Greetings,
Mr. OD. With a 12" (aprox.?) draft you wouldn't have to worry about tides.
In "a land of droughts and flooding rains"our rivers are not consistently supplied with water, are shallow,shoaling may vary, so 12" draught makes sense. Sometimes rivers cease to be navigable beyond a certain point. Generally a knowledge of the river and bottom movement is necessary for navigation. I don`t think there are tides except near the river mouth. I would not expect wind or other waves of consequence.
The old original boats I`ve seen are typically roughly or simply fitted out. This one has that home built interior look, but the originals were basic too, carried all sorts of cargo, and certainly lacked leather upholstered sofas.
Indeed, no ER pics, but I doubt it would be an abomination down there. One 65hp engine driving the wheels, maybe a genset. Wonder if you can brake one wheel and run the other, to steer. Or run one fwd,one reverse, to steer.
I liked the pic of it next to a modern houseboat,typical of those for charter on the rivers. Pulling up for the night somewhere, shore access by a plank, is apparently the norm but requires the right approach. There is a passenger paddlewheeler doing 3-7 day trips, carries several hundred pax, but it`s pricy, and I can foresee trips being limited by lack of river flow.
Much of Australia is in the grip of as bad a drought as most remember, with some rural towns running out of water, and endless fights between irrigators, towns, farmers,and environmentalists over not enough water. It`s not pretty out there, lots of fish deaths in oxygen deprived water. Sydney`s dams are at 50% so the desal plant is out of "care & maintenance" and running flat out. But, it`s predicted to rain the next 2 days,hope it gets to the dam catchment areas. Or at least puts out the many bush fires burning along the east coast, even entering towns and villages,and rural properties with stock, fences, houses, and equipment lost. Just getting enough water to fight the fires is a problem.