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Murray River Paddle 2016 Day 48 Morgan to Blanchetown

Day 48: 276 km Blanchetown 2nd Dec 2016

Apostle birds - Morgan - Houseboats - Fellow kayakers - Blackwater - Floods - Murrumbidgee River - Itldoo Station - Shacks - Crooks Landing - Halvorsen cruiser - Murray Gorges - Ecosystem dynamics - Mosaic - Ted the boat dog

Morgan to Blanchetown

A big thank you to Kev who put me up for the night, laid on dinner, beers and breakfast. Kev is planning to paddle the Murray in Aug next year. He has read all the trip reports he can get his hands on. He has even seen what the trip can do to you... (Clarkies' unique finishing photo may never be upstaged)... and he's still keen to do it. Kev has a backyard full of chooks and apostle birds. There is a constant argument going on as to who’s boss. The apostle birds have adopted Kev, they come up and sit near him and eat from his hands, even though they are wild birds.

Morgan is full of houseboats. The shores are busy places. Sounds of angle grinders, hammers and lawn mowers in preparation for weekend and summer holiday guests. Prime real estate is down by the waterside, with even a shed going for around 300,000. In a twist on the past, places up on the hill, built of solid stone, symbols of wealth in the paddle Steamer times era are a fraction of the price now.

I paddled out of Morgan with Rordon and Dale, two Cairns based paddlers who had come down to paddle the Murrumbidgee River from Gundagai to where it meets the Murray near Boundary Bend. They had to call off their trip at Hay because the black water and the amount of dead stock in the river had made it unpleasant and potentially unsafe for their dog Ted. Ted is a true boat dog. He sits on a mat between the front and back seat of their kayak. Their kayak is the best appointed that I have ever seen. Rordon made it himself from a kit. It is wooden, with fiberglass internal and external layers, roomy and cuts the water beautifully. We paddled the first 10 kilometers together until the appropriately named 'Itlldoo' Station, where they turned around and made their way back to Morgan. Rordon and Dale hope to continue their bidgee paddle once the high water has passed, but enjoyed sharing their memories of their full distance Murray paddle in 2014.

After about 15 km, the shacks (as even the luxury riverside houses are called) finally gave way to bush. Patches of development continued around high ground, which usually still had the historical name of the property whose Landing Paddlesteamers had stopped to trade at in bygone days. Most shacks have lawn down to the water’s edge and many have sprinkler systems set up. I suspect these are to discourage campers and unwelcome boats and their passengers mooring on their property. Looking for a shady place to pull in for lunch, I eventually decided to brave having the sprinklers turned on on me and pulled into Crooks Landing at Ridgeway Station for lunch break. Above me cockatoos are nibbling the seed pods of the River Myalls. A cool breeze was blowing and I soon drifted off to sleep.

There weren't as many boats to photograph today, however there were a few notables. One was a Halvorsen Cruiser, every bit the battleship in pocket format. Another was a modern version of it, with similar lines, but twice as long. There were also little gems, home built paddle steamers and 1920's excursion boats and almost every shack had a tinny.

Probably the most notable thing today was that the river headed due South, with little deviation East or West. I had a 25 km/hr headwind, which kept me on my toes, but as it was not constant, was not too bad. The valley the river runs through is actually the path the ancient Murray. A much bigger river than today's Murray. Geologists have determined that the gorges it cut were 80m deep. The ancient Murray, at first held back by the uplifted land, formed a huge lake, which in spilling, found and enlarged its original path. The deep gorges formed by the ancient Murray are mostly filled with sediment from today's river, creating the gentle gradient we are familiar with in the lower part of the Murray today. At some points, the original gorge is little more than a kilometer wide. Too narrow to meander, the river moves from side to side, leaving billabongs and sand dunes parallel to the main stream. Where the river has not changed its path for thousands of years, flood plains gradually build high enough to support black box. Where it changes more frequently, it erodes these high flood plains, creating low country ideal for red gums with their requirement of frequent flooding. In this way the two habitats can be seen to be competing within the one environment. The floodplain is both building and eroding at the same time. In these narrow gorges this creates a mosaic habitat which is a stark contrast to the arid zone either side.

I reached Blanchetown just after 5pm, half an hour after the last passage was allowed. I could almost have ducked over the barrier rope, however if my kayak had gotten stuck I could have been in real trouble. The better decision was to turn around and return to the caravan park I had seen about 1 km upstream.

The manager had just settled into the pool when I found her. She gave me a nice shady spot with plenty of green grass, near the entrance. I packed my gear into duffle bags and walked it into the park, following eventually with my boat.

