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Paddle Steamer Enterprise at home on Canberra's Lake Burley Griffin



The Paddle Steamer Enterprise is one of the oldest operating paddle steamers in the world. Built in 1876 it is now 140 years old.

The Keir family launched the PS Enterprise at Echuca in Victoria, Australia, as a working boat in 1878. In 1893 Tommy Freeman bought the steamer to carry cargo and passengers. August Creager bought it in 1919 to use as a fishing boat and as his family home. In 1945 he sold it to the Collins family of Mildura, who owned a number of riverboats and barges. Robert Miller of Adelaide in South Australia bought the PS Enterprise in 1946 and converted it into a weekend houseboat. The Phillips family bought it in 1963 until Graeme Neihus bought it in 1973.

The National Museum of Australia in the country’s capital city, Canberra, purchased the PS Enterprise in 1984 and transported it back to its original site in Echuca for restoration. It needed its engine, crankshaft, chain drive, paddle shaft, paddlewheel, and other mechanical parts reconditioned. In addition the boiler was replaced, the hull restored and the sleeping quarters above the main deck were rebuilt.

The PS Enterprise is 17.3 metres (56.8 feet) long and 8 metres (26 feet) wide with a depth of 1.6 metres (5.2 feet). Its gross tonnage is 55.9 tonnes, with a net tonnage of 42.7 tonnes. Its maximum speed is 5 knots – 9 kilometres per hour (5.6 miles per hour). It has a single expansion, twin cylinder, double-acting, semi-portable, common non-condensing 0.2 metre (8 inch) bore, 0.3 metre (12 inch) stroke engine built in 1877 by Beverley Iron & Waggon Company of Hull in Humberside, England.

The original boiler was a 9 kilowatt locomotive type, all-steel, riveted construction built by Beverley Iron & Waggon Company in 1877. The replacement boiler is a locomotive type, all-steel, welded construction built in 1988 by Perry Engineering of Adelaide in South Australia.

The PS Enterprise was transported to Canberra in 1988 and is now a working exhibit as an operating vessel on Lake Burley Griffin. A volunteer team of 30 people assisted with its renovation and maintenance – and a crew of six operate it. It operates on the lake every weekend from September to May each year.

It was listed on the Australian Register of Historic Vessels in 2012.









MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).


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