Murray River Paddle 2016 Day 9 Tocumwal Timeout Resort to the Gulf in the Barmah-Millewa Forest.

With most people away, kangaroos had taken over Time Out Resort.

A much appreciated dry place for the night. 

Ready to go. Aiming for the Gulf (Yielima Station). Blue skies. Thanks for your hospitality Barry Bell and Time Out Resort. Hidden Gems.

Spoonbill on the bank.

The river appears wide and calm.

Lunch break in the Barmah Forest

This was a road on top of a bank. Now wetland plants are growing

I could not believe the amount of water flowing into the forest. Not over the bank in most cases, but via flood runners or distributaries (because they distribute the flow).

This picture shows someone's campsite but it looks nothing like that now. To say that floods bring life to forests is an understatement, it fundamentally change them. They have become and oasis of life. The silly thing is, they always were, we just didn't see it. Jump in a tinny and take a look you won't be disappointed.

Paddling next to the bank, it was absolutely clear that the river was higher than the forest. I had never actually taken this in. It had been told to me, and I thought I had seen it in the Narrows, the section of river which travels between, and Barmah and Millewa Lakes. However being on the river which is higher than the land around it and seeing it flew out through these gateway like streams was a revelation. Streams leave the river in places every hundred meters. This is why places like picnic point did not flood this year despite 200,000 ML a day of water being released at Yarrawonga three weeks ago. The explanation for the whole phenomena lies with the Cadell tilt. 70,000 years ago, earthquakes began to lift the block of land between Deniliquin and Echuca. Look the river, causing me to drop its sediment and build a floodplain. This floodplain is now the Barmah Millewa Redgum forest. Every time the river floods into the forest, it slows down and drops some of the sediment carries. This builds a natural levee along the river's banks. The flood runners are where it has broken through.

Survivor... who's the boss?

Close to water.

Normally not so close... but prepared.

The understory has sprung to life. The ground is covered with luscious looking wetland plants, whose seeds and tubers must've laying dormant in the soil waiting for an event such as this.I've seen this place in summer. It looks dry and dusty. Grasses look like excuses. The ground is hard and cracked. Everything looks heavily grazed. What a contrast to now. I wish everyone could see it. We have a Kakadu in our own backyard.

The Gulf, where I'm camped tonight.

Luscious green growth with wild flowers in the background.

Height is relative. Everything in the Barmah-Millewa forest is close to water. My camp on high ground is only about 10 cm about the river. I know the levels are dropping but I have a stick placed at the last watermark and I'm checking it every now and then just in case.

I disturbed quite a few kangaroos today. They were resting on the natural levee which runs alongside the river. This really isn't very wide and most of them looked tired and wet. I think that had enough of this high water and can't wait for it to go down so that they can move back to their favorite spots.

My camping site is a large natural levee. There is a group of brumbies, a couple of kangaroos and koala interested in it. The brumbies I saw earlier in the afternoon with three healthy foals. The kangaroo went bounding off into the distance. The Koala I heard wadding through a deep puddle and then proclaiming its territory with grunts high up in a tree.

There are quite a few shacks on the NSW side where people live very close to water. Not all are permanent. On a small rise a group of caravans were clustered. I wonder how they decided who got the highest ground?

Murray River Paddle 2016 Day 8 Langi Oonah Station to Timeout (Tocumwal) Oct 23

Langi Ooonah Station to Time Out Resort downstream from Tocumwal (58km).
Overnight the river dropped another 10cm leaving wet sleeves around the bases of trees and muddy edges along its banks. It continues to flow very quickly, meaning that I had to be conscious to give snags and trees an even larger berth than usual.
There were many more fallen trees than yesterday, however the current has pushed most of these so that they lay parallel to the banks. This should actually help reduce further bank erosion by slowing the current down in future. In a sandy section, about 6km upstream of Cobram, the river took at least 2 metres of bank away in front of some houses and further undermined some of the older trees. A no wash sign has been erected, but unless something is actually done to protect the bank the owners risk losing their property. I feel that along most of the river we should take a more active role in protecting what is there. More care is taken along our roadside verges than on our rivers and yet these deliver the water we need to drink, irrigation for our crops, and water for forests and wildlife. It seems disproportional given the value of the asset.

Palm trees along the river bank mark the site of Seppelts Winery.

The river was quiet again today. I saw one couple in a tinny, but other than that saw no-one, until I surprised the manager at Time Out Resort. They weren't expecting any customers, having been shut off for 6 weeks by the high river, which reached major flood level in Tocumwal. The manager (Jacki) said that they had actually had three separate flows, each bigger than the last. She also told me a sad story: a mob of kangaroos had been found drowned 36 in all, in a big pile. Though kangas are good swimmers they must have not known which direction to go and stayed on their ground until submerged.

Tocumwal bridge. The central span was designed to be raised to allow paddle steamers through. 

On a more positive note, the first of the beaches are emerging. Fresh, clean sandy spits were beginning to show at Cobram, and many of the larger beaches near Tocumwal: these should be a real treat this summer. New growth is emerging on the trees, giving them hints of red and a light green, which seems to glow when the sun shines through it.

