Goolwa Maritime Gallery Goolwa - South Australia

Home sweet home up a gangplank
The Advertiser, Thursday, January 23, 1992.
By BEVERLEY NETTELTON

Chris and Jude Crabtree aboard the largely restored Leo at Goolwa.

Some people spend their whole lives waiting to indulge a passion.

But Chris and Jude Crabtree, of Goolwa, were only prepared to wait until their children had grown up and left home before they launched into theirs.

Mr and Mrs Crabtree, both in their Late forties, are starting a new phase of life, making the transition from living on land to living on water.

Both admit their passion for river boats is like a disease, and since they are not interested in a cure, they are now restoring their third river boat, an 18.3m by 3.2m tug called the Leo.

"Passions are why we're put on this earth, so we can indulge them," Mrs Crabtree said. After more than a year of looking for a boat they could call home, the couple discovered the Leo at Ballina, at the mouth of the Richmond River in northern NSW, in January, 1991.

They took a chance and brought the dilapidated vessel, with a rare, narrow design, home to restore.

The Leo as it was before the Crabtrees began working on it.

Originally a steam launch, the Leo was built in 1882, and had a more modern engine fitted in 1956.

The boat, which is now home to the Crabtrees, spent its working life hauling cedar out of the Richmond River and later pulling up to eight sugarcane barges to the Broadwater Sugar Mill.

After many 14-hour working days, the Crabtrees are well on the way to completing the Leo's badly needed overhaul.

The tug in the Captain Sturt Marina, dwarfed by the PS Goolwa, has many quaint characteristics, most of which Mr and Mrs Crabtree want to retain.

Copper sheath

Originally the vessel's Huon pine hull was copper sheathed to prevent sea worm -- a problem in temperate and subtropical climates -- and had a felt layer between the wood and the copper.

Mr Crabtree was advised against retaining the copper in case the hull was rotten. It was not, but it did need to be restored.

Soon Mr and Mrs Crabtree, who own the Goolwa Print Room and Gallery, will be able to combine business with pleasure, as they Intend installing an etching press so they can work as they ply the river.

Leo is now moored on her own jetty, alongside 'Tofua' and directly behind the WWII barge which is the floating gallery. These vessels form the water based attractions of the complex.

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Information updated: Thursday, October 03, 2002