River Murray South Australia - The DocumentaryThe border cliffs - they told the old river boat captains they were coming into South Australia. The Murray River has changed dramatically since those rollicking romantic days. But somehow the great muddy waterway has always spoken to me of those times. When I was a young boy, or running the nets with my old uncle Bill on his commercial roach, or cruising on one of the first houseboats above Renmark, or on one of he paddlesteamers that can still build a head of steam.
"I'm looking forward in the next few days to filling in some of the gaps in the Murray mosaic and meeting some of the real people of the river"
"We start here - Victoria's this side, and South Australia's that side. We're three hundred and sixty five kilometres up from the Murray Mouth, and if I stop over here, I've got to put my watch forward half an hour"
"But interestingly, the New South Wales border doesn't pick up as you'd expect straight across the river. I wouldn't have to switch my watch over there, that'd happen three kilometres that way to the east. See, the surveyors originally didn't join up, and this patch of land was in dispute with Victoria for a very long time. In fact, we took them to the High Court and all the way to the Privy Council in England, and got knocked back over a lot of land. And that 3km's spread all the way to the Southern Ocean"
Just passed the Border Cliffs, a classic piece of pre-federation history, just twenty kilometres by road beyond Renmark, the old Customs House. Originally it was an unwelcome outpost of colonial beaurocracy, but now I discover it's a friendly stop over for supplies. On the river, proprietors Barry and Wendy Stelzer harked back to the old days.
"They used to collect the duty from the passing paddlesteamers. And so I think they would open up their hulls and put away a lot of their contraband and a lot of the things that they didn't want to pay duty on, alcohol received a very high duty"
In an old photo there's Officer Conlon! Was he a distant forebear and colonial taxman? And was he entirely upright?
"They used to collect duty and not declare them. We've heard that before haven't we? What's more they operated her for another eight months after Federation in 1901 killed off state duties"
Derelict until a few years ago, the old Customs House is thriving again. It's days away from Renmark by the slow scenic river route and so bread and beer and fuel are in demand. The Barossa born and bred Steltzers were mapping out a long and easy holiday meander down the Murray about four years ago, when they found this spot for sale. And now they're river people.
"It runs through our blood. We've always liked the river. Once you've drunk the water, they reckon that's it"
Semi-retirement this is not, with the store and their houseboat fleet, which comes with resident wildlife.
"The swallows? They live in the boat. They live under the boat"
And wherever you go the swallow family goes too.
"Two hundred kilometres to Wentworth and back to Keith, they go. Not flying all the way though, mind you".
"And they don't pay any hire either".
Hire a canoe or a "tinnie" at the Customs House and you're into the hidden capillaries off the main Murray artery.
"Look's like we're going straight into the bank - are you sure about this?"
"I've been through here before".
Amazingly, suddenly, we're into a fast running steep stream dipping down through desert dry banks.
"Where's all this water going?"
"It's going in and helping the creek system out the back".
A looping system of quieter wetland creeks offers canoeists days of different experiences.
"Very unusual for a kangaroo just to jump in the water".
According to Barry, this poor fellow may have been blinded by a disease that's spread through these flats. A nearby weir shows how the creek system is a couple of metres or more below the main river.
"This is a canoeist's paradise out here. We get a lot of canoeists from all over Australia . . . and a lot of colleges from Adelaide".
Out here it's another place, another time, where creeks will take you thirty or forty kilometres before you re-enter the Murray downstream at Chowilla. Grotesque fallen giants and centuries old river redgums struggle against human intervention that holds the river's flow behind locks and weirs, starving the backwaters of their lifeblood - frequent floods. But if a gigantic scheme of not so long ago had gone ahead, all of this would have been permanently submerged.
"Just a few kilometres downstream is a road to no where, to a dam that brought down a government in 1970, exactly three decades ago, and then was never built. This is where Chowilla Dam was going to run across the Murray, a massive earth wall that would stretch five or more kilometres- it would have taken an hour to walk to the other side, just where it looks like a road in the distance".
