The Port of Echuca Historic Reserve is the best-preserved 19th-century river port in Australia, a compact precinct of stone bond stores, weatherboard hotels, and working machinery that gives a clearer picture of the river trade era than anything a museum display could manage. The centrepiece is the Star Hotel, which operated from the 1860s and still has its original cellar — including a concealed tunnel that allowed drinkers to escape police raids through an adjacent property.
Admission to the reserve covers the wharf, the working steam pump (fired up on schedule through the day), the bond store, and entry to the Star Hotel. Allow two hours. The wharf walk at dusk, when the light on the river goes gold and the tourist boats have mostly headed in, is particularly good.