The owners are Jock and Carla Veenstra who have been working in the tourism industry operating cruise vessels on the Murray River and Coorong National Park since 1966.

In 1998 Spirit of Australia Cruises commenced a new era in river cruising on the Murray.

Jock and his son Michael built a shallow draft, lightweight vessel Spirit of the Coorong I, enabling them to navigate through areas of the Coorong National Park not previously accessible by commercial cruising vessels. This boat was designed to minimize environmental impact on the Coorong's landscape.

The Spirit of the Coorong I currently conducts nature based day tours consisting of public scheduled cruises ranging between 4 1/2 hours and 6 hours, as well as private charters designed to meet customers requirements.

In July 2003 Spirit of Australia Cruises commenced its new tourism product on the Murray River called the "Murray River Run".

The Murray River Run is a 560km one way cruise, passing through six locks along the entire length of the Murray River in South Australia.

When the Murray River Run Cruises commenced the company used one of their existing "Spirit of the Coorong Vessels". However, due to tremendous response from tourists from all over the world about this award-winning Murray River Run Cruise, on 21st September 2005 a purpose built 20m environmentally-friendly low wake catamaran called the "Spirit of the Murray" was commissioned.