Our Travels

Today we intended to explore Swan Hill. On the way into town we decided to call in to the one and only attraction in Lake Boga, the Catalina Museum. Did this turn out to be a surprise? After the bombing in Broome in 1942 where 16 flying boats were lost, the Australian Air Force decided to move its base for the Catalina and other flying boats. They selected Lake Boga, Victoria. The lake was large enough to land the aircraft, far enough away from any enemy aircraft and isolated enough to be able to create a secret base. The base was used by the Australian, Dutch and US air forces up until 1947 for all major repairs and even to run operations from. The museum is run by the local Lions club and there was club member giving a tour when we showed up. He was very passionate and knowledgeable about the history of the base.

Catalina, Lake Boga

They have restored Catalina inside the museum and you were able to see inside it and see what a tight squeeze it was for the 10 crew in a noisy aircraft that often flew 20 hrs before refuelling. Little remains of the base today other than a number of 2 tonne blocks that were used as mooring points out in the lake. During operations the base often had over 100 aircraft either moored or being repaired at any one time.

Communications Bunker, Lake Boga

The communications bunker still remains and we had another interesting surprise. There was the usual array of old radio and telephone equipment but in addition there was a guy (geek) in his mid-twenties operating a more recent version of the HF radios used during the war. He was communicating with other geeks in various countries around the globe in Morse. He would listen to this noise and then write down what was said for the benefit of us onlookers and then reply to the message just as fast and it had come in. Apparently he has being doing Morse code for the past 12 years. I thought it was extinct in today’s radio traffic.

PS Pyap, Swan Hill, yet another paddle steamer

From Lake Boga we drove into Swan Hill. The main tourist attraction was another historic village but after doing the one in Echuca and several more before that we decided to pass on this one. There wasn’t much else open so we drove out to the Murray Downs Station, this was the original sheep station in the area with once the largest river front property on the Murray River.

Now it is run as a sheep stud but is not open to the public

Today we are headed for Swan Hill, another historic town on the Murray River. I had been unable to locate any free or bush camping near Swan Hill so we decided to stay in a caravan park this time.

We only had 160 kms to cover today and we decided to stick to the Murray Valley Hwy and get into camp as soon as possible so we could get some washing done and leave tomorrow for exploring. I had picked a caravan park from the GPS that was just before Swan Hill on Lake Boga.

When we arrived we found out that the caravan park certainly was on Lake Boga, right on the edge. In fact there was enough room for one row of sites on the lake edge, a small roadway and another row of cabins and on-site vans, then the fence and then the highway. I was a little concerned about the highway noise but the manager assured me it was pretty quiet after 10 pm. The site was grassed and right next to a large freshwater lake.

Lake Boga Caravan Park

There was a nice fresh breeze coming from the lake and we had most of our washing dry that afternoon.

What the manager failed to mention was the regular freight trains that passed through the nearby town of Lake Boga, sounding their horns at every level crossing. The last train was at midnight and the first one at 5 am.

We stopped to have a look at the forest heritage centre but was closed despite the write up it had in all the information about the park. From there we headed into Echuca and stopped at the information centre. The information centre is built in an old pumping station that still had the original wells inside. This water was used to supply the town as well as the steam locomotives.

Echuca was one of the busiest inland ports in the days of the paddle steamers. They have retained and restored many of the building from the 19^th century. A large section of the old wharf has been rebuilt and there are about 6 paddle steamers that have been restored and offer river cruises, some include and evening meal.

Echuca has a Holden Museum that house the largest privately owned collection of Holden cars. There were over 40 cars including some prototype soft top convertible Commodores that never made it to the market. The highlight was the FX and HR Holden models, they even had a HR fitted with the 4.2 litre V8. Their souvenir shop had an extensive range of Holden memorabilia as well as many other car makes.

1948 FX Holden

From the museum we headed back to the wharf area. They have one street where all the buildings are from the 1880’s. It’s like stepping back in time, they even have a stage coach operating. We checked the paddle steamer departure times and then found a nice café for lunch. After lunch we bought tickets for the PS Canberra for our paddle steamer cruise.

PS Canberra

Although the advent of the railways killed of the most of the paddle steamer trade some of them were still working up until the 1950’s bringing logs downstream from the river gum forests to the Echuca timber mills. In the peak of the trade there were about 200 steamers working the Murray and Darling Rivers. Without the system of weirs and locks that exist today the steamers only operated during the flood or high water season. In some years of drought the paddle steamers were isolated in the deeper river pools for several years until the river started flowing again.

PS Emmy Lou

PS Pevensey

After the river cruise we spent some time exploring the wharf museum which gave insight to what life was like in the days of paddle steamers. For the most part the steamers pulled several barges that where loaded with wool or timber. Some of the barges carried up to 200 bales of wool and it was transported from sheep stations all the way up the Darling River. Food and other goods were transported on the upstream journeys.

Echuca Wharf, there were multiple loading decks to match the height of the river

It was a very informative and busy day. Just to make things a little more interesting on the way back to camp I switched the GPS to short mode and it gave a route that was 12 kms shorter that the route we took in the morning. Once again we headed down the back dirt roads until we came to a road closed sign. It looked like vehicles had been using it so we decided to venture on. As it turned out there were only a couple of boggy areas and we were able to get around them with little trouble and we came out on to the main road past another road closed sign.

Today we continue our journey along the Murray River. We are heading to Barmah National Park this park (70,000 acres), together with the adjoining Millewa forest (102,000 acres) in New South Wales, forms the largest River Red Gum forest in the world.

