Skyscraper Stan and the Commission Flats

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An awesome part of the Riverboats Music Festival is the riverboats themselves. The festival arranges for sideshows to happen on one of the riverboats, and on this beautiful sunny Sunday morning, hungover from two days and nights of excess at the festival proper, there was no better place to be than on a leisurely cruise down the mighty Murray River.

The wharf has been updated over the years, but still gives a sense of the history. By the 1870s, Echuca had risen to prominence as Australia’s largest inland port. Being the point of shortest distance between the Murray River and the major city of Melbourne, Echuca was both a key river port and railway junction. Paddle steamers would arrive at the 332-metre long redgum Echuca Wharf, were unloaded by hydraulic crane, and the goods then transported by rail to Melbourne. Wool, wheat, other grains, livestock, and timber were the most common commodities transported to Echuca. The wharf has been listed as a Heritage Place on the Australian National Heritage List.

Skyscraper Stan and the Commission Flats

Stan and band made their way onto the paddlesteamer, along with approximately 60 people or so, and we were off. Over the next hour or so we paddled downstream, turned around, then came back to the wharf again. Here’s some of the awesome entertainment we experienced along the way;