"Six million dollars was spent on preparations here. There was a construction town before it all came to a head. The Dunstan led Labor Opposition went for Chowilla. The Steele Hall led Liberal Government opted for the River Murray Commission's recommendation - Dartmouth, on a tributary in Victoria".
"Sentiment for keeping the water in South Australia was so strong that it helped win an election and began the Dunstan decade. But the problems of Chowilla were soon obvious - within a year they'd realised there was no lock here, so no houseboats were able to go up. It would have taken the dam back two hundred river kilometres to Wentworth".
"Up to thirty kilometres wide,. maybe a quarter of the water would go up in evaporation each year. So Chowilla was never built".
After the break, the shack-on-water, the humble houseboat, a relative newcomer to the Murray but part of a long river-going tradition.
House Boats on the Murray
Up stream from Renmark the dead gums have become the playground for a myriad of bird life. They stand like wooden skeletons, a reminder of just where the river's banks used to be before the arrival of the locks and weirs which regulate the Murray's flow. And whether it's dawn or dusk, Pelicanus Conspiculatis is sure to glide past. It's an aptly named River icon ever present from the border to the sea and never along for too long.
And one of the best ways to enjoy all this is on the move. For me, jumping on board Liba Liba Twenty One was like taking a trip back in time. In 1961 my first real experience of the Murray was on board a pioneers of the Liba Liba fleet that was back in the days when river land legend Ian Showell first came up with an idea that's now become an industry.
His dream has now been taken over by Judith and Tom Allison, former cattle station owners above Woomera and for ex-pastoralists like Tom and Jude, the slow methodical chug of the Liba Liba is music to their ears.
"And we still use the diff from a tractor to drive the paddles - people love the paddles".
"There's a bit of - there's a bit of the old primary industry in these boats".
"Oh most definitely, they're probably the most economical boat on the river as far as houseboats are concerned because they run with an old 179 Holden motor which we cannot wear out because they're going so slowly".
Slow enough to take in all that the river has to offer as the evening shadows play their tricks. As the Liba Libas make their way into Renmark, Ian and Fee Showell keep watch and reflect on the Australian industry they created. Ian had seen flat-bottomed boats travelling down the Nile while on active service in World War Two. For this Riverland engineer it was the germination of an idea and by the late fifties he was turning it into reality. The first were part tractor/part shack. Overtime creature comforts were added, and soon thousands of Australians were on the move.
"We made it work and we made it work professionally".
"And you invented an industry now, there's more than two hundred of these things".
No doubt Ian Showell was partly inspired by those who'd come before and still ply the waters of the Murray.
"As you can see these days the Industry gives people like us a chance to experience the paddleboat era and it's fair dinkum because a lot of the locks and weirs were worked on by the industry, this is a real working boat of the Murray"
She was commissioned in 1911 as a work boat for the old Engineering and Water Supply Department. And for much of her working life she removed snags up and down the South Australian section of the river, keeping it open for traffic. And every so often she puts on a real show.
"That's what they call a blowdown. They just let a whole lot of steam out of the boiler to get all the gunk out of it. It's very spectacular"
On her regular monthly tourist runs, the Industry passes a much smaller boat, the Hercules, tucked away in the willows. This is the home away from home for another legend of the river, former journalist, Johnnie Gurr, who's spent the past four years researching the history of the early riverboats.
"They opened up inland Australia. The stations up the Darling for instance, sometimes their wool would sit around for three years and be really downgraded because the bullock wagons weren't able to take them down to the markets. That would be Melbourne or Sydney, usually Melbourne. So when the first steamers came up overnight, the value of the properties increased dramatically - more than doubled"
"So a tremendous trade was opened up and it really opened up inland Australia. It was a dramatic influence on the success of this nation".
Riverboat skipper, Bob Selfe, has plied the Murray for more than half a century, back in the 1940's he steered human cargo, tourist passengers, from Morgan up to Mildura. And in low rivers he's thread his way between Murray Bridge and Renmark.
"How quickly does she respond?"
