So long, in fact, that on October 17 the diesel-powered paddleboat would have celebrated 143 years since it last graced the Echuca port.
But absence must make the heart grow fonder because owner Tim Mills said he was planning to drop anchor here for the foreseeable future.
However, tourists and locals need not get excited, they won’t be getting on board. Tim said the Amphibious would remain a private vessel.
Tim bought Amphibious in 2016 and began a trip up the Murray on Boxing Day last year from Renmark, South Australia, but his plan ran aground at Tocumwal bridge – his vessel was too big to proceed.
Tim said he now hopes to make Echuca the Amphibious’ home for the foreseeable future.
“It’s a beautiful town, Echuca… everyone seems friendly and very paddleboat-oriented,” he said.
“We’d be happy to call Echuca home for a while.”
The Amphibious’ 144-year career has been a tumultuous one, not least because it sank back in 1978.
But paddle steamer enthusiast Dick Bromhead raised it from the murky depths and once overhauled she was back to her nautical best.
She has also been a star of the big and small screen – appearing in Peter Weir’s 1981 classic Gallipoli as well as the TV series The River Kings.
It has also doubled as a wind-powered trading ketch and then an entertainment showboat.
Tim might be the current custodian of this remarkable piece of Australian maritime history but the original owners might have trouble recognising her today as she has gone through multiple rebuilds (and owners).
He said it is her remarkably chequered career that makes her such a favourite among paddleboat enthusiasts, and what certainly attracted him to buy her in the first place.
“I hadn’t seen a paddleboat on the river that had been fitted out to that standard or that good of condition,” he said.
“Amphibious was always ready to go to the next step.”
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