About Mannum
Located 84km East of Adelaide ...
Mannum, widely recognised as the birthplace of the Murray River Paddle Steamer is an ideal place for a short holiday to a historic town
The newly built Mannum Dock Museum home of the fully restored "PS Marion" paddlesteamer presents river history at its best. The main business centre is conveniently located within a minutes walk from the riverfront and also offers the picturesque Mary Ann Reserve, home of the Murray Princess and stopover port for the Proud Mary.
Prior to European settlement the area was inhabited by the Naralte Aboriginals. The first European into the area was Captain Charles Sturt. The founding father of Mannum was William Richard Randell he built a boat at Gumeracha and transported it by bullock dray to a landing which is about 3 km north of present-day Mannum. The steamer was named 'Mary Ann' after Randell's mother, was 55 feet long, and it was given a trial run on the Murray on 19 February 1853. Shortly afterwards Randell made a successful trip as far as Echuca and Moama and subsequently he travelled up the Murray River as far as Menindie.
By the 1860s up to 20,000 bales of wool were being brought down the river each season. The steamers were used to move huge barges which were laden with wool. Some went to Goolwa and on to Port Elliot. Others were unloaded at Mannum and overlanded to Adelaide by bullock teams. The town was surveyed in 1868.
In the 1870s David and John Shearer established a blacksmith business in the town. They were remarkably creative building Australia's first car (a funny piece of equipment which was driven by a steam engine fired by mallee timber) and the company evolved into Horwood Bagshaw, a successful engineering company.
Today Mannum is proud of its history. It is a pleasant holiday town on the Murray River with extensive parks along the river. It caters for a variety of water sports and there is both fishing and bird watching along with fine hotels and sporting facilities of which the Mannum Bowling Club is proud to belong.