"Well, you'll find out in a second when I round up"
"You're gonna take on a full turn here are you - righto"
"Gee, you need your weaties for this job, Bob"
"Wanna hand out there Bob?"
"Nah, she'll be right - goin' slow"
A one hundred and eighty degree turn like this requires team work and while the skipper is hard at it, the stoker, Don Jungfer, is in constant contact with the bridge via this basic but reliable ship's telegraph. Full steam ahead it is, and soon you develop a healthy respect for the humble stoker.
"We're we going this time Don?"
"Could you find a good spot there?"
"I'll go over on the side there"
"Yer, I reckon there's a good one there"
"Righto, whoa - it's hot enough isn't it?"
Back in its heyday, the Industry's Boiler would devour about a tonne of wood every three hours as she cleared away snags and helped in the construction of the locks up and down the Murray. During the 1956 flood, she was on standby with steam up for several days ready to evacuate the townspeople of Renmark. Back then the water had swamped the first floor of the Angove family home. Now as you glide pass on what's been called the Mississippi of the South, you pass a mansion that would look equally at home in Louisianna as here on the outskirts of Renmark.
Canoeing in the Wetlands
Just downstream from Berri, the Katarapko Creek splits off from the Murray to form a long and quiet backwater, well known among canoeists. I teamed up with National Parks and Wildlife Ranger, Leah Fitzpatrick, to take a closer look. The stone causeway means this is the end of the line for motor boats, and the beginning of a very tranquil journey.
"So as a ranger here, you're used to seeing a lot of canoeists come through here?"
"Definitely"
"You can see why, can't you?"
"It's beautiful"
As you make your way down the creek, there are one or two obstacles to avoid and for a novice like me, an art to be mastered.
"You must paddle better than me, because we're going around in circles here"
"Heh, heh, it's all to do with the physics of canoeing I'm sure"
Across the creek is Katarapko Island where sheep and cattle were once grazed, and many of the native timbers in this area were used to build the early river settlements. Now in a Conservation Park, these tenacious eucalypts hang on for all their worth.
"The river red gums provide an excellent habitat for nesting birds, parrots, which use the funnels, possums, bats - a variety of reptiles but there is also an excellent habitat once they fall into the river"
You can spend several days exploring these backwaters of the Murray - campsites are numbered along the way - and just when you've mastered one stretch, new possibilities emerge.
"Yer, this is just opening up into what looks like a big billabong"
It's called the Splash - and it fans out into a beautiful vista of reed beds and wetlands. They're a feature of this part of the Murray, and the following day they seemed aptly named as Tony Sharley and I enjoyed breakfast under the patio at Banrock Station.
"It's not often you get to start the day like this"
Tony manages BRL Hardy's venture into a unique blend of winemaking and environmental regeneration. Out there, it's a haven for birdlife, but there's plenty of work to be done. Wetlands are some of the most vital, productive and diverse ecosystems on the planet, and nowhere are they more important than in a dry continent like Australia.
But as the locks and weirs turned the Murray into a series of huge ponds, they've either drowned under too much water or died of thirst - and now regular floods don't come either. Yet from the tasting room here, it's a picture of health. At the downstream end the wetland doctor has recreated a vital part of the cure - sluice gates.
"It allows us to not only raise the level of the water in the wetland and create a flood which we really need down here in South Australia these days with less water flowing into our State, but it also gives us the ability, believe it or not, to dry the system out which is crucial if you're going to restore a wetland"
"So why do you need wet and dry?"
"Well all we're doing is stimulating the natural process that all of our wildlife have adapted to. The stimulus to breeding for most of our plants and animals is actually to have a dry wetlands system followed by floods and all of a sudden, you've got this great cue for breeding. There's lots of life around, lots of nutrients, a smorgasbord of food and conditions are right for growth"
As the bullrushes return, so does the marine life, and those who wait expectantly for a good feed. The wetting and drying of wetlands replicates what took place here for thousands of years and here at Banrock Station, Tony and his team are also returning what's been taken away since European settlement.
