Spent a few days in Echuca recently. Echuca is a small(ish) town with a population of around 12,000 located on the Murray River, the river that forms the border between Victoria and New South Wales. There is a lot of history here. This was once the largest inland port in Australia and home to the largest paddle steamer fleet in the world. The steamers were used to cart goods from farms up and down the river to be transported to major cities for sale and export until the railways were expanded to reach all the way from Melbourne.

Echuca’s main industry today is tourism, with many of the old steamers being lovingly restored to give cruises to visitors. The town’s main landmark is it’s heritage listed wharf, which is also undergoing restoration, and while looking like a construction site at the moment, will in time be a significant recreation of an important piece of Australia’s past. For now, the construction makes it pretty difficult to make a good photo.

Murray Esplanade is a reconstruction of how the town looked in it’s glory days of the 1800′s and includes a working blacksmith, wood worker and some historic pubs that were built all those years ago to house the shipworkers and travellers as they delivered their goods for sale.