While many people in their twenties are busy saving for a house, an Adelaide man has moved on board a 100 year-old paddle steamer. The boat hasn't floated since 1909 but it is now on its way down the River Murray and will be restored to it's former glory.
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00:00Sounding a return journey to South Australia for the first time in more than a century,
00:05the 129-year-old P.S. Daisy is the state's oldest paddle steamer.
00:10I sort of vowed to myself never to own a paddle boat that was wood and steam.
00:14You sort of do one or the other, they're both a lot of work, and now I've just gone and done it.
00:17A marine engineer is part way through restoring this boat to its former glory.
00:21My girlfriend was going to do the house and I was going to do the boat,
00:24but now she's gone like, oh, now they're expensive, man.
00:27She was going to do the house and I was going to do the boat, but now she's gone like, oh, now they're expensive,
00:30maybe we just live on the boat, and we can do that, that's all right.
00:33The boat has spent a lot of time underwater.
00:36Sunk at Redcliffe's in 1948 after the French found 11 people living on the boat at Redcliffe's,
00:43and then she sunk there and she was raised in 1980, but she sunk overnight again.
00:46The previous owner carried out significant repairs to get Daisy back above the waterline.
00:51The next stop for the P.S. Daisy will be Mannum, where she will continue to undergo restoration.
00:56Mr Carpenter says while the boat isn't a traditional purchase,
00:59it's a worthwhile investment for a captain in training.
01:03Hopefully she'll, well, she should outlive me well and truly,
01:06and hopefully my kids, their grandkids will have to start fixing it up again probably.
01:11With a little help from some friends along the way.
01:14Eventually we'll be the ones written about in the books instead of the ones writing the books.
01:19Keeping history afloat, one boat at a time.