With the current flooding of the River Murray and the impact to the communities and infrastructure supporting these people, it is timely for the first “Flashback Friday” of 2023 to remind ourselves of when the Sprite Club was involved with the Riverland district and particularly the River Murray Ferries.
This is important at this point in time as most of these ferries cannot be used due to the current flood flow rates and high water either stopping the ferries from landing or cutting access roads to the ferry crossings.
During 2012 it was planned to celebrate the Sprite Club’s 40th Anniversary with a tour of the key areas of the State. Starting in Adelaide the “Five Ferries Run” toured the Barossa Valley, Clare and Burra – with stop overs at each site, and enjoying the various produce of each of these regions – mainly wine!
Then the convoy of approx. 21 Sprites, Midgets and Associate vehicles from SA, Vic and NSW headed to the river port of Morgan. Here the “Five Ferries” part of the tour started. The plan was to cross the River Murray on five different ferries. Like all plans this changed along the way and a total of 10 ferries were used to transverse the River Murray.
These included the Cadell ferry – upstream from Morgan – as this was under pressure to be closed in 2012, due to minimal use – ironically the Cadell is currently the only ferry in the Riverland area that is still in operation – all the others having been closed due to the flood conditions. Cadell was the last ferry to close in the famed 1956 flood!
The other highlight was the mass loading of Sprites and Midgets – three-abreast, on the Swan Reach Ferry. This provided an ideal photo and video opportunity – refer to the YouTube clip below.
The run continued downstream crossing the river at Walker Flat, Purnong, Mannum, Jervois (Tailem Bend), and Wellington ferries. The bridges at Blanchetown, Murray Bridge and Goolwa were also used.
The convoy finished off staying at Goolwa for a few days before returning to Adelaide for the 40th Anniversary Dinner and associated celebrations.
The Sprite Club’s thoughts are with those impacted by the current floods and we hope to be able to journey to these areas in the near future to support the local businesses – as we did after the bushfires a number of years ago.
For more details of the “Five Ferries Run” here is the link to the detailed article on the Sprite Club web site and also the You Tube clip of the Swan Reach ferry crossing.