The mighty Murray River was the highway to the opening up of much of the pastoral country of western NSW and Victoria. The development of the paddle steamer and the navigation of the Murray and Darling rivers brought the inland to life.

In 1853 the South Australian government saw that the Murray could be an inland highway and offered a reward of two thousand pounds for the first person to take a steamboat to the junction of the Murray and Darling rivers.

For years the river trade flourished and railways were constructed to the river from Melbourne and Adelaide to collect the valuable wool cargo and to transport it to the world.

These days the cargo that uses the river is tourism. And the leisure industry has seen a whole new flotilla of luxury shipping take to the Murray's waters.