"Now no mallee right here, because probably it was cut down for the paddlesteamers a century ago, that's where this trench comes in, in fact it's part of twenty kilometres of trenching that have been put in at Banrock Station. And into those trenches goes seeding, direct seeding gathered from five kilometres around. You can see what's happened in just one years worth, any rain like this is a blessing that's gathered here so this wattle gets an extra drink, so does this one, that's going to turn into a classic mallee wattle, they call it the umbrella bush. There's one behind me that's probably half a century old. The mallee's coming back."
And so too are the Darling Lillies. With the rabbits gone, and good soaking rain, the bulbs get a hold in the soil, and soon a new field of colour greets those who pass along the river. In the pioneering days they spread into hillside gardens to brighten a riverboat skipper's day. Now for next door neighbour Peter Teakle, they're another pleasure as he takes his own restored paddlesteamer "The Amphibious" out for a run.
This is Akuna Station opposite Overland Corner, and the etched cliffs here mark the Murray's flow from a vast valley into a narrow canyon. For the owner of all this is a wonderful diversion from the rigours of running the Collatype empire, one of the biggest wine label producers in the country. And when he's not making award winning attention seekers for wineries, Peter Teakle and Akuna's manager Peter Ward, are overseeing the production of their own fine drop.
And like Banrock, this is a vineyard with a corporate and environmental focus. Akuna has its own wetland, and to keep it going the owners divert twenty percent of their own water allocation. And like Banrock, imitating nature's old flooding and drying cycle has had marked results. This was the level of reed and red gum growth two years ago.
"And the difference is just amazing. They've filled the wetlands three times and let it dry out and the first time round these river red gums here got started. They've at last recreated what the Murray used to do. So you come back in two or three hundred year time and these, some of them at least, will look like a line of these magnificent river reds in the distance".
As you look around the property there are constant reminders of how the river used to flood. At each of these flood lines you'll see where the high waters deposited seeds, prompting a line of river box higher up, and river red saplings closer to the wetlands.
"This has happened back in the early eighties when there was a flood, ah, and I'm afraid the floods are happening less and less because of the pressure that's on the river".
"That's a nice stand. This is even better here - how far does that go?"
"Oh, this is back in the floods of '73 to '75, there were three magnificent flood years, and you find these stands all the way along the river valleys where the actual peaks of the water happens, that's where they drop all their seeds off and it retreats back and you end up with this beautiful stand of trees"
The carp gales mean new seedlings won't be ringbarked by the river pest, and without them stirring up the mud, cleaner water will flow back into the Murray. It all makes Akuna a potent mix of river history, from the wood lots at Wigley Flat (they're back to feed the paddlesteamers again) to the wetlands and the ancient cliffs beyond.
Morgan the River Port and the start of Rex Ellis' Camel Trek
"No paddle or cruise down the Murray would be complete without paying homage to the great Morgan wharf. It's rich in paddlesteamer folklore. See 1877, there is nothing built here, there or up on the cliffs. Just the Great Bend or the Great Elbow as the paddlesteamer captains used to call the spot where the river stopped heading west all the way across the country to hear and di a right hand turn and headed for the Southern Ocean"
Then, 1878 Morgan was conjured up, built almost overnight by the South Australian Government. There was a rush to get a rail link in before a Victorian connection with the river, further upstream, grabbed the cream of the huge transport trade for those across the border.
"So in came the railway and up went the wharf and these cranes were working twenty-four hours a day when the river was high and built the wharf to go an Adelaide Oval length that way. There were forty men a shift on the dock, they needed the giant beams of red gum and jarrah and the blue gum planks to take the weight of wool and wheat and eventually dried fruit coming down river by the bargeful"
'The old Morgan railway station overlooking the wharf is now a museum. The goods yards beyond and the wharf and the pretty station master's house. Now one year up the top of the hill here, there's nothing. The next year 1878 a lot of thirsty people around so up goes the Commercial Hotel for the workers and over the road the Terminus for the bosses and just along a bit the giant Landseer's wharehouse for all that cargo. Big enough to hold a Governor's banquet to open up the port".