Forgotten caravan on a flooded beach near Tocumwal.

Being on the water, you are able to see things that people left in hurry, or forgot. On the town beach at Tocumwal a caravan had been forgotten and going off the markings had almost been completely covered. It must have been tied down, otherwise it would have been washed away. On another bend, a campervan had become bogged, before being abandoned. I guess that they could have been international tourists, out of touch with daily news and warnings. it would have been a rude awakening. i hope they had insurance.The nicest was a home built houseboat with an extension on two plastic drums, wedged amongst saplings for protection from the wind. Someone seems to live on their. i wonder if the back room is a fishing hole.

Home on the river... could the back extension be a fishing hole? Just lift the boards and fish...

The current continues to flow strongly, averaging around 4-5km/hr, but up to 7.5km/hr. This will make the Murray Marathon this year a fast race, however the high river has also made the Murray wide and its low banks offer little protection from the wind, so I hope that the weather is calm for those paddlers. I have had two days of headwind, though today was not as bad as yesterday. At the moment often only one bank is above the water on the river's edge, so paddlers are going to have to look after each other. It can be a long way to swim, and with nasty snags in some places, it will be important to look after each other. Although we can expect the river to drop another metre before the race, it will still stay higher than usual because the catchments are so wet, so it will be important to plan for safety.

There were a lot more fallen trees today. I saw and heard many fall in yesterday's big winds.

I chose Time Out as a flood safe destination. I did not know that a friend owned a caravan their. Rather than tent, he put me up for the night, meaning not only creature comforts, but also that I will be able to get away earlier in the morning. Thanks Barry :).

Kilometre marker.

Tomorrow I hope to find a patch of ground at Yielma Station, which is just before the Gulf in the Barmah Millewa Forest. From there it will be a short day to Tarragon lodge, before a leapfrog to Echuca. The forest is like home territory and i look forward to seeing it full of water. Should make for some good photos too I hope.

Murray River Paddle 2016 Day 7 Yarrawonga to Langi Oonah Station Oct 22

Yarrawonga to Langi Oonah Station 48km.

The winds were wild today. There were several times that I almost couldn't turn around because the wind caught my bow, but most of the time my boat broke through the waves it whipped up comfortably. I was an hour late on getting off because of issues with the gps, so I pushed hard to make up time. From the foam at the base of Yarrawonga weir every westerly stretch had white capped waves on it, however the river made up for this inconvenience with good current averaging about 5 km an hour.

The high water had left debris into the edge of the caravan park and around some cabins. It scoured the bank in places and left others relatively untouched. There were signs of collapse, but without a lower water level it is not possible to tell how much has crumbled into the river. There are stories of trees falling in, but disappearing below the surface because the river is so deep. I actually saw very few fallen trees, perhaps because of the depth of the river. They may be revealed when the river falls, or some may yet fall. The further down the river I went the lower the banks tended to become. I think that they might be totally be under by Tocumwal: they have had a very big river.

The trees were in great condition, with the exception of some of the older trees, which seemed to be really struggling in some patches, but doing very well in others.

I experienced several squalls and rain showers, the stronger of these made a noise like a jet aircraft approaching. It made the trees bend and shake. There was a high chance that some would fall in, so I kept to the centre of the river. The river is so wide at the moment that no tree would have reached the middle. It made me extra cautious about my camping site. With such strong winds it was not going to be anywhere near trees, that was for sure.

Squall coming through... had lots of wind today... headwind with more predicted for tomorrow.

Why aren't my land crew here yet #murraymarathon #oldDay1checkpointA

At about 25km, I paddled past 'checkpoint A' for the Massive Murray Paddle (Murray Marathon), after first stopping at the original alpha. The tree at One Tree Beach, which is usually a refuge from the hot sun, was well out in the channel in over 2 metres of water. I pulled over in front of it take a photo #whereismylandcrew! The new checkpoint is just downstream, at Redbank station, which like all of the stations around here is situated on top of an ancient Sandhills.

Fences help understand how much bank is collapsing.

I pulled into Langi Oonah station, just after Boonamoonana Station and following Cobrawonga Beach (someone had fun with those names). I remember paddling past Langioonah once before, seeing the B&B sign and the homestead set in its attractive gardens and thinking that this would be a nice spot to stop. I did a big sweeping circle to pull into shore and gave the number on the sign a call. I thought that either I would be allowed to stay, or I would be allowed to camp on their land. Turns out both would have been ok, however I decided for the experience of staying on at the old farmhouse.

I'm glad I did. It really is the most exceptional place. John, the owner, a man of exceptional strength helped pull my boat up the bank before banishing the cows from the paddock it was in for its protection. He gave me a lift to the house in his 4 wheeler and, after a cup of coffee in one of the biggest cups I have ever seen, gave me a tour around the property, showing how the water moved through the forest, where the platypus after which the station is named lived and where 4 metres of bank had fallen away in the last 6 years. He told me how the beach on the corner was moving downstream and had formed a new beach opposite the property and how he had discovered that there were layers of different kinds of sand in his sandhill, each from a different period of