Morgan is an historic town and popular holiday retreat on the Murray River.
The Morgan Museum overlooks the lawn riverbank area and charts early life in the Morgan area. See superb horse drawn vehicles used for the transportation, a 1926 Chevrolet truck in working order, and an 11-metre mural constructed entirely of locally grown wool. Your family will also enjoy the old telephone exchange setup near the old schoolroom and the farmhouse kitchen.
There are many reserves in the area; notable among these being Cadell, Morgan and Hogwash Flat. Hogwash Flat is a particularly good fishing spot. There are quite a number of stranded barges from the paddle wheel era - some high and dry, other are submerged. These are well worth seeing and fishing around.
The Morgan Historical Walk includes the Railway Reserve and some of Morgan township’s buildings of historical significance. The walk starts at the Morgan Museum and takes approximately an hour and a half to complete. Some of the historical buildings you can see include the morgue, the train station platform and ticket office, the wharf area, the sunken barge and steamer, the powder magazine, the Morton Bay fig tree, Post Office Row, the post office, Captain Charles Sturt’s monument, the Postmaster’s residence and the former customs house.
Morgan Visitor Information Outlet is located within the Morgan Roadhouse.
There is a good shopping centre which caters for all needs. There are two hotels, a swimming area, golf course, bowling club, caravan park, camping sites and plenty of good fishing areas.
Copies of the Heritage Walk map can be obtained from the Morgan Visitor Information Centre, Council Office or most of the businesses in the town.
Morgan preserves its history with flair. The restored wharf precinct captures the early river trading days and the town's museums bring to life the stories of the paddle steamer era. A 'must do' for visitors is Morgan's heritage walk, taking in historic landmarks and leading to a panoramic view of the town and river.
Charles Sturt passed the site of the town on his voyage down the Murray and back in 1830. Known originally as North West Bend, the Great Bend or the Great Elbow, it became a point for overlanders, on their way to Adelaide with stock, to leave the Murray and make for Adelaide. In 1878 the town was proclaimed and the Kapunda to Morgan railway officially opened. The purpose of the railway was to tap the river trade from the Darling and Upper Murray regions by providing quicker access to a coastal port and thereby forestalling similar efforts by the Victorian Government.
In its glory days, as a port, Morgan was the second biggest port in South Australia, behind Port Adelaide, dispatching six trains a day to Port Adelaide and saw long queues of laden steamers and barges stretching downstream from the Morgan wharf awaiting their turn to unload. Reminiscent of Morgan's early days was the great River Ramble of 1986, when two flotillas, 536 craft of all shapes and sizes, converged on Morgan at the culmination of this week-long Jubilee 150 event.
