The motor-powered dunny that tamed
our treacherous Backstairs Passage

By DANIEL CLARKE

14/07/26

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This is not your bog-standard news story. 

 

It’s the inside word on what will surely go down as one of the funniest and bad-arse trips ever taken across the 18km stretch of ocean from Cape Jervis to Penneshaw. 

 

Two blokes, an outback dunny, a Weber barbecue and a crazy idea has forever etched Alex Craig and Paul Graham into the anals of history….sorry, annals of history. 

 

The bowel-tightening journey was actually completed about 18 months ago but a short video of the crossing was only uploaded to YouTube over the weekend.

 

At the time, confused islanders had posted bizarre images of the dunny floating across the water near Penneshaw but the mystery was never flushed out publicly.

 

Now the man behind the potty-headed scheme, Alex Craig, has revealed his rather simple motivations.

 

“To avoid SeaLink at all costs – that is the goal,” the Christies Beach resident told the Island Independent. 

 

“I’ve got a block in Penneshaw and I go over a fair bit so I thought I should put a dunny on it so I can at least go to the toilet while I'm there.

 

“I was going to bring a site dunny over but then I looked at what it was going to cost me to book my car trailer and my 4WD on the ferry and I thought I can probably build a toilet and get it there cheaper than the ferry ticket. 

 

“I told my mate and he sort of laughed and I said ‘nah, I’m doing it’. I just got eight 44-gallon drums – four on each side – and rafted them together and plonked the dunny on top of it. It was pretty funny.

 

“I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t think it was going to make it. Worst case if it went down I’d have a good spot to go fishing. I’ve done a lot of stupid things in my life – that’s not the scariest thing I’ve ever done.

 

“I probably wouldn’t encourage anyone to do it. You have to be a special kind of stupid.”

 

Alex said the journey, powered by a modest 1980 Johnson 9.9hp outboard motor, took between three and four hours but he was well prepared with a Weber barbecue that he secured to the front of the makeshift raft. 

 

“I knew it was going to take a while so we brought some ribs and had some sausages on the way across,” Alex said.

 

“The Weber worked bloody well – it was still burning as we pulled into the boat ramp at Christmas Cove. We had a bit of a fish on the way over as well but we didn’t catch anything.”

 

Alex – who describes himself as the Temu MacGyver - confirmed exclusively to the Island Independent that he even took two dumps inside the dunny during the journey. 

 

“I wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to use it!” 

 

It’s not the first time Alex has thought outside the thunderbox when transporting goods to the island. 

 

“I brought a mini pirate ship over once and later on I hauled about 1.6 tonnes of jarrah from an old boat shed in Goolwa that I’m going to use for building on my block,” he said. 

 

“I used an old caravan chassis for that. I towed that down to the water at Cape Jervis, bolted some barrels to it and I towed it across with my boat. There are plenty more plans to bring more over as well.”

 

The history making floater has reminded islanders of other unique crossings over the years, including sailboarders, water skiiers, Shane Sanigar’s amazing solo swim in 2022 and even a Ronald McDonald paddle boat. 

 

Alex – who has recently built and opened the Screaming Seagull café and soon-to-be-bar at the O’Sullivan Beach Boat Ramp – said he was a builder by trade but was now taking his career down a "different avenue".

 

“I’m probably the first to do that trip with a dunny but there might be a trend that starts up. Every year we could have a shitter regatta across Backstairs Passage. It only used 10 litres of fuel. We could’ve gone back again!”

 

SeaLink may be forced to vacate the throne. 

 

You can view the video of the great dunny crossing here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GAM7NAo_fw