Peter Phillips

PhD Candidate researching Murray River floods. 13 years expat experience living in Germany. Worked in Australia, Africa, Antarctica and Germany. Enjoys the environment, my family, people, travel, cultures. Inclination towards adventure. In 2012 (low river), and 2016 (flood) completed a kayak journey of 2,400 km on the Murray River from its headwaters to the sea and continue to explore, document and share expeditions on the rivers of the The Murray Darling Basin. Uses these experiences to understand rivers, river ecosystems and the communities that depend on them and encourage people to discover and share what they value about their environment. Rivers bring life and connect people. Education should be like that too.

Murray River Paddle 2016 Day 47 Waikerie to Morgan

Day 47: 338 km Morgan 1st Dec 2016

Leaving the Murray River Queen - morning light - birds of prey - Big Toulca Flat - Woodcutters Reach - Lock 2 - Undercurrents - Bartels Landing - Floating seeds - Riverleigh Station - Tree health - Tipping points - North-West Bend - Morgan - Paddlesteamers & Wharf

Waikerie to Morgan

I left Waikerie early, before anyone else on the boat was up. The sun was up, it had risen about 5:30 and I had gotten up not long after that. Keeping breakfast simple, a couple of muesli bars, some fruit and a cup of tea, I was ready to push off at 7:30.

The light was beautiful and clear. That together with the smooth surface of the water and still flow out a real spring in my step. Morning light is not as harsh as what it is during the main part of the day. The colours come out. It's when you see just how amazing the bark on red gums can be. Paddling out of town, I passed a long row of houseboats waiting for their next outing, their next passage of discovery.

Whistling Kites have been the most common bird of prey along the river this year. There never used to be so many when I was a kid, but there were more Wedge-tailed Eagles. I don't know what has changed, perhaps they benefit from having fishermen around. Once the cliffs begun, Falcons started to appear. They like to sit at the top of trees on the cliff face and swoop down on their prey, which I imagine, could be any small bird or marsupial. All the more amazing when I saw a Fairy Martin chasing a falcon. It was swooping again and again on the falcon, pecking it on the back. While the falcon tried to get away. Brave little bird.

Again today they were great names like what coverage and Big Toluca Flat and Woodcutter Reach. I guess I shouldn't of been surprised when there weren't very few old trees on Woodcutters Reach.

All along the river I can hear the sounds of people raiding their pumps in preparation for the high water. Occasionally i can hear the voices of fruit pickers drifting down from amongst the orange orchards, however I can rarely see them.

Approaching Lock 2, the navigation pass is open. I can see that the water is at the top of the weir. It splashes up in the air ominously. To go that way would be very dangerous. At Wentworth weir, a tinny was caught in the turbulence behind the wall. The back end went under first, filling the boat with water. Soon the whole boat disappeared, only to resurface 100m downstream. There are signs which slow you where to go to be in the safe passage. You keep right of the green triangle (when going downstream) and left of the red squares. There are some pretty big swirls for the first 200m. If you keep under power (keep paddling) you come through it without too many involuntary course changes.

At Bartels Landing were two old farm houses and in front of them, an eclectic collection of boats. Both farm houses had orange groves behind them as is the old tradition in the area. A little further down stream is a vineyard. In the 1980s when the Australians discovered that there were other beverages besides beer, the Riverland wine industry boomed. It expanded till it seemed that everyone wanted to get into wine. In the late 90s and 2000 the wine industry crashed and with so many suppliers, prices plummeted. Now with quality assurance, interesting boutique wines evolving and export markets established, the wine industry is picking up again. Although there were only two houses there were about 6 boats. I love seeing people's boats, there is so much of their character that you can read in them and each boat has its own story as well. At Bartels Landing was one which looked like it had a proud history. Long and sleek, it's wooden hull looked more at home in the ocean then on the river. Seeing ocean boats is a common thing down this end of the Murray, it is so wide and deep and we're not all that far from the ocean. I now have around 360 km to go - that's a lot less than 2200 and I can feel that the end is getting near.

Approaching Riversleigh Station I can see the cliffs curving away to the North. The land in between them and the current river channel is low and beginning to flood. There's a lack of trees on that flat what trees I can see seem to be dead. On the edge of the river young red gums have sprouted following the 2011 flood. This high water event is predicted to be much higher in this area so all of that low land will get a drink, indeed the water is well on its way to flooding the whole area already. It will be interesting to see how it responds in the years to come. Red gum and black box seeds are carried by water over the land from parent trees. You can pick the extent of a high water level from the line of red gum saplings at its edge. The thickness and height of the saplings and later trees gives you an indication of when that flood happened. The rule of thumb is a centimetre a year. A four centimetre thick tree germinated 4 years ago (2012), a 50 cm thick one, about 50 years ago.

