25/09/2026
A little piece of our history… 🚤
With Lock 5 currently closed for major preventative maintenance, something that generally only happens every 15–20 years, we’ve been thinking back to the last time it happened in 2008.
The Murray was very different then. The river was in the middle of a severe drought, water levels were incredibly low, and we had just purchased Moving Waters from Murray Bridge.
Our challenge? Getting her upstream to Renmark.
The water below Lock 1 was so low we needed a river pilot to navigate us through the lock, and even then, he could only make the journey when a south-westerly wind pushed enough water back up the river from Lake Alexandrina.
Once we made it through Lock 1, we took over a houseboat we had never driven before… and the race was on!
With our two young children, just two and five years old, we travelled day and night trying to reach Lock 5 before it closed for its three-month maintenance program.
We didn’t quite make it.
Moving Waters spent the next three months parked in Berri.
At the time, it felt like a challenge. Looking back, it’s one of those stories we’ll always tell - the drought, the low river, the river pilot, the race upstream and the decision that would ultimately help shape the future of our tourism business.
So, as Lock 5 closes again all these years later, we can’t help but think back to 2008 and just how far we’ve come. ❤️
Some of the best stories start with a little bit of risk.
