We continued to discover other positive facets of this park this morning when Chris had to use the dump site; he said it is the best we have ever had occasion to use. You can see that we cannot sing the praises of this caravan park enough!
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| A rather hideous "houseboat" |
And speaking of police, as we pulled out on to the bridge approach this
morning, we noted a police road block for those coming from the Mildura side.
No doubt the line went something like, “Welcome to New South Wales. Please
state your name and address into this breathalyser!”
Leaving the land cruiser down by the river, we walked up into the city
centre and wandered up and down every street, looking for a barber and spending
more money on clothes (for me), a newspaper and a DVD. Don’t you just love it
when you go to pay for clothes that are already marked down to an excellent
price and then find the till price is even 33% cheaper! I should have bought
two or three pairs!
We did finally find a barber who offered no concessions for seniors or
any other specialty. You can guarantee they would not be doing so during the
Music Festival either. Think of all those old codgers coming out of the bush
requiring some grooming; the barber will be rubbing his hands together with
glee.
Returning to the vehicle, glad that we had parked away from the centre
of the city where an eager parking metre officer was busy handing out tickets,
we set off across the city, upriver to Kings Billabong, where we parked up and
ate our lunch looking out over the wildlife reserve struggling to decipher the drowned tree stumps from the large water
birds.
The billabong, or lake, is bordered by a wide stretch of the Murray
River and is home to a multitude of flora and about a hundred different species of
birds. It was this body of water which was chosen by the Chaffey brothers as
the central water supply to establish the Mildura Irrigation Settlement. By
1891, a pumping engine was installed at Psyche Bend to pump water up into the
billabong, which in turn was pumped up to the higher level of the surrounding
country for irrigation. The original plan was to develop irrigated lands
covering 22,000 hectares with an ultimate goal of 115,000 hectares.
I have mentioned these Chaffey brothers in the context of irrigation before
when we passed through Renmark; it was here they began their grand design. It
was Alfred Deakin, then Victoria’s Minister for Water Supply who found these
two geniuses in Canada in the mid-1880s and lured them to Australia.
Sadly the 1890s were years of drought and depression and the promised cornucopia
springing from this new-fangled irrigation system did not meet everyone’s
expectations. George Chaffey was virtually run out of town but his brother
stayed to receive the praise and glory to which they were entitled, once
everyone got over those bad years and could see the bigger picture. Charles did
go on to create successful schemes elsewhere in the world and as a consolation
prize here, the bridge we cross here from state to state has been named the George
Chaffey Bridge.
But back to the billabong: we wandered down to the water’s edge after
dining and fell into conversation with a teenage fisherman from the “Highlands”.
He was up at Mildura with his parents staying on a houseboat while his father
attended some art workshop and his mother sat in the shade reading a book. From
this charming young man we learned much about carp, koy carp, red perch, bait,
rigor mortis versus death twitching in fish and a multitude of other
fascinating facts and thoughts. While rather obsessive about all fishing matters,
he exhibited intelligence, courtesy and renewed our faith in the youth of
today.
We then drove over to the Psyche Pumps, the buildings erected for the irrigation
system referred to above and wandered about these delightful river side spots.
There was a marker showing the height of the 1956 flood which has gone down in
the annuls of Mildura history as far more spectacular than those of the past
few years. In 1956 this camp would have been well beneath the muddy Murray
waters for sure.
We wended our way along a maze of river tracks until we came to a car park
for the Bird Hide Loop Walk, a three and a half kilometres easy walk across the
billabong flood plains. While
inside the hide, rain started to fall heavily on the tin roof. I assured Chris
it would soon pass, he agreed it surely would in a day or so; I was proved
correct. Even minutes later, there was no evidence of the rain on the ground or
the vegetation.
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| Psyche Bend pumphouse |
And just to put these places in perspective and record here for my
future reference:
Mildura has a population of about 28,500 which varies depending on what
source you use. Its regional population is around 60,000 which explains the
complete services to be found within the urban boundary. The town is just fifty
metres above sea level which is particularly interesting when you think how far
the Murray River still has to flow before it arrives in the Southern Ocean,
this explaining its slow progress.
The major industries include agriculture, manufacturing, tourism and
retail. The Mildura region grows the following percentages of Australia’s fresh
produce:
- · 95% dried vine fruit (Think of Sunraysia raisins)
- · 74% table grapes
- · 65% almonds
- · 41% pistachios
- · 33% olives
- · 24% citrus
- · 20% wine grape harvest
- · 16% asparagus
- · 11% carrots
Wentworth on the other hand, our point of contact with the Murray just
days ago, has a population of just 1,248 and is at an elevation of 37 metres
ASL (another interesting thought when it comes to the fall in the river)
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