Portee Station on the Murray River for a unique experience
with Keith ConlonIt's an historic working sheep station, a taste of the outback, a serene wetland experience and luxury hideaway. Yet, Portee Station is only two hours from Adelaide, about ten kilometres south of Blanchetown where the Sturt Highway crosses the Murray.
The Postcards crew were bemused by the windsock close to the entry road, "Portee International Airport" - we chuckled, but it turned out to be close to the truth. Station-owner and mine host, Ian Clark explained that about two-thirds of his guests are international visitors, and many of them arrive by charter plane.
They drive through working sheds to arrive at an inviting old homestead surrounded by expansive lawn and long planted garden trees.
The lawn area slopes from the front door of the homestead down to the Portee Creek, several kilometres of billabong, lined with huge river red gums. The coloured clay cliffs of the Murray River are just visible about a kilometre away across the flood plain.
About twelve years back, the Clark family took over Portee, and they seem to be living comfortably with the dual demands of tending sheep and receiving guests. The Massachusetts couple, who had left this morning may not have heard of him, but the short trip to the site of the river home of Edward John Eyre was to fill a long-held ambition for me.
Eyre's towering reputation as an explorer was matched by his enlightened approach to aboriginal issues in the fledgling colony of South Australia. As a young overlander bringing sheep to Adelaide via the Murray in 1839, he encountered Moorundie Creek inlet and saw his future.
After his epic Nullabor crossing, he took up his land grant at Portee. The Governor appointed him resident Magistrate and Protector of Aborigines at Moorundie, which became one of the first settlements outside of Adelaide.
His task was real and difficult. Very serious and frequent clashes between river aboriginal tribes and overlanders had seen up to fifty aboriginal warriors killed, and thousands of sheep missing. Eyre successfully promoted peace in the region during the 1840's. He was a "guardian hero", according to his friend, Captain Charles Sturt of River Murray fame.
Moorundie is on the Portee Station run, and Ian's 4WD expedition across the river flats was worth the bumps. The long avenue of gums referred to in Eyre's journals where he built his home still mark the site, but there are no sign of it, or the courthouse or police barracks. Old photos in the Mortlock South Australiana collection link it with the township that was here on the Moorundie flats where Eyre experimented with irrigation and grew crops and vegetables. The continuing high rivers caused abandonment of the site in favour of Blanchetown upstream seven kilometres.
In his time there, (1841-1844), Eyre distributed flour rations each full moon to members of aboriginal tribes. He estimated there were 300 regular recipients. Here were good traditional hunting grounds and plentiful fishing in the billabong and lagoons.
George French Angas wrote of wallaby and emu netting, finer traps for duck and bronzewing pigeons, and hunting the Murray cod. Portee's Ian Clark showed us evidence of canoe trees, campfire sites and an ancient river red gum shelters.
Ian led me to an ancient Red Gum, maybe a millenium old, and still just alive on one branch. Its trunk held a hollow big enough for a family. He believes that the smoothed trunk above the entrance was worn by thousands of hands returning home.
Back at the Portee Station woolshed, there were a few dozen wethers being shorn. The old stone shed was built in 1850, and the two shearers look no different from their wiry forefathers as they expertly take off the fleece. In the yards outside, with the picturesque creek behind, Ian's grand-daughter Emily has charge of two three-week old border collie pups. Parents Maggie and Tom are busy working the flock.
The dogs know the big stretch of inland well. Portee property extends about twenty kilometres west towards the Mt Lofty ranges, and we have been promised a trip out there in the "rocket launcher". It turns out to be true, in the sense that the safari-wagon-meets-Mad Max contraption that serves as the visitors' bus was once a rocket launcher at Woomera.
I sat in the front, which meant sharing the seat with Tom, the sheepdog. He clearly has a permanent reservation, because he happily sat on top of me. A detour to some wombat holes revealed more of Ian's encyclopaedic knowledge of the bush. This is dry, sheep country, beyond Goyder's 10 inch rainfall line. It's the beginning of the fabled outback.
Tom hopped out for a good workout - keeping a mob of four hundred sheep together proved to be a marathon effort as he skirted, ran, paused, sprinted and held the flock close to the rocket launcher. The working-dog-demo is all part of the package for Portee's guests, because they're involved in whatever's going on at this working station with six thousand sheep.
In striking contrast to all that dry paddock, a boat trip at dusk along Portee Creek is a bird-watcher's dream. Ian was observing a darter's nest in the overhanging gum tree branch, when Postcard's "camo" Jeff Clayfield homed in on the young birds just in time to record them bellyflop into the water and disappear!! I thought we'd scared them into drowning, but Ian assured us that they swim underwater to safety.
The long billabong leads to Big Lagoon, where a gathering of pelicans preened in the late light. They were standing in ankle deep water, and we were going no further. Fortunately, the birds seemed to come to us, with white faced heron perched high above and flights of ibis heading for an overnight rookery.
Earlier, on the Moorundie flats, we'd marvelled at an aerial armada of screeching, brilliant white corellas, and a solitary bird of prey, an aeronautically amazing kite that circled the treetops.
As dark crept over the flats, our return trip was memorable for the screeching sulphur-crested cockatoos' swansong for the day as they reeled in silhouette across the water.
All that sheep shearing and station touring is good for the appetite, and Ian's daughter Susan was basting a butterfly-boned leg of lamb on the barbecue, with her secret Portee marinade as we climbed the lawn, back to the restored homestead. A station dinner with more time for bush yarns was exactly what you'd want to round off a truly Australian experience at Portee Station.
per person
OccupancySurcharge Dec 20 to Jan 2
For a full listing of packages and tours, visit Portee's web site below.CONTACT DETAILS & RESERVATIONS:
Portee Station
PO Box 320
Blanchetown. SA 5357Telephone: 08-8540-5211
Facsimile: 08-8540-5016
Email: ian@portee.com.au
Internet: www.portee.com.au
