PS Rodney is a heritage-listed paddle steamer shipwreck on the Darling River at Polia Station, Pooncarie in the Wentworth Shire, New South Wales, Australia.

Rising costs, job losses associated with new technologies, and a country that was headed towards an economic depression were combined with a growing sense of nationalism.

[6] The 1894 strike was shorter and, though by some accounts less hostile, was accompanied by the dramatic burning and destruction of Rodney on the lower reaches of the Darling River.

[1] On 26 August 1894, Capt Dickson was in command of Rodney carrying 45 non-union labourers upstream to work in the wool sheds at Tolarno Station.

Having moved the passengers and crew to the riverbank, bags of chaff in the fore and aft holds were torn apart, soaked in kerosene and set alight.

[1] Although Rodney was substantially destroyed by fire in 1894 and has been subject to many years of periodic inundation and exposure, the lower structure of the vessel, from stem to stern, has survived relatively intact.

The Red Gum planking however is generally very well preserved, particularly in the permanently inundated lower hull area which is still beneath "pooling" level in extreme drought conditions[1] The remains of the hull of Rodney, recognising the loss attributed to fire and salvage copntemproary to the loss of the vessel, retain a high degree of integrity of its fabric.

The site retains a high degree of integrity due to the presence of original fabric and the esteem with which it is held as a part of the history of the Darling River and the Shearer's Strike.

[1] As at 19 November 2009, the Rodney Historic Shipwreck site was significant as a physical marker to a violent episode in the Shearer's Strikes of the 1890s and as a symbol of the politicisation of the Australian labour movement.

Burnt to the water line in an 1894 protest by unionist shearers, the archaeological remains provide a tangible link to this colourful era of riverboat activity on the Darling River.

A vessel renowned locally for its size, the Rodney was an established steamer that provided a critical service to pastoralists and the river towns that it frequented.

The seizure and burning to "Rodney" was directly related to the endeavours of unionists to counter the attempts by the owners of the sheep stations along the Darling River to circumvent the effectiveness of the Shearer's Strike.

Control of river transport was a key issue during the 1890s Shearer's Strike, itself a highly significant event in the history of Australian industrial relations.

It is one of the few surviving original hull assemblages that show composite construction of iron frames and River Redgum planks, keel and stem/stern post.

[1] The timbers, fastenings and iron frames that survive substantively intact to the turn of the bilge document inland shipbuilding traditions of the latter nineteenth century.

The interest in the history of the Rodney continues to be shared by unionists and station owners, as demonstrated by the cross section of people you attended and supported the event.

The remains of the Rodney retain the principle characteristics of the inland riverboats in terms of their broad beams, shallow draft and use of indigenous timbers, particularly the River Redgum.