mmg.com.au

Channel 7 television show host Geoff ‘Coxy’ Cox cannot get enough of Echuca.

Echuca has featured many times on his show Coxy’s Big Break, but Coxy also tries to sneak in a personal visit five or six times a year, minimum.

‘‘(It’s) one of my favourite places in the world,’’ he said.

‘‘That is absolute fact. I absolutely love it, love it up here.’’

His most recent visit to Echuca on Monday, however, was professional.

Coxy, co-host Rhys Uhlich and a television crew were filming for a special Murray River episode, which will also feature Cobram-Barooga, Albury and Yarrawonga.

The Echuca segment will focus on the history of the PS Pevensey, which turned 100 in 2011.

Asked what he loved about Echuca, Coxy said the history.

‘‘I find it incredible that this wharf was once 1.2km long and was a busy inland port,’’ he said.

‘‘Every time I come here, you might be in a pub or a milk bar or anywhere, somebody tells you something and you go, here? really?’’

But Coxy’s love for Echuca does not stop there.

‘‘What else do I love? The weather,’’ he said.

‘‘I love the Murray. I love the houseboats and waterskiing, and one of my great, great friends owns a big houseboat that I stay on and he still asks me, ‘How come I drive it, clean it and it’s my boat and you tell everyone it’s yours?’

‘‘That’s just the kind of guy I am. I love staying on the river, even in the winter when it’s freezing cold...the mist off the water in the mornings.

‘‘You always wake up to sunshine.

‘‘I’m a mad golfer and I think we’ve been washed out once in 20 years, playing golf up here.’’

Born and bred in St Kilda and currently living in Black Rock, Coxy said he would even move to Echuca if it wasn’t for his job.

‘‘I’d move to Echuca, but I think the television channel might get annoyed if I put in a petrol bill every day from Echuca to Melbourne and Melbourne to Echuca,’’ he said.

Unfortunately, Coxy was not able to stay in town for this weekend’s Southern 80 event, leaving the same day he arrived.

‘‘They asked me to ski, but they weren’t paying enough money,’’ he joked.

It is unknown when the episode will air.