Today Morgan is home to a waterborne suburb of houseboats. A century ago, at high water, there'd be paddlesteamers queued for a kilometre instead, and there'd be a few stranded here at low water too.
"So the railway gave life to Morgan and in a way it took it away as well because after three decades or so there were rail links all over the place and they stole the cargo from the station here and the mighty Morgan wharf"
And just as the riverboats played a vital role in opening up inland Australia, so too did these "Ships of the Desert". Just above Morgan, in the mallee, Rex Ellis and crew are saddling up. And apparently he likes to mix and match when it comes to his cameleers.
"And Keith you can come on this, he's like an executive this camel you know, he knows he's like a computer, he's got everything up here",
"What's his name Rex"
"Chalook, Chalook"
And you can't hop on board one of Rex's tours without meeting his offsider Stubbie. This Jack Russell keeps watch throughout the trip as we make our way through old growth mallee. And further on down Rex's property, there's a spot of feed along the way.
"They like this one obviously Rex?"
"They do. This is their feed tree"
"It turns into a little test drive for the people on their camels"
Out here we're about two kilometres from the Murray, but with a rainfall of under eight inches in the old money, it's dry country, but surprisingly diverse.
"We're getting into sandy country now?"
"Yer, a little bit of sand and spinifex here"
What these creatures lack in beauty they certainly make up for in efficiency. Apart from breath freshener and dental floss, there's not much more you'd want to bring with you out in the scrub with one of these.
"That could be anything from ten to forty days"
"What, they don't get a drink?"
"That's right, I mean we've had camels go years without a drink of water in good years - in good seasons"
In fact, when it comes to off road terrain, these characters are Nature's long distance rally champions, and Rex's love for Chalook and the gang is obvious, along with his passion for the nearby river.
"They reckon a committee put the camel together, well it'd be good to reconvene that committee. I mean it might sort this government out or the Murray River or something"
As we head back towards the river, Stubbie's on constant alert.
"Kangaroo....kangaroos out there...kangaroo"
"You see some of these mallees are really old growth mallees that could be up to a thousand years, some of these"
"Gee, they've seen a lot go down the river"
"This is a great experience with the dry land on one side and the river on the other Rex"
"Yer, it's just like an oasis isn't it, when you come out of the mallee and there it is"
And at the end of the ride we're in for a treat, at what Rex has dubbed the Dromedary Cliff Top Restaurant, with five star views.
"What a spot for lunch"
"Beautiful"
"Sshhh, sshhhh"
He's a versatile host, one minue the cameleer, next the cliff top waiter.
"Oh, look at this"
"This is one restaurant where you could perish before the waiter gets here"
"You come up alright too"
Normally it's an entrÈe of Murray River yabbies, but today a prawn cocktail, followed by kangaroo fillet. It was almost the perfect setting apart from a few interruptions from those who got us here. But Rex, the ever alert host and true patriot is soon on hand to drown out those with no table manners, with a haunting rendition of Waltzing Matilda, accompanied by none other than his little mate Stubbie.
Ngaut Ngaut Conservation Park : Murray Cod and Rambling the River
As the rivercraft edge along the cliffs downstream from Swan Reach, they pass one of the most important archeological sites in Australia, or anywhere. Under a shade cloth at the end of a boardwalk, you come to a limestone overhang, a logical place for the river's earliest human inhabitants to meet, get out of the rain and cook a feed.
"But that black line that you can see is a very important one, and that's the actual fire site"
For Richard Hunter each layer of charcoal, animal bone and shell grit, is another chapter in an epic story.
"I call this our history book of the indigenous people of Australia"
The overhanging cliffs at what is now called Ngaut Ngaut Conservation Park were once a great meeting place for tribes from all around. It was here that they'd settle disputes. River people would trade their goods for ceremonial ochre or granite pieces for tools, and according to carbon dating that interaction has been going on at this particular site since the days of William the Conqueror.
"The history book goes here in this place from what we can see at the exposed level there approximately a thousand years"
"A thousand years?"
