THE MURRAY RIVER

Driving from the Clare Valley we went east through Kapunda and Angaston in the Barossa Valley and lots more vineyards.

View from Eden Valley Lookout, looking to the eastern
escarpment of the Mount Lofty Ranges.

Then it was south to Mount Pleasant where we again turned east and came down off the Mt Lofty Ranges to Palmer and on to Mannum, where we met the mighty Murray River. Along the way we again noticed the large pipeline which runs west from the Murray to provide the major water supply for Adelaide, Port Augusta and all the little towns in the east of South Australia.

 

The countryside becomes more rugged as you come down off  the ranges.

Looking from the escarpment down to the Murray River floodplains.

The road to Mannum followed the pipeline which runs all the way to Adelaide.

But before we start up the Murray, I'd like to give you some facts about this most important waterway. The River Murray Basin of 1,057,000 square kilometres is about one-seventh of the total area of Australia and comprises three-quarters of New South Wales, over one-half of Victoria, a small portion of South Australia, and an area of Queensland greater than the total area of Victoria. Along with its tributaries, the Murray is part of the third largest water catchment on earth.

The length of the Murray from its sources in Mt Kosciusko National Park to its mouth is about 2560 kilometres. The Murray is continuously navigable for 1986 kilometres from its mouth near Goolwa, South Australia, to Yarrawonga Weir which makes it the third longest navigable river in the world, after the Amazon and Nile. The river has 4 major dams, 16 storage weirs and 15 navigable locks and is the major domestic water supply for over 1.5 million households.

 

Aboriginal occupation goes back 40,000 years at Mungo National Park north of Mildura. For half a century from 1853, the Murray was a virtual water highway and today is the venue for the largest annual canoe race in the world. Its iconic fish, the Murray Cod, can easily grow up to 1.8m in size and the Murray has the world’s largest redgum forest and ibis rookery on its banks.

Mannum is a quaint little town with a very interesting antique shop and a great little shop run by the ladies of the hospital auxiliary where you can buy some lovely jams, pickles etc at very reasonable prices. Just ask at any of the local stores for directions. I have to say too that the IGA in Mannum would have to be the neatest supermarket I’ve ever been it. There wasn’t an item out of place.

The Murray Princess, one of several beautiful old paddle boats still operating
on the Murray, passes the township of Mannum.

We took the ferry across the river and camped at  Bolto Reserve, to the right as you leave the ferry. We thought being a dead-end that it would be quieter than Haythorpe Reserve, which is beside the river on the other side of the ferry. However, Haythorpe would have been a better choice as the flies and rubbish at Bolto were overwhelming at times and helped us decide to take off the next day and head north, following the river.

John and I took the road through Younghusband, which hugs the river, while Geoff and Gloria took the Bowhill Road as there were no gravel sections. We met up at a pleasant little park at Bowhill and continued north, stopping at a couple of lookouts to get a better glimpse of the river. Some of the cliffs are quite high and provided some spectacular scenery.

As you follow the river you see lots of little settlements both sides.

These new houses near Teal Flat came complete with mooring.

Murray River cliffs at Len Kroehn Lookout, north of Bowhill.

Our next camp was at Swan Reach, where we crossed the ferry to the western side of the river to Tenbury-Hunter Reserve. This was another lovely little camping spot beside the river. We watched some other campers patiently fishing but only managing to catch carpe, which they left to rot on the banks. We were to encounter this right along the river. It seems a pity that they can’t eradicate them. Let’s hope they don’t get into too many of our rivers.

YUK!

 

Looking downstream from Tenbury-Hunter Reserve
toward the Swan Reach ferry.

Tenbury-Hunter Reserve

Morgan is a very interesting little town which was once a hive of industry, serving as a major port and rail town for the transport of wool etc from the surrounding countryside. It is here that the river makes a 90⁰ turn, changing direction from west to south, heading to Lake Alexandrina, Goolwa and the sea. Again we crossed a ferry to the other side of the river and pulled into a lovely little caravan park right beside the river. We decided to stay here for a couple of days to do washing etc. and took the opportunity to have a look at the local museum, which provided a terrific insight into the history of the town. Of particular interest was a video which told the story of the 1952 floods, which were the second highest floods ever recorded on the river. The resilience of the people was amazing and it was really interesting to see many of the old buildings which still stand today, in their original state. The video included some amazing footage of the main street of Mannum under 6 feet of water.
 

The old jetty at Morgan.

Baby carriage, on display at Morgan Museum, was built by apprentice as his final assessment to become a coachmaker back in the day. Very impressive!

The first trans-gender person to live in Morgan?

Electricity poles in South Australia are known as "Stobie" poles. They are made of steel and concrete. Very different to what we see in Queensland.

When we left Morgan it was very close to Easter and we thought it best to try to find a nice camping spot on Thursday so that we would not be competing for space over the Easter weekend. We looked at a camp at Ramco which was quite nice but were told it would soon be full of speed boats so we decided to continue down to Moorook Reserve. What a great decision. The camp was fairly full when we arrived but we both managed to get good camp spots right beside the river. The area is clean and green and fire boxes are even provided. There were lots of boats here too but I don’t think it would have been any different anywhere on the river over Easter. By Friday night the camp was full but the atmosphere was happy and friendly.

 

Still lots of houseboats on the river.

We took a drive down to Loxton and back up through Berri and Barmera on Friday and on Saturday night there was a buffet dinner and live entertainment at the club across the road. Unfortunately, we missed the bowls night at the bowls club on Thursday night which would have been fun.

Murray River at Berri.

Our friends Geoff and Gloria had a great spot right on the riverbank.

Geoff was very proud of his "truck testicles".

After a very relaxing day on Saturday, we headed back to Loxton on Sunday morning for the village live day at the Loxton Historical Village. It was certainly busy with crowds of people gathering to watch the many demonstrations given by the local volunteers, all of whom I noticed were getting on in years. It saddened me to think that when they are gone nobody will remember the skills and knowledge they were sharing or care about the amazing machines etc that had been lovingly restored here.

The main street of Loxton Historical Village - note the roo at centre right.
The people hadn't arrived yet!

Many of these items were frighteningly familiar.

Preparing to ignite the old Blackstone engine.

The smithy at his forge.

Rope making demonstration.

That afternoon, Gloria and I hit the twilight markets on the shores of Lake Bonney in Barmera while John and Geoff stayed at camp to cook a lovely roast chicken dinner. What a lovely day, fittingly finished with drinks beside a fire, overlooking the river.

 

Jet-skis on Lake Bonney.

Abandoned house near Moorook.

As we continued east, we managed to stock up on cheap vegies such as pumpkins and sweet potatoes from the many roadside stalls. After climbing the water tower in Berri to take a better look at the countryside, we headed to Renmark where we stayed the night at a lovely little caravan park right beside the old bridge at Paringa. The bridge here is raised twice a day to allow the many houseboats to pass through. I think it would be lovely to get the chance to take a week’s holiday on a Murray River houseboat. Hopefully will get the chance to do so someday.

 

View of the Paringa Bridge from the caravan park.

Houseboat passing under the raised Paringa bridge.

It was three states in one day when we left Renmark. Leaving South Australia, we travelled along the Sturt Highway until we were almost in Mildura, then turned north to Merbein and on to the town of Wentworth, which is where the Darling River meets the Murray River. A wrong turn from us saw us all at a little park where we spied an old paddle steamer anchored up in a little backwater. We discovered that the volunteers who had helped restore and maintain the P S Ruby were on board and the offered to show us around. They also showed us an excellent little video on the riverboats and the Port of Wentworth, which, like Morgan was once a bustling port for the boats transporting goods and produce from the far reaches of the Darling and Murray Rivers. We were really pleased that we had turned into the wrong spot.

P S Ruby

 

 

Next stop was the local bakery (what a surprise) where we sampled the local curry pies before taking the tourist route to the junction of the Murray and the Darling.

Junction of the Darling (left) and the Murray Rivers.

On the way out of town we also stopped at the old Wentworth Goal, where there is an excellent display of the history of the prison and some of its more notorious inmates. The prison closed in 1927. Across the road there is also a very impressive local history museum.

From Wentworth we drove a little way up the Silvercity Highway then turned west again past the Perry Sandhills, 400 acres of continuously shifting red sand dunes. Our destination was Fort Courage, a nice little caravan park which was initially the campsite for the local fishing club. The facilities here are quite nice and it would be a great place to use as a base for some fishing.

As we travelled east again to Mildura, we were amazed by the acres and acres of fruit and vegetables that are grown along the Murray. It was sad to see that many grapevines and citrus trees have been allowed to die. Not because there was something wrong with them but because low market prices make the cost of watering etc unviable. I cannot help but think that the main culprit with the citrus at least is cheap imports. This was obvious to me when I later tried to buy fruit juice that was sourced only in Australia when at the supermarket. Many of the farmers have turned to olives. There are lots and lots of olive groves now. We also managed to snag some lovely cheap pumpkins, sweet potatoes etc from the many roadside stalls. Cellar door sales are also plentiful from the many wineries.

The city of Mildura was a real surprise for us. What a bustling place it is! Every time we went into town there were people and traffic everywhere. It is very well serviced with an abundance of shopping centres, specialty stores etc. The caravan parks in the town area are a bit expensive but we were lucky enough to call into the Buronga Riverside Tourist Park just across the river in New South Wales. It is rated in the top 20 caravan parks in Australia and it is easy to see why. They pay a great deal of attention to detail with things such as doggy bed washing machines, big screen movies for the kids in the recreation area and the gardens are full of fairies, gnomes and fairy lights which turn the nights into a real fairyland. We thought it was excellent value at $27 a night despite the fact that it is a very big park and is right beside the river.

Buronga Caravan Park from across the river.

A friendly local looking for a snack.

While in Mildura we took a ride on a paddleboat which took us through Lock 11, then downstream of the weir before continuing downstream for a few kilometres. The scenery isn’t that spectacular but going through the lock was really interesting and it was certainly very relaxing.

Boarding for our paddle boat ride.

 

This beauty is for sale!

 

Entering Lock 11.

 

Lock doors opening to let us proceed downstream.

 

View of the weir from downstream.

 

There are endless large trees clinging to the banks of the river. Eventually they fall in and provide hiding places for the murray cod and other marine life.

From Buronga, we travelled down the Sturt Highway to Euston then crossed the river back into Victoria on the Murray Valley Highway. Because there are no more locks on this part of the river the water levels dropped considerably and the river was nowhere near as picturesque as it is further downstream. This would be our last night with Gloria and Geoff who were heading back west along the Mallee Highway next day. We spent the night a little caravan park at Wood Wood which only cost $10 a night and that’s about all it was worth as the showers etc were very ordinary. The grounds themselves were pleasant enough but barking dogs all night were a bit annoying.

Next day John and I continued down the Murray and found a tranquil little reserve in the Gunbower State Forest near Koondrook. It is really a sort of wetland adjoining the Murray and was very peaceful until about 3 pm when suddenly – BOOM. We suddenly realised it must be duck-shooting season here too and despite the fact that the hunting is strictly regulated, it was somewhat disconcerting. There is no guarantee that the hunters are all responsible gun toters. We were to hear gunshots again at several of our campsites but no dramas.

Gunbower Reserve presented lots of photo opportunities.

U turn?

We were thinking of staying at Christies Beach campground near Echuca next day but it was not so nice so we continued on to Tocumwal where there are plenty of excellent camping spots on both sides of the river. We stayed at Apex Beach on the south-western side of the road where there is quite a large sandbar but no toilets. If you want toilets etc there are camps on the eastern side of the road on both sides of the river. In Tocumwal itself the camp is called Town Beach and while very popular, we thought it wasn’t as nice as the camps on the southern side. We noticed lots of old  aeroplanes around town and learnt that there was an air training base here during the war. Today, it seems to be full of motels. It is quite a nice little town though and we were pleased to find there was even a laundromat.

We had to stop for a photo of this lovely park in the centre of Cohuna,
our mate Tracey's home town.

Christie's Beach camp site.

Sunset at Apex Beach, Tocumwal.

Apex Beach

Houseboat at Tocumwal boat ramp.

This cute little guy was in a gum tree right behind our van.

Continuing east, there are plenty of camps around Cobram as well but we had heard from fellow travellers that there were some nice camps further on toward Rutherglen. There was quite a nice camp on the Ovens River but the river itself was chocolate brown and not so nice. We kept driving to a lovely little spot called Stanton’s Bend which is at the end of Moodemere Road, 5.4 klms south-west of Corowa. There was plenty of room here and the river is easily accessible.

Stanton's Bend

Not far from this camp is Police Paddocks, north-east of Rutherglen and this was where we spent the next couple of days. It was close enough to town to duck in for the weekend papers and the Sunday markets if you wish, and since the school holidays in NSW had just finished, there weren’t so many campers.

Police Paddocks.

This would be our last camp on the Murray before heading into Howlong to top up our water, empty the loo etc and then through Albury-Wodonga and on to visit friends at Tangambala. We thoroughly enjoyed our trip up the Murray and would recommend it to anyone who loves exploring our history and countryside.