longreach, just weeks out from the start of peak tourist season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After capturing national attention for being trucked nearly 1,750 kilometres from country Victoria to Longreach in 2022 \u2014 only to sink in March of the following year \u2014 the delicate work of repurposing the Pride of the Murray has begun.<\/p>\n

For almost six months, it remained submerged beneath the muddy brown waters of the Thomson River before being raised in September 2023.<\/a><\/p>\n

It has taken three years to get to this point, with owner and Outback Pioneers founder Richard Kinnon asking for public donations after the boat sank.<\/p>\n

\"Paddle<\/p>\n

The Pride of the Murray was pulled from the river in September 2023 after spending six months under water. (Supplied: Outback Pioneers)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

“We went underground for a bit \u2026 but my office just put out a couple of posts on social media, and the response has been absolutely huge,” Mr Kinnon said.<\/p>\n

“People are just sitting there wanting to know what’s going to happen.”<\/p>\n

Mr Kinnon would not say how much they managed to raise or what they will spend to restore the boat.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Richard Kinnon says many people remain invested in the paddleboat’s future. (Supplied: Outback Pioneers)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

But previously, he told the ABC that the work would cost more than $1.5 million.<\/p>\n

Workers from the Longreach tourism operator are now cleaning out and stripping back the timber paddleboat.<\/p>\n

And while guests will not be able to cruise down the river, there is hope that they will at least be able to go aboard by the end of May.<\/p>\n

Restoring ‘Noah’s Ark’<\/p>\n

It is not typical work for retired carpenter John Higgins, who usually works on restoring and replicating horse-drawn coaches.<\/p>\n

But he said working inside the water-logged boat had been a fascinating experience as the team pulls off, sands, and reseals timber decking.<\/p>\n

“When they first pulled it out of the water, that was an absolutely amazing experience seeing what so long in the water does to a boat,” he said.<\/p>\n

“[It is] unbelievable where silt can get.<\/p>\n

“It seems like we’re looking at the restoration of Noah’s Ark.<\/p>\n

“At the very start, [we were] removing some of the materials that have been used, some of the places they’d use chipboard \u2014 some of those boards were like Weet-Bix when you pulled them off.”<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

John Higgins says the timber vessel has held up well despite being submerged for six months. (Supplied: Outback Pioneers)<\/p>\n

Mr Higgins said that despite the cosmetic damage, the timber vessel had held up.<\/p>\n

“They were using good timber at the time, timber that you can’t get now,” Mr Higgins said.<\/p>\n

“And I know if it was built nowadays and it had been under water and it came back up, it would not be anywhere near as good as it was when we pulled that one up.”<\/p>\n

\"man<\/p>\n

Joshua Uphof has been helping to sand back and reseal the boat’s timber decking. (ABC Western Queensland: Jay Carstens)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Assisting Mr Higgins is Joshua Uphof, who has been following the story of the boat since it arrived.<\/p>\n

“It’s just such an iconic boat; they brought it all the way up from Echuca for starters,” Mr Uphof said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I lived in Echuca two years before I moved up here, and I heard all about it.”<\/p>\n

Future not locked in<\/p>\n

The full restoration is expected to take several months.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Kinnon said long-term plans for the boat were not locked in, but there were big ideas.<\/p>\n

“It is a landmark, it’ll tell our stories, it’ll be a venue for restaurant, coffee shop, concerts \u2014 whatever green light we’re given, it’ll be a beautiful story,” Mr Kinnon said.<\/p>\n

\"Thompson<\/p>\n

The historic vessel was briefly refloated by floodwaters in March.\u00a0 (Supplied)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

For Mr Higgins, bringing the paddleboat back to life had been rewarding.<\/p>\n

“You know, [it’s like] mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, but on a wooden boat,” Mr Higgins said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On a riverbank in outback Queensland, a century-old wooden paddleboat awaits revival. But maybe not for much longer.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":585932,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,286813,44,286814,57530,286815,286812,286811,268068],"class_list":["post-585931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-longreach","tag-news","tag-outback-pioneers","tag-outback-tourism","tag-paddle-boat","tag-pride-of-the-murray","tag-sunken-boat","tag-thomson-river"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=585931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}