Published Messenger Newspapers, January 15, 2003
SOME THINGS PERFECT JUST THE WAY THEY ARE
SEATED at a shady table on the Wellington Hotel riverfront, escaping the tropical humidity of the front bar with its useless evaporative air conditioning, nothing quite compares with the utter peace of the River Murray at the end of a hot day. The wind drops, ibis fly in V-formation towards Lake Alexandrina, riverside windmills rotate slowly in the flukey air and pelicans ride the thermals, finally skiing to a stop near the willows on the sunny side of the river. The willows were planted in the paddle steamer days to mark the main channel during floods when the river still rose and fell with the seasons. Irrigation schemes ended the natural cycle unfortunately. And here is where Police Commissioner Alexander Tolmer and his band of troopers crossed the River Murray in 1851 on their way to Mount Alexander, in Victoria, in the first of the gold escorts that saved the South Australian economy. The ferry still cruises back and forth as regular as clockwork. A 1900 photograph on the wall of the historic Wellington courthouse shows a punt, carrying a load of horses, with half a dozen men aboard pulling tug-o-war on a rope attached to both sides of the river, the more hands the quicker the trip. It must have been a good business for the ferryman, charging for the ride and then having the passengers pull themselves across. Now free and operating 24 hours, the ferry uses a metal cable to do the trip at the same determined, unchanging pace. The only variable is how low the vessel sits in the river - a heavy hay truck can push the bow ramp under the water whereas a full load of cars has no noticeable effect at all. The ferrymen are men of few words who speak only if spoken to and even then do not have a lot to say for themselves. Do they have to pass an IQ test to be a ferry driver, or any test at all? It does not appear to be a difficult job, there and back, opening and closing the gates, raising a finger at the motorists, ``Yep, no probs, thanks''. Bliss, as jobs go. Only the mechanical hum of the winding gear intrudes on the peace but after a while even it becomes a soothing background noise. Almost. The ferry can do an average of eight trips an hour carrying eight sedans a time - 64 an hour - which is rather a lot of finger waving eight hours a day. It must be tempting at slow periods, when just one car is waiting on the other side, to leave it there until others turn up to make it worthwhile. Or until you feel like it. Vehicle counters were stretched across the approach roads to the Wellington ferry - as well as to the Jervois ferry just upriver - which may mean something is about to change. Not an end to the ferry service, surely? Having two ferries in such close proximity does seem rather excessive but not nearly as excessive as a bridge. The Wellington ferry, which first ran in 1848, is a romantically nostalgic reminder of our Colonial past and should be left alone. I love that ferry.
