---
title: "Toilet barge reaches Kangaroo Island after 4-hour crossing"
author: "Tom Walsh"
datePublished: 2026-07-21T08:05:00.000Z
canonical: "https://dudeworld.com.au/post/00tii000kqgpj/toilet-barge-reaches-kangaroo-island"
---

Some shed jokes die when the kettle boils. This one got a 9-horsepower Johnson outboard, a barbecue and a run across Backstairs Passage.

Alex Craig and Paul Graham, two South Australian mates, built a homemade barge with an old-school dunny on deck and took it to Kangaroo Island. The crossing took about four hours, according to [ABC News](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-21/sa-floating-toilet-barge-backstairs-passage/106939628), which is a long time to sit with the knowledge that your cargo is also the boat’s main architectural feature.

There was a practical reason under the laugh. Craig needed the toilet for a house build on the island, and taking it over the usual way was going to sting. Graham said there was a bit of “we’re not paying for the ferry” in the thinking, with the transport cost running to more than $2,000 before the build costs were counted.

That is where the story stops being just a funny photo. Most of us have watched a simple job turn strange once the proper solution gets too dear. Add a mate, a few tools and enough confidence to ignore the obvious questions, and suddenly the ridiculous option starts to look workable. [Nine reported](https://www.nine.com.au/australia-news/today-show/mates-sail-dunny-dinghy-to-kangaroo-island-20260721-p60h5a.html) the trip covered about 14 kilometres, so this was not a quick lap around the mooring.

The build sounds as if it improved every time someone walked past it in the shed. The pair wanted a retro outhouse look. Then came the barbecue, because once you have already decided to float a dunny across open water, lunch is apparently part of the brief.

> “We basically wanted an old school, retro outhouse dunny so we went for it and stuck a nine horsepower Johnson on it and sailed it over.”
>
> Paul Graham, via [ABC News](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-21/sa-floating-toilet-barge-backstairs-passage/106939628)

## Backyard logic, island edition

The Cape Jervis to Penneshaw ferry usually takes about 45 minutes. By that measure, the barge was hopeless. By the only measure that mattered to Craig and Graham, it worked: the awkward cargo got across, the outboard held up and the daft plan survived contact with actual water.

Australians tend to respect this sort of overcooked backyard fix, even while admitting the sensible option existed the whole time. Island freight is dear, DIY culture runs deep, and a lot of blokes would rather lose a weekend building a bracket, sled, rack or floating dunny than pay a bill that feels rude. Not always wise. Very often understandable.

Craig and Graham were not pretending they had reinvented coastal transport. They built something odd, sent it across open water and earned the kind of story mates will bring up for years, preferably every time somebody suggests hiring a trailer.

They may not be finished either. Graham told [ABC News](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-21/sa-floating-toilet-barge-backstairs-passage/106939628) that “the next instalments are coming up”, which is either excellent news or a mild concern for anyone who likes conventional marine design. For now, the homemade toilet barge made Kangaroo Island, and the lesson is simple enough: if the proper option costs too much, someone eventually says, “Stuff it, we can build our own.”