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Memories of Mannum Ferry by Ron Bok

Submitted by Kirsty MacGregor
on February 25, 2010

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Images © Kirsty MacGregor

As told to Mannum Mag

In the early 1950s when I became a Ferry Operator here in Mannum, there was only one belt-driven ferry which held 6 cars. Hydraulic operated cables only came years later, and it (the ferry) was owned by the State Government Highways Department.

We did our own basic maintenance, but once a month a mechanic came down from Blanchetown to do a service. The Council was responsible for the maintenance and repair of cables and ramps, but in those days passengers had to pay one penny, which later went to twopence. Vehicles used to pay one shilling.

Easter time was our busiest time, even more than Christmas, and cars were sometimes banked up as far as the Pretoria Hotel, and down as far as the Pumping Station on Purnong Road. We had the occasional mishap when we didn’t finish collecting the fares in time, or crashed into the ramp on the other side.

The early ferries had one control room in the middle; then the authorities thought that it would be better if the Operator could see the river, so they put a control room on both ends.

People started complaining that if they didn’t have to pay to drive over the bridge in Murray Bridge, why should they pay for the ferry trip? So the cost of carrying a car went down to 6 pence, and not long after that, fare charges were stopped altogether.

In the big ’56 flood, the ferry was stopped for 9 months, and I did 7 launch trips a day carrying between 12 and 15 people and cargo further up the river and to Cowirra.

Two babies were born safely at the hospital after the Doctor called two times in those nine months, late at night for me to take the launch to get the mothers. One was Morrie Willhem’s wife who had a baby girl. Years later she introduced herself to me as one of the babies born after her mother came to Mannum hospital from upriver on my launch. One person fell off the roof of the launch once, because the swamp had bigger waves than the river.

Not long before I left in 1965, the ramps were built for the second (upstream) ferry.

Ron Bock




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