Due to the recent rains and water release down the Murray many of the roads into and through the park were closed. The camp grounds were still open though but unfortunately the HEMA let us down, it insisted on taking us through numerous dirt farm roads to the back entrance of the park and when we arrived at that entrance it was closed. The GPS didn’t have an alternative entrance. We ended up going back to small town of Barwah and following a road that headed in the general direction of the campground and eventually found the campground. It turned out that the GPS didn’t have any connection from this particular road to the campground. We had one whole section of the campground to ourselves and there was plenty of firewood to get a nice warm fire going.

Campsite at Barmah National Park

Campfire at Barmah National Park

Before breakfast we met this guy from Melbourne who was travelling around Australia with his Rottweiler. His wife pasted away 12 months ago so he rented the house and headed out to explore this great land. We talked about places we had been and places in WA he should check out.

After breakfast we headed into Yarrawonga to explore the town. Like many of the towns on the Murray River there are sister towns just over the border in NSW, here it is Mulwala. We crossed the border and checked it out. Not much of a town, mostly villas, houses and caravan parks on the shores of Lake Mulwala. Lake Mulwala is the first and largest of the weirs on the Murray River. There was little access to the lake foreshore on the Mulwala side so we headed back into Yarrawonga and found a nice spot for lunch. There were not many highlights in Yarrawonga so we headed back to camp to get the fire going.

The plan in Victoria was to follow the Murray River for much as possible. With that in mind we headed down the Murray Valley highway. First stop was Wodonga where we had lunch and picked up a few supplies at Woolworths. Then we headed to Yarrawonga and found a nice grassy campsite on the Murray River at a place called Forges Beach. No fishing signs everywhere, apparently Sept to Nov is the breeding season for Murray Cod so there is no fishing in the upper parts of the river.

Campsite at Forges Beach, Murray River

Not far up the road from our campsite were the Bluff Creek falls so we decided to head up there and check them out. There was a reasonable amount of water over the falls and they were quite impressive and in a very picturesque setting. We climbed down to the bottom for a better look and to take a few photos.

Bluff Creek Falls

Selfie at Bluff Creek Falls

When we got back to the car park I noticed there was another track to the very top of the falls, Jacky declined, so I headed up. It was supposed to be 700 mtrs but it was steep, with many uneven steps, more of a goat track than a walking track. I did some quick maths in my head and decided that the time to do the 1.4 km round trip was longer than I was prepared to leave my dear wife alone in the car so I made a wise decision to head back to the car.

As the road out went past our campsite we decided to have lunch at camp. After lunch inertia set in so we decided to play cards and read.

It’s time to head south into Victoria. The pack up was a little slow this morning as it was a late night last night. Some of the local lads had decided to celebrate one of their birthdays on the banks of the reservoir. They kicked off around 2pm and finally quietened down around midnight. We didn’t see much point is going to bed before midnight.

Having discovered the short cut yesterday we headed back to the dam wall and onto the forest roads with trailer in tow. On the road into Tooma we stopped at the Southern Cloud lookout. This lookout looks out over a massive valley across to the Great Dividing Range and the snow covered mountains in the distance. Directly across from the lookout is where Australia’s first aviation disaster occurred. The Southern Cloud, a 10 seater, 3 engine airplane disappeared into the mountains in 1931 carrying six passengers and crew. This accident prompted the introduction of 2-way radios in commercial air craft.

Australian Alps from Southern Cloud Lookout

We stopped for lunch in Tooma before crossing the border into Corryong. Corryong claim to fame is that one of their local legends, Jack Riley, was the inspiration for the Man from Snowy River poem. Actually there are two other areas that claim their local legends were also the “Man from Snowy River”. The Man from Snowy River Museum in Corryong has two items that were purported to have belonged to Jack Riley. The rest of the museum was historical items from the area.

Knitted map of Australia rug from POW camp

One particular local spent 2 years as a POW in Germany and as he had a talent for knitting, he collected old woollen garments and knitted socks and other items and in his spare time completed a large knitted rug of Australia which he was able to bring back to Australia when he was released. http://www.manfromsnowyrivermuseum.com/home/rug.htm

Corryong Homestead

From Corryong we headed into the Burrow-Pine National park to where we had a very nice bush campsite to ourselves.

Today we are exploring the Tumut region and some of the Snowy Mountains Hydro scheme. First stop was the Blowering dam wall and the power station. Blowering dam is the largest dam in the Snowy Mountains Hydro scheme and was completed in 1968. The real highlight there was an excellent example of the Ford motor car, the 1971 XY GT Falcon.

1971 Ford Falcon GT

After the dam we headed into Tumut information centre and they suggested a drive out to the old gold mining town of Adelong and the apple capital of Batlow. We had lunch at the old gold crushing plant on the Adelong creek. The falls here were used to divert water into a water wheel to crush the ore.

Adelong Gold crushing plant ruins

After lunch we headed to Batlow to see where 10% of Australia’s apples are grown, despite the large orchards there was very little other activity in the town, only the pub was open. The GPS indicated that there was a road through the forest back to the other side of the Blowering reservoir where we were camped. Once again ignoring Jacky’s reservations about the reliability of the GPS maps I headed into the forest. The gate to the track was open, a good sign. Parts of the road were quite narrow and high, Jacky had excellent views to the bottom of the valley which she did not appreciate that much. There was plenty of fire wood around so we stopped and stocked up for tonight’s fire. I was a little concerned about the crossing over the Jounama weir, but I was able to stop another traveller coming from that direction and he assured me that the weir crossing was open. Chalk one up for the GPS, it saved about 50 kms and was a much more interesting drive.

Blowering Reservoir, Tumut