"A thousand years just in those exposed areas"
And whereever they met, they often left their mark, whether it be the smoke stained rock face or the myriad of engravings. Back in the 1920's our Museum archeologists discovered the real importance of this idyllic spot on the Murray and from then on our understanding of this transport and meeting hub changed forever.
"They came out herein 1929 and 1930 at this site here"
"This is what really excited, literally excited the world"
"It put Australia on the world map of archeology"
"This spot?"
"It's the most significant site in South Australia"
Well known anthropologists Norman Tindale and offsider Hale sank their trenches down through centuries of river history.
"What about this site here, how far down did they go?"
"They went down approximately six metres, just over twenty fee in the old language"
"So, two storeys of a house today?"
"Way down"
"Down through layers of fires?"
"The deeper you go the older you get, and the lighter the colour changes and that's where the real nitty gritty stuff comes out"
"With the process of radio carbon dating they come up with a date of approximately eight thousand years"
"How's that, people camping here"
"Under this overhang..yep"
It's a staggering thought. Engravings which predate the Pharoahs and the pyramids on the Nile and it's all here on the banks of the Murray. Further downstream, as the holidaymakers round the cliffs at Walker Flat, those who work on this river are heading off to check their nets. This is how third generation commercial fisherman Shane Warwick commutes to work.
The river is the oldest commercial fishery in South Australia and for Shane the recent fishing has been extremely good.
"What sort of net is this?"
"This is a drum net, probably the most popular net used in the commercial river fishery"
"And we can see why it's called a drum net now"
"You've got something in there - what have you got?"
"Caw - hell -what's this - this is a cod?"
"That's a Murray Cod, probably about twenty pounds or ten kilometres"
With cod, there's a minimum size limit of fifty centimetres and a maximum size limit too - just over a metre. They're the mega spawners as Shane likes to call them, and they're crucial to the ongoing survival of this amazing creature. In the early morning and late afternoon, Shane checks a series of nets.
"I tell you, you've got a nice view from the office here Shane"
"Yeh, very hard to beat, very hard to beat"
"What have we got here?"
"We've got another drum net here Keith. This spot usually picks one up from time to time and we can pull up one sometimes"
"Now this is nice on a day like today but what's it like in the middle of winter?"
"Oh well, not that much fun - hello - here we go again".
"No, that much fun".
"And here comes another cod"
"It can only be a cod, there's nothing like this in the river apart from a cod this big in there"
"No, no he's the top of the food chain, the top predator in the system"
If you've ever wondered why you've never caught one of these when dangling a line in the Murray, then consider this.
"Scientific trials that have been done, indicate that cod can go up to five years without feeding"
During long dry spells, before the locks and weirs, the river was sometimes just a series of unconnected ponds. A super efficient predator like this would have cleaned out his pond and would need to wait, sometimes several years, before floods would bring more water, and more food. At thirty dollars a kilogram, a beast like this fetches good money.
"Exactly - for restaurants in Adelaide, the Red Ochre in Adelaide as you know, is renown for native products"
"Well that's a real treat. I suppose in a way you must even feel occasionally yourself that it's a pity to take them but I suppose from your point of view, there's plenty for tomorrow"
"Well we now have a four month closed season on Murray Cod, and we've extended it from three months to four months. And in that four months we put back in possibly in an average yaer, possibly three to four hundred Murray Cod back into the water and it gives you a good feeling every time you let one go"
"You like letting those mega breeders go?"
"Yep, all they can do is produce more"
And wherever Shane goes, these feathery hangers-on fly in. Shane knows them well, this is Tiny, a little bloke who's put on some conditioning thanks to the fishermen.
"The one behind is Guts"
"I think we know why"
"He's the gamest and the one who'll always come in the closest"
"Guts" was circling as we left Shane to check his other nets and by late in the day, it was obvious why this sort of life runs deep in the Warwick clan. Three generations have sampled that mystical something on the Murray. And every so often houseboat owners, wooden boat fanatics and all those in love with the nautical heritage of the Murray, gather en masse to sample that special something in what's called the River Ramble.
