PM Transcripts

PRIME MINISTER
FOR MEDIA 16 February 1985
The Prime Minister, Mr Bob Hawke, and the Premier of South
Australia, Mr John Bannon, today announced joint funding of
a $ 2.8 million Riverboat Museum and educational display
centre at Goolwa, adjacent to the mouth of the Murray River.
Mr Hawke and Mr Bannon said this important historical
project was part of the $ 5 million Commonwealth contribution
to fund Bicentennial commemorative projects in South
Australia which are intended to provide lasting testimonies
to the Bicentenary in 1988.
Mr Hawke said that the Commonwealth Government has allocated
nearly $ 200 million for the Bicentennial activities which
will include the development of many projects at a local level.
" This is the first of a number of exciting projects in
South Australia which will enhance and enrich the lives of
ordinary Australians for generations to come", Mr Hawke said.
The project consists of the River Murray Interpretive Centre
and a River Boat Museum at Goolwa, the last town on the
Murray River before it meets the Southern Ocean. It was
partly as a result of Captain Charles Sturt's dream of using
this access to the Southern Ocean as an outlet for the trade
of inland Australia that South Australia was founded.
The River Murray Interpretive Centre will be located on a
site overlooking the river and will interpret the river system,
the largest in Australia, covering the themes of exploration,
transport, irrigation, domestic water supply, environmental
issues and the history and culture of the coastal Aborigines
who lived around the Coorong, the river and lakes of the
Murray Mouth.
The River Boat Museum will consist of both a fixed display and
a working paddle steamer to recreate the era of the River Boats.
The complex, apart from catering for the tourist, will also
provide an education facility for students who, with the aid
of a permanently employed education officer, will be provided with
an exciting and instructional program on the history and issues
relating to the River.
IffiT.-Ii.