I camped opposite Riversleigh Station in 2012, above the beach and under some study black box trees. It had been really hot that day, thunderstorms were building and I chose what I thought was a safe campsite. I had just set up camp and had a cooling swim when the thunderstorm hit. With it came wild winds. Lightning flashed continually and my little tent was buffeted in all directions. When it hit nearby, it left a strong smell of ozone in the air for a while afterwards. It was gone soon after it began. I remember a cockatoo screeching as it flew. From the noises it was making it sounded like it had scored a direct hit. The poor thing had been scared out of his wits. After the thunderstorm, the sun set over the now flooded lowland across the river, turning the sky gentle hues of pink and purple. The trees at the beach campsite, despite four years of good rain, did not look any better than they did in 2012, if anything they seem to have declined further. If trees experiencing prolonged stress reach a tipping point from which they can no longer recover, it is all the more important that we ensure that the young trees and saplings are growing to replace them - otherwise we will lose those habitats entirely.

There are several more straights on the run into Morgan, those opposite cliffs had a single row of old trees as magnificent as any you'll see anywhere on the Murray. With cliffs on one side and old trees on the other, this channel had not changed for hundreds of years. In other areas there was almost a total loss of trees. Saplings thrived, forming a dense layer of green, but the older trees were all gone. I couldn't work out why.

For almost all of it's journey so far, the Murray River has taken a North-Westerly course. This changes just before Morgan, where, defeated by the same uplift of land that built the Flinders Ranges, the Murray changes its course and heads South to the sea. On the river, this place is called the North-West Bend. When the current slams into these cliffs, it swirls around and even flows in the other direction. If you don't keep your eye in the water, you can be spun around.

I paddled past Morgan's old Wharf, second only too Echuca's in size. There are said to be 6 wrecks in the deep water in front of it. As the railways expanded, the paddle steamer trade evaporated. Crews waited for jobs that never came, eventually abandoning their boats.

At Morgan I pulled in a grassy bank. White floats tied together a rope and some small white signs pointed out that this was a kids swimming area. I sailed over and beached high enough to keep my feet dry. I met a couple who had travelled down from Cairns to paddle down the Murrumbidgee, but had given up because of Blackwater, the number of dead livestock in the river and difficult to predict currents. They had already paddled the length of the Murray in their beautiful home made boat. Their dog always travelled with them. It sat on a mat between the two cockpits, resting its head on their solar panel. We traded experiences and stories until Kev, my host for the night arrived. Kev is planning to paddle full distance in 2017. Now he had three people he could talk too about his ideas. I think he is going to have a great trip.

Tomorrow I will head towards Blanchetown and the last weir on the Murray; not sure where I will camp yet.

Peter Phillips

Day 26: 359 to 302 km to the sea: Riversleigh beach - Morgan - PelicanPoint.

Day 26: Thursday 13/12

Riversleigh beach - Morgan - Pelican Point.

River markers: 359 to 302 km from the sea.

Distance travelled today: 57 km.

Total distance travelled: 1410 km

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Day 26: The storms were quite a contrast to the morning's sunshine.

With the weather expected to reach 40 deg celsius and strong winds predicted in the afternoon I got off early again, but this time with breakfast. Everything survived the night. The close lightening strike may have been to the tall power poles at the end of my beach. I had not seen them yesterday, but this was one of those few places where power crosses the river. In any case, there were no charred trees, my boat was fine and only needed the rainwater sponging out of it, and my paddle had not blown away in the wind. It is an enormous sense f secure to have a spare paddle strapped to the back deck - barge pole that it probably is. It was a broken one given to me by a friend. Tim and I found a way to join the two halves together (and take them apart again for storage) using irrigation pipe joiners. It would be so easy to snap a blade by jamming in a snag. It happens.

The light was pretty, but the water not quite as calm as yesterday. I came across a straight with a row of old red gums. Their roots matting the bank, weaving in and out until nothing else could be seen. It is funny how things are unique, each bend, each tree, each cliff. You just need the right light to notice them. Tis morning the sunlight was virtually shinning a spot light on these amazing roots, screaming out to me, 'take a look! Take a look!'. I did, photos are a great excuse to stop paddling, take it easy and soak in what is around.

Day 26: Old trees in the sunlight, I was captivated by their strong twisted roots.

The big excitement of the morning was arriving at the North West Bend (twice). There are actually two bends given the privilege of this name. One just before Cadell and the other just before Morgan. At this point the Murray ceases its north Weston journey and heads South towards the sea. I have explained some of the geological reasons for this in an earlier post, but a just as fitting explanation comes from a book I have at home about the Murray. 'When the Murray reached Morgan it knew that it had found the perfect spot, it could turn south now.' Coming up to the North West Bend at Cadell there were at least three wrecks on the Northern shore. Had they not heeded the warnings and ran into the cliffs? I actually have no idea why the collection is there. I have photographed them, and if lucky with my connection, will upload them today. Something else caught my eye. In the middle of the bend, growing out of the cliff, its roots embracing every contour of stone was a red gum. If ever a tree looked like a wizard, this one did. It was like Gandalf in Lord of the rings, 'you shall not pass'. The captains of those wrecked steamers and barges obviously did not know that wizards can take on many forms. :)

Day 26: "You shall not pass!" The wizard like tree protecting the cliffs which send the Murray Southward again at the Northwest Corner.