Unforgettable House Boats at Mannum
With each golden dawn, nature and the Murray put on a breathtaking show. But this beauty is sadly skin deep, masking the creeping salinity and pathetic flow beneath, diseases awaiting the political will to cure them. As the great river moves closer to a city of more than a million people, the signs of the river's popularity become more and more obvious, with South Australians from all walks of life enjoying its unique pleasures from its banks and on water.
"We started way up river with the beginning of the houseboat era nearly forty years ago, when they were nice little shacks on flats. Now there are about two hundred of them for hire on the Murray. And this is the next generation, we're talking a mansion on the move"
What Ian Showell started in Renmark, Mike Coorie is perfecting with his "Unforgettable" fleet at Mannum. He likes to let his creations do the talking, and his international customers. I caught up with a group of them on R 'n R on his latest model, where the lifestyle and the lazy river, well, let's hear what they think.
"It's a different world you know. It's not like a shack on the river, for you get away from it. So you go somewhere else where there is no house, no nothing, that's a big difference"
"When we tied up last night, it's so peaceful. You can't get it anywhere else"
This is a well travelled bunch and they're very pleasantly surprised by the latest Unforgettable, acknowledged as a trend-setter.
"This is my sixth time, when I walked in here yesterday, I couldn't believe it. I didn't think that's possible"
"I think it's nothing less than five star accommodation, even the bar glasses -they're heavy crystal, so I didn't touch them - it's unbelievable"
There are hidden technological firsts aboard too, like a satellite troubleshooter link back to base. Comforting for the crew. Including Harry. Hot off the plane from Poland, he's already adopted a local footy team and with a little translation, he's found a nice way of summing up the situation.
"The boat together with the river - it's a perfect scenario"
"Coming down river, it's obvious that the people of the Murray worry about their river because they love it so much. The rest of us? Well, we get off it reluctantly of course, especially if we're on something as salubrious as this. How starkly different this is from exactly one hundred and seventy years ago. Captain Charles Sturt and his whale boat crew, rowing all the way down the Murray, and what he saw down here. The green - at last - impressed him after all that dry brown upstream. And what he wrote about it really inspired the dreams of these London bankers and philosophers who were looking for a new colony - South Australia. Well, here is where I get off - Mannum"
I can't look at its main street without thinking of the great flood of 1956. One side of the main street was underwater completely. It was a canal for months on end and thousands of people drove to marvel at the power of the river, and lament for the locals under a watery sledge.
"In 1956, the flood stretched from that cliff right across to this one. This lookout overlooks the town of the legendary Captain William Randell, a Gumeracha flour miller who thought cannily about getting his flour bags to the hordes of hungry differs at the new Victorian goldrush"
"So he built the Murray's first ever paddlesteamer, just upstream from here. And you can still see its boiler on the riverfront in Mannum today. And his home Randell House, overlooks the river the he turned into the Mississippi down under."
And the Marion is at Mannum to remind us. For 103 years now, the Marion has paddled up and down the river. You can still get aboard. Prime Minister Fisher was on board back in 1915. "A beautiful and exhilarating trip", he said.
"But I like the MP who called our river the Nile of Australia, and he said "The Australian who has not been afloat on the waters of the Murray does not know his country".
"He said it and I hope you can get afloat sometime soon on the marvellous Murray"
The following companies assisted in the making of this documentary
Akuna Station, Kingston on Murray
Peter Ward - 08-8589-3041
Banrock Station, Kingston on Murray
Tony Sharley
BRL Hardy
Damien Fisher - 8392-2222
PS Industry
Renmark Tourist office
National Parks & Wildlife Services, Berri
Head Ranger - 08-8595-2111
Rex Ellis
08-8543-2280
Elura Houseboats - Old Custom House, Border Cliffs, Chowilla
Barry Steltzer - 08-8595-5063
Unforgettable Houseboats
Mike Coory
Ngaut Ngaut Conservation Park
Richard Hunter - 08-8540-1048
For more information you can email info@postcards-sa.com.au
