Steamships of the Murrumbidgee

The Murray River is synonymous with paddle steamers but the Murrumbidgee also saw a good deal of these inland ships for many decades.

The first paddle steamer to travel up the Murrumbidgee River made it to Balranald in 1857; the following year another was able to travel to Hay. Captain Francis Cadell negotiated 772 miles up the river to Gundagai - an amazing feat for a paddle steamer given the generally shallow river above Wagga. But Gundagai was never to be a regular destination for paddle steamers; Wagga was about as far as could be accomplished and even then the river could be treacherous.