Back to the river: paddlewheeler on the Murray River

 

"While I was born in Adelaide, both my parents were born in the South Australian country," says travel writer and photographer, Roderick Eime, "Mum was born at Renmark, and with many childhood weekends away, the Murray River formed a large part of our family life."

"We often forget that paddlewheelers opened up the Australian outback to commerce long before the first railway lines and roads were laid. The old steamers are an integral part of our colonial history."

19th-century commerce. Loading cargo on a Murray River paddlesteamer

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Rod revisits his family heritage along Australia's largest river with a reprise on the largest inland paddlewheeler in the southern hemisphere, the majestic PS Murray Princess.

Stories and images from this voyage will be available from December 2021.

Coffee Culture: Australia's First Indigenous-owned coffee brand.

While we're all enjoying more cuppas at home, it's the perfect time to switch over to a socially conscious brand doing great things. DHUWA is the first Indigenous-owned coffee to be stocked in Woolworths. The home-coffee blends have been created in partnership with Griffiths Bros Roastery and headed up by proud Mununjali Palawa man Shawn Andrews with the view to train and employ Indigenous people and in so doing, contribute to their communities. Gwen Luscombe meets the man who is truly putting culture into coffee.

The Hills are Alive: Adelaide's new gourmet bonanza

 While Australia's Eastern states are locked down, Adelaide-based writer and photographer Roderick Eime, has revelled in the relative freedom of the South Australian capital revisiting places of his childhood in the Adelaide Hills and Mount Lofty Ranges. What has he found? Always a fertile region for fruit and vegetables, the Hills are now a wine and gourmet food bonanza. The famous Barossa Valley continues to evolve with a new wave of wineries and labels from the latest generation of the old families. And so much else.

Cruising returns to South Australia with small ships

 

After an agonising hiatus, cruising returns to the historic waters of South Australia. With a heritage of leisure cruising dating back more than a century, small ships are leading the way into this rich maritime region. Roderick Eime goes back to sea with Coral Expeditions.