Roll chart of the Murray River used by paddle steamer skippers as a navigational aid and shows about 168 river miles. Details include some natural features (a few named); significant features to navigate by such as 'burnt tree', 'long black stump'; some houses depicted (a few have owners names); fences; sawmill. Ink on calico.

The captains of the paddle steamers on the Murray-Darling river system used maps that were hand drawn and reflected the ever changing nature of the rivers with their sandbanks, snags and billabongs.

This particular hand-drawn chart shows 168 miles (270 kilometers) of river, detailing the bends, reefs and snags as well as landing places, stations and towns. Lacking published charts showing navigational conditions of the Murray-Darling River system, paddle steamer captains created their own. Scrolled out as the boat proceeded along the river, each captain could annotate the chart as needed.

In 1858 the upper reaches of the river system were partly surveyed and a map produced at the scale of four inches to the mile, but in the main, the captains preferred to use their own. The South Australian government placed a snagging steamer on the river to clear it of the worst of the snags, but one vessel could not be expected to cope with the entire length of the river. Like icebergs, the bulk of snags was underwater, and would always be a source of danger.

The steamer captains' answer was to prepare long cloth scrolls with charts that detailed the river - mileages, dangerous snags, sandbanks, stations, woodpiles, wool sheds, billabongs and more. These could be unwound as the riverboats passed by.

Many captains mounted their charts in a special box in the wheelhouse and turned the chart on rollers. Additions could easily be made to these charts. This particular chart was recorded in ink on calico.

Not many of the charts survive today, but those that do are a testament to the nature of the major Australian river system, and the hazardous 'highway' of the past.

• River Murray charts: Renmark to Yarrawonga maps drawn and compiled by Maureen Wright; sketches by Neville Kroemer. Burra, S. Aust.: B.J. and M.A. Wright, 2002- the modern equivalent for river navigation.
• Tolley, JC. 'Roll charts of the Murray River system' South Australiana vol. 4 no. 2, September 1965
• Parsons, Ron Ships of the inland rivers Gumeracha, S. Aust.: Gould Books, 1996

• PS Marion
• South Australian icons collection [search for river charts]
• Visit Alexandrina: Signal Point River Murray Interpretive Centre