The North West Bend just before Morgan is not as dramatic, but it has the biggest and quietest pumping station I have ever seen. Here, water is taken from the Murray river and transported in a pipeline to Whyalla, an industrial centre near Adelaide. The South Australians have a way of making their public pumps very quiet. This one did not even hum and yet, going off the size of the buildings - as large as a school - a lot of water leaves the river here.

Day 26: One of three wrecks that I saw at the NorthWest Corner. They never made it!

Day 26: Another quirky little paddle steamer: this one was actually a stern wheeler, though I did not pick that at first. Stern wheelers were introduced to the Murray copying the American tradition. Two things stopped their spread. Stern wheelers lash their barges to the sides and the Murray is too narrow at times for this, particularly when there was oncoming traffic. The other reason was that if they were towing a barge and had to stop, the barge sometimes rammed into the paddles, smashing them.

Day 26: Houseboats are everywhere now, but many are kind of cute, looking like little ships a- this one in need of some TLC.

Day 26: Local paddle steamer. I like photographing these. They are someone's dream. A blending of past and present. A gateway to tradition and an invitation for stories.

On sending a picture home to show that I had arrived safe and sound in Morgan, I realised that it may not have the calming effect I was after. My hair was wind tossed and styled with sweat and river water. I had a four day growth and the caking effect of sunscreen on my skin. I looked as if I was going progressively mad. Concerned and slightly embarrassed by the situation I set off in search of a wash basin and on finding one in the public toilets, rinsed and combed my hair and dragged my now rather blunt razor painfully through my stubble. After about five minutes and no visitors I was a lot more presentable.

With 40 deg and humid to boot, few people were on the street. I took a look around. Morgan once rivaled Echuca in terms of river trade. Rural produce from the Riverland, including the oranges that were exported to England from the first irrigated crops and made the area famous by taking out first prize in the London horticultural show in the 1890's. the wharf was 100 m long. It's connection to Adelaide by rail cut transit times necessary to get to England compared to Melbourne as it was 800 kilometres closer and paddle steamers did not have to backtrack. After the river trade ended in the 1920's, the Gem and the Marion continued to operate as passenger steamers from here until 1950. A resurgence of this type of travel is bringing new life to many if these towns and reawakening their pride in their association with the river.

Day 26: Arrived in Morgan for lunch and looking a bit too well travelled.

Day 26: Scrubbed up and relaxing at the cafe waiting for the storm to clear

Ordering a milkshake from the local takeaway, I spoke to Colin, who used to run the supermarket. He likes the quiet nature of the town, the old buildings (most made of stone) and the affordability of buying one. Many of the homes and shops seem to have hardly changed since the beginning if the 1900's, even the wooden trimmings are original. Add the amazing view over the Murray from the town centre and you can see why people love living here.

On leaving town I got an insight into how many people do visit. The banks of the river were lined with holiday homes for 18 km. Some were simple and modest, but most were extravagant, each better than the last. How they hit there us an interesting story. In the depression of the 1920's the government did two things to try and alleviate poverty. They allowed people to live in non-permanent dwellings along the river. Originally these were canvas draped over saplings, but soon gained walks from flattened kerosine tins and were lined with hessian. The idea was that people could supplement their modest unemployment benefits with hunting and fishing; living in the bush was free and people maintained their independence and dignity. Their buildings were known as shacks.

The second experiment was the foundation of communes, also along the river. Groups of 25 families were given land and encouraged to make a living from it. All proceeds from hunting, fishing and farming were yo be shared. Settlements included Waikerie, Kingston, Moorook, New Residence, Pyap and Lyrup. They eventually failed everywhere except for Lyrup were residents continue to have a strong community, but now own their own land. It became known as the communist experiment.

Day 26: Treehouse - but who was it built for? My guess is for dad. :)

Survivor!

The wildlife is different in South Australia: T. Rex in the undergrowth.

Campsite for the night.

Both these initiatives paved the way for building along the river. The buildings are still called shacks, but they are no longer a way out of poverty, rather holiday homes for people with very healthy incomes. The local building trade seems to be going very well. I was able to paddle to their music playlists as they hammered and constructed - however 18 kilometres of holiday homes is a hell of a lot. As Echuca is for done Melburnians, I have the impression that Morgan is becoming the Murray River playground for Adelaide.

Tomorrow, an easy paddle into Blanchetown for a rest day. I have a package to pick up from the post office, supplies to replenish, batteries to charge and an old friend of a friend who has paddled down the Murray from Myrtleford in his youth. I bet he has a few tales!