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