The subject is the Paddlesteamer ‘Rodney’ which rests on the bottom of the Darling River on the property of the homestead ‘Polia’, around 30 kilometres north-west of the ‘Port of Pooncaria’. In 1894, the ‘Rodney’ was bringing non-union shearers upriver to ‘Tolarno’ (a property 70 kilometres upstream of Pooncarie), when it was intercepted by striking shearers who burned it to the waterline.
All that remains is the keelson, stringers and ribs protruding skywards like a gaunt skeleton that has been almost fossilised.
