Roger and Denise travels – report 2

Mildura – 16 to 21 October 2009

Settled into Buronga Riverside Caravan Park.

This park is reputed to have been recently named best caravan park in Australia in a survey of park users, and it certainly is the bench-mark by which we will judge every park we stay at in future.

The owners make you feel welcome. The amenities are clean. Somehow it feels like a home. There is a small animal section to entertain kids of all ages. Free movie under the stars each Sunday night and free live entertainment once a month.

Animal farm at Buronga Riverside Caravan Park. © D Neal 2009.

I went for a short walk on the Saturday afternoon to shoot scenes of the Murray River and the camping area, only to find that all commands and controls of my four year old Fuji camera had ceased, rendering the camera useless.

By Sunday night I’d come to terms with having to buy another camera or be a total grump for the remainder of our holiday. Early Monday we would have to find a camera shop and hopefully find what I was looking for.  That afternoon we would do a steamboat cruise up the river, Tuesday visit Mungo Lakes National Park, Wednesday relax and vegetate, Thursday on the road again and head for Echuca.

PS Melbourne, cruising on Murray River – 19 October 2009.

No wind. Bright, sunny skies. Temperature heading for 30 Celsius. A great day for relaxing and cruising up the Murray on the paddle steamer “Melbourne”.

Also, a cruise is a good way to get familiar with my new Canon 50D DSLR.

We enjoy the sweet, pungent smell of Mallee red gum logs burning to get up a full head of steam, then, two toots of the steam horn, cast off and we are away.

Steam engine on board PS Melbourne. © R Neal 2009.

The journey takes us up river to Lock 11 where our boat enters the lock at river level and a house boat just manages to fit in along side us. Three sharp toots on the horn had warned the lock master of our approach, out of site around the bend, and he was ready with the lock gates open before we arrived.

Lock 11 sign on bank of Murray River. © D Neal 2009.

Closing the lock gates. © R Neal 2009.

Gates closed, water is released from the lock and we slowly drop about 5 metres to match water level on the other side of the lock. Open the other gates and our cruise continues. All the while we are treated to an entertaining, informative commentary from the captain relating the history of the river, the building of the lock system and the river traffic.

We just lounge back and enjoy the sites and sounds of the river.

Swan family crossing the river. © D Neal 2009.

Seagulls on beach of Murray River. © R Neal 2009.

 Mungo Lakes National Park – 20 October 2009

I had been looking forward to this trip for a long time! Leave the van in Mildura, drive the 110kms out to Mungo Visitor Centre and the extra 13kms to Red Top lookout, shoot some great sunsets on the Walls of China formations and drive back in the dark to Mildura.

We expected to be travelling over dirt roads but nothing prepared us for this journey! Corrugations, ruts, holes, rock hard mini sand dunes. We bounced, rattled, shook and jarred our way to the visitor centre only to arrive hot, dusty and tired. Fine bull dust in everywhere and in everything.

Road and scrub near Mungo. © R Neal 2009

Located at the visitor centre, the shearers shed is all that remains of a pioneering sheep raising venture. It is a marvel of engineering ingenuity! The pioneers used any materials they could find to build the sheds. No nails, no bolts – all major framing is tied together using fencing wire, with finer wire or ropes used for tying everything else together.

Interior of shearers shed, Mungo. © R Neal 2009.

Exterior view of shearers shed, Mungo. © R Neal 2009.

Drivers for shearers clippers. © D Neal 2009.

The steam engine which provided power to the shearers clippers. © D Neal 2009.

During our visit the temperature rose to 32 degrees Celsius and we lost interest in doing another 26ks over bone jarring roads so just shot scenes in and around the shearers shed and headed back to the comfort of our van in Mildura.

On the Chaffey Trail – 21 October 2009.

The Chaffey Trail relates the story of how Mildura became an irrigation oasis in the middle of nowhere. Present day Mildura may not have existed were it not for Victorian Cabinet Minister Alfred Deakin and the Chaffey brothers, George and William, from Ontario, USA.

In 1847 the Jamieson brothers set up a pastoral site on the banks of the Murray River. In 1858 the site was officially named Mildura but their pastoral lease eventually became defunct.

The Chaffey brothers had designed a model irrigation settlement for Ontario when Deakin and the Victorian Government convinced them to come to Mildura to set up their irrigation scheme there.

They arrived in 1887, bought the defunct pastoral lease, and set about developing a series of steam-driven pumps to lift water from the Murray River and irrigate up to 33,000 acres.

The old Midura homestead is a reconstruction on the original site of the first Mildura homestead established by the Jamieson brothers. The successful growing of fruit trees here by the Chaffeys proved the potential for an irrigation settlement.

Old Mildura Homestead. © R Neal 2009.

Laundry at the homestead. © D Neal 2009.

The homestead wool shed. © R Neal 2009.

Out building and carts. © R Neal 2009.

The homesteads harvester. © D Neal 2009.

Red rose from the homestead garden. © R Neal 2009.

The Mildura Homestead Cemetery commemorates Ann Maria, mother of the Chaffey brothers, plus Williams first wife Hattie Schell, as well as four children.

Chaffey family commemorative garden. © R Neal 2009.

The desire to have permanent water available for river traffic and irrigation led the Chaffey brothers to design a series of locks and weirs along the Murray River. Lock 11 and the Mildura weir are mentioned above during our paddle steamer cruise.

