The $2,000 Toilet That Inspired a Homemade Boat
- BoatBlurb Contributor
- 17 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Two Australian boaters built a homemade barge to transport a toilet across open water after deciding the $2,000 cost of transporting it was too much. The four-hour crossing was powered by a 9.9 hp outboard and included a barbecue on the open water.
Two Australian men crossed the Backstairs Passage to Kangaroo Island in Australia aboard a homemade barge carrying an old-fashioned toilet, a barbecue, and a small outboard motor.
Why?
To avoid a $2000 transport fee.
Alex Craig and Paul Graham made the crossing from Cape Jervis on the South Australian mainland to Christmas Cove near Penneshaw on Kangaroo Island in May 2025, but the viral video of their adventure has received the full attention of the boating community, for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, the two men seem to be having the time of their lives.
So much fun, in fact, Australian media took to calling them "larrikins," which, for the non-Aussies, is a slang term for "a mischievous, high-spirited person who pokes fun at rules and authority."
Seems fitting.
Photo - Mr Boat Ramp YouTube Photo - Mr Boat Ramp YouTube Photo - Mr Boat Ramp YouTube
Craig and Graham's voyage covered approximately 18 kilometres and took about four hours, but it's the caliber of their vessel that's the real talking point.
The trip went viral after Craig posted footage of the crossing to his Mr Boat Ramp YouTube channel. According to Graham, the project began because Craig needed a site toilet for a property he owns on Kangaroo Island. Transporting a portable toilet, which would have required a vehicle and trailer and a boat ride, would have cost more than $2,000.
“We basically wanted an old school, retro outhouse dunny,” Graham told ABC Adelaide.
It is, at its core, a toilet barge. As part of their humor-driven protest against convention, the men decided to make it happen by avoiding the ferry at all costs.
What's a dunny? It's Australian slang for a toilet. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, the term dunny "comes from the British dialect word dunnekin, combining dung (excrement) and ken (an old slang word for a house)."
Fascinating.
Craig says the barge was constructed using eight 44-gallon drums, arranged four on each side, then rafted together. The outhouse-style toilet was installed on top, with a 1980 Johnson 9.9 outboard giving them the necessary horsepower to cross Backstairs Passage.
Backstairs Passage. You can't make it up.
The vessel, rightfully dubbed The Thunderbox, was also equipped with a barbecue mounted on the bow.
The pair even used the barbeque during the crossing, cooking up ribs and sausages while travelling between the mainland and Kangaroo Island.
“We had short ribs, pork ribs and some gourmet sausages,” Graham told ABC Adelaide.
The toilet was also functional during the trip. Craig told the Island Independent that he used it twice while crossing the passage.
For the curious, the Backstairs Passage separates the Fleurieu Peninsula from the eastern end of Kangaroo Island in South Australia. The normal SeaLink ferry journey between Cape Jervis and Penneshaw takes approximately 45 minutes, considerably less than the four hours required by the homemade barge, but it would have come with a fee. And where's the fun in that?
Craig and Graham said they waited for suitable weather conditions before attempting the crossing, a wise decision considering the valuable cargo.
“We had to find that window with the light breeze, the swell down and the right tide,” Graham told ABC Adelaide.
Graham also said the pair were familiar with the area through previous tuna-fishing trips, although he acknowledged the conditions could be highly variable in the strait.
Thankfully, the crossing itself was completed without a hitch, with the pair arriving safely at Christmas Cove with their dunny ready for installation.
Craig also told local media that the toilet-barge crossing would not not be the last of the pair's adventures. Graham said further trips were planned to bring more supplies across to Craig's property.
On the Mr Boat Ramp YouTube channel, Craig has also documented a similar crossing using a rustic, albeit conventional, boat displaying a pirate flag to "attack Kangaroo Island."
You can watch the two larrikins' fascinating journey in the video below:
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