The Mannum
township was founded in 1852
by paddle steamer operator
Captain William Randell, who
was skipper of the Mary Ann (named for Randell's mother), which was given a
trial run on the Murray on 19 February 1853. Shortly afterwards Randell made a
successful trip as far as Echuca and Moama and subsequently he travelled up
the Murray River as far as Menindie.
Prior to European settlement, was inhabited by the Naralte tribe. Cowirra Historic Reserve, north-east of Mannum, is important to the descendants of the Aborigines who once lived here and a peppercorn tree marks the spot where members of the indigenous are thought to be buried.
The
first European into the area was
Captain Charles Sturt who,
being assigned to solve the great mystery of why so many rivers flowed
westward from the Great Dividing Range (often known as the question of whether
Australia had an 'inland sea') rowed a whale boat down the
Murrumbidgee in late 1829
and reached the junction with the Murray River on 14 January 1830. He
continued down Australia's largest river passing Mannum in early February
(there is a plaque beside the
river recording the event) and
reaching Lake Alexandrina, at the mouth of the river, on 9 February, 1830.
By
1840
the land along the Murray River around Mannum had been surveyed and, although
the river was not being commercially used at the time, some people started to
lease and purchase the land. The most prominent was the explorer
Edward John Eyre
who took up land near the town in
1841.
The settlement became a major port during the years of river trade; by the 1860's up to 20,000 bales of wool were being brought down the river each season and wheat, too, was exported by paddle steamer to NSW and Victoria. Mannum is thus rich in riverboat history and the site of the National Trust's Museum is on the PS Marion. David shearer, a local blacksmith turned-farm equipment manufacturer, was responsible for Australia's first steam car; the prototype, now fully restored, can be seen at the National Motor Museum at Birdwood.