We are off to Echuca via Robinvale, Swan Hill and Kerang tomorrow. After that, we plan to go through Cobram, Rutherglen, Wodonga, Gundagai and Yass to Canberra. Should arrive Canberra around Wednesday 28 October.

So far our health is good and we’re starting to get the knack of efficiently hooking up and unhooking the van and car at last.

Bye for now. Roger and Denise.

Roger and Denise – traveling Victoria. Report 1.

Hi there – the holiday we originally planned to start back in March this year is finally underway! We are currently at Echuca after 6 wonderful days and nights at Mildura – the Burong Riverside Caravan Park is rated by travelers as the best in Australia and it deserves the accolade. We will find it hard to match at future stop overs.
What follows is a brief summary of  our journey to date.

Warrnambool to Wartook (Grampians) – 14 October 2009

Do we need this? Do we need that? Where do I put this?  Have we got everything? Loading the van took much longer than expected. Eventually we took off and headed north-west to Dunkeld via Woolsthorpe, Caramut and Penshurst. Lush green pastures here, no signs of drought, great dairy country. Good roads. Easy driving with the van running comfortably behind us.

Mt Sterling and Mt Abrupt, Grampians. (c) D Neal 2009

The run uphill through the Grampians to Halls Gap was quite easy going. Having been warned that everything in Halls Gap is more expensive than else where we chose to continue on down the mountains to Wartook in the foothills.

Bellfield Lake provides much of the water supply for Halls Gap and surrounding area. As with most water storages in Victoria it is now at dangerously low levels, due to the on-going drought. To give readers a sense of the effect of this drought, consider that all grass and rocks in foreground area of this picture would normally be under water.

Bellfield Lake. (c) R Neal 2009

The road from Halls gap to Wartook twists and turns constantly. Drivers need to be constantly on alert for on-coming traffic, particularly motor cycle riders pretending they are practicing for a hill-climb rally.

Roadside signs warn road is not suitable for caravans but as our unit is just 15 feet long we made the tight turns without any problems. Vans over 17 or 18 feet long might have difficulties.

We checked into Happy Wanderer Resort at Wartook and set up for our first overnight stay. What a shock this turned out to be! This ‘resort’ is at least 5 years overdue for routine maintenance. Toilet and shower blocks in poorly converted workmen’s cabins. BBQs rusted up, no gas supplied. No working hot water to shower in. We were relieved to be on our way again early in the morning. Lets hope our next stop is better!

Wartook to Wedderburn – 15 October 2009

Our original plan was to head north to Hopetoun for an overnight stop. Not wanting to repeat our Wartook experience, and after much consultation of the RACV Guide, we decided to go via Horsham then east through St Arnaud and on to Wedderburn on the Calder Highway.

Wide open plains with pastures stretching all the way to the horizon, flowing with wind swept fields of wheat and other crops. For us city-slickers an awesome sight. For farmers of this area recent rains have bought welcome relief from years of drought. Hopefully, this years crop will keep the bank manager away for another year or two?

Wheat fields near St Arnaud. (c) R Neal 2009

Residents of St Arnaud are obviously proud of their town. Carefully restored and maintained historical buildings, manicured parklands and clean, tidy streets. The Botanical pub serves delicious meals too.

Entrance to Botanical Gardens, St Arnaud. (c) D Neal 2009

Shire Hall, St Arnaud. (c) D Neal 2009

The road to Wedderburn detours through the one-pub town of Logan. We just had to photograph the pub here as our youngest grandson is named Logan too. You have to wonder why anyone would have a pub by itself in the wide open spaces but it must be doing something right judging from the many cars that stopped there in the few minutes we were making photos.

The Pub in the Scrub. (c) R Neal 2009

Wedderburn Pioneer Caravan Park proved to be everything that Happy Wanderer was not! Clean facilities, hot showers, and electric bbqs that worked – all in an attractive setting.

Right at the park entrance is Nancy Stokes house. Mr and Mrs Stokes arrived in Wedderburn in 1933 and early the next year Mr Stokes died leaving Nancy to live in a home made tent beside the reservoir drain. A bag tent, hand sewn, plastered with flour and pipe clay to run off the water. When it rained, there were equal amounts of water inside and out.

11 year old Bruce Robinson suggested to Nancy that they build her a mud brick cottage. She agreed, so they set about making bricks by hand. Young Bruce worked after school and when ever he had some free time. For brick laying, Mrs Stokes mixed the mortar and Bruce laid them. The house had a double fire place for cooking and heating, a dirt floor and windows and a door made from any timber they found lying around.

Mrs Stokes lived in the house until 1979. She died aged 93 in 1982. In 1983 the house was moved from its crown land site and re-erected by the Shire at its present location.

Nancy Stokes House, Wedderburn. (c) R Neal 2009

Wedderburn to Mildura – 16 October 2009

Lots more wide open spaces, parched fields and scrub country. Not much visual interest for this part of our journey.

Mildura is surrounded by the Fruit Fly Exclusion Zone to protect local grape, olive and orange producers. No fresh fruits what so ever can be taken into this area. $300 on the spot fine if caught bringing fruit in, so we stood at a collection bin in the middle of nowhere eating four bananas – the last of our fresh fruit supply.

We spent six nights in Mildura, resting, playing tourists and visiting Mungo Lakes National Park.

More of this period in our next report!

We plan to spend next two to three days and nights getting to Canberra, where we should stay for 4 to 5 nights?

Anyway, it will probably be there that our next report gets uploaded.

Do not forget to leave a comment whilst you’re here.