The Islands at the End of the Murray

They are a secret shared only by the Goolwa "boaties" … Goose Island, Goat Island, Mundoo and more. Blocking and muddling its entrance to the ocean, they are the islands at the end of the Murray. As the morning cloud cleared to reveal a sparkling blue sky, the Postcards team joined the passengers on the Wetlands Explorer as it departed from the biggest and best known of the island group. Marina Hindmarsh Island is a 1980's scheme that waited until the opening of the controversial bridge over the Murray at Goolwa to really flourish. We slid past some of the 600 or so yachts and cruisers at the mooring jetties and waved to the morning coffee crew at Rankine's landing. The tavern is operated by Peter Rankine, a member of the same family of the good Dr. Rankine of Strathalbyn who took up the first stock grazing lease here back in 1847.

Within a few years, Captain Cadell had sailed a paddle-wheeler from Sydney, and headed upstream from the river wharf to pioneer the riverboat era. And Goolwa began to live the dream of becoming the New Orleans of the South - the port for Australia's Mississippi. Following Cadell's path we soon left the old town and its slender new bridge arch behind and veered to the island side of the broad stream to pass the moored "William Randell". It was recently built by paddle steamers guru, Roly Bartlett who named it for the other riverboat pioneer who raced his "Mary Ann" against Cadell's "Lady Augusta" for and Governor's prize. The real reward, however, was in opening and new path for his Gumeracha - milled flour to the hungry diggers on Victoria's goldfields.

Back on the mainland side, we glide close to Birks' Harbour, with its boatshed converted to a 5-star B & B, and attractive clinkers built western boats bobbing at the jetty. The "Terrible" is a standout. It was originally a life boat on the British aircraft-carriers "HMS Terrible". As the holiday houses peter out, "The Wetlands Explorer" is soon up on the plane, speeding round the fresh water side of Hindmarsh Island to clumps of land unknown to most of us.

Skipping smoothly at 22 knots, it's time for coffee and fruit cake as we pass the great fat fingers of water that become Currency Creek (it points to a surveyed town that never was) and the Finnis River. A red-sailed yacht emerges to remind us that Lisa's tried some sailing lessons in protected waters nearby.

"Clayton is a pretty little holiday town with a great seafood restaurant. It was named after Sir Henry Clayton Freeling, and early Surveyor General… but there's another theory, Keith."

"Yes, I prefer the one that says it was all about the Mr. Clayton, the carpenter on Captain Sturt's whaleboat that came past here in 1830."

"So do I."

Peter Summerton is our skipper and very knowledgeable guide. He loves pointing out all kinds of features, including the limestone cliffs upstream of the little town. They date back to a geological era when the Murray was massive, cutting a ditch and pouring into the sea somewhere south of Kangaroo Island. We have trouble distinguishing reeds and shallows from low islands like Goose and Rat as we arc towards a narrowing neck. On one side is the wetlands end of Hindmarsh Island, while on the other curious cattle on Mundoo Island observe our passage into a channel that once ran "crystal clear and twenty feet deep when the freshwater came down from the Snowy Mountains. At other times it was a flush of saltwater rushing in the Murray mouth that flowed the other way. That was before the barrages," Peter's noted.

The Wetlands Explorer swung into the bank a good 15 kilometers from Goolwa as the pelican flies - into a hidden cattle station on Mundoo and several adjacent islands. The old jetty was once used by paddle steamers picking up cargo and dropping supplies. One, the P.S. Wilcannia was dismantled here and there are bits of it still in the buildings and stockyards.

It was time for the tour within a tour. We all hop aboard a mini-bus for a guided ride through a working cattle station with islands for paddocks. Fourth generation Mundoo Island owner, Colin Grundy drives and checks the 1000 or so Angas cattle. His wife Sally tells amazing tales of pioneering days, building the barrages and bird watching. It is such a visual and informative feast we have saved it for another episode.

After tucking into a barbecue cooked back at the old shearing shed by our all-rounders river guide, we're back on our flat bottom cruise, and we're soon glad it will get through with a waters depth of only 18", say 50cm. Peter Summerton guides his craft towards a rare experience. At one end of the 1.6 kilometer long Tauwitcherie Barrage is a hand-operated lock - and I soon learned I was to play a part in us getting through to the briny Coorong on the other side. The wooden roadway across the lock swings away with a hefty wind, and the lock gates slide back into the concrete walls with more muscle-power. Another manual operation opens the valves to ease our boat down a meter or two to the level on the saltwater side, and soon we're into the fragile magic of the Coorong.

This is home to water birds in there thousands. Flights of pelicans, mobs of waders like the long-legged stilts and avocets with their upturned beaks, and plump little migratory birds feeding up for their late Autumn flight to Siberia…. they all add to the sense of wilderness that inspired Colin Thiele's "Storm Boy".

Peter takes his flock ashore, too, to climb giant sand hills and take in the lakes and the lands of the 18 tribes of the Narrindjeri nation. With reverence, he shows us middens - feasting areas - that are piled so high they count their age in thousands of years.

Then, the climax and anti-climax of our journey…. the mouth of the enormous Murray Darling river system is pitifully shut, but for a shallow tidal flow inwards. Not a skerrick of river water is left to run into the Southern Ocean. It was disappointing too, for Sturt in 1830. He walked through reeds and mud for the final stretch of his epic trip down river.

This was soon the scene of tragedy as well as Captain Collett Barkes followed up on Sturt exploration. In 1831, he swam "four hundred yards of fast flow" to get compass readings from what became known as Barker's Knoll. He was speared to death by Narrindjeri warriors, and tradition has it that they were fearful he was another rough sealer from Kangaroo Island intent on stealing more of their women. With the mouth moving northwards by hundreds of meters, there's no distinguishable Knoll now.

Peter Summerton talks with passion and much knowledge about the fate of the Murray. His link with the Mundoo Station tour is inspired, and so it was a unanimous recommendation from our fellow passengers on the Wetlands Explorer. Come aboard soon to explore the watery world of the islands at the end of the Murray.

Coorong Cruises
Peter and Jo Summerton
PO Box 683
STRATHALBYN SA 5255
Email: peternjo@esc.net.au
Web: www.coorongtours.com

Taunwitcherie Tours
Sally and Colin Grundy
Mundoo Island
via GOOLWA SA 5214
email: mundoo@granite.net.au

Reservations
Phone: (08) 8555 1133
Mobile: 0407 726 475

"Must see, Must Do, Mundoo"Tour
Fridays 10 am - 5 pm (also charters)
Adults - $95.00
Children - $60.00
Pensioners - $88.00

Discounts for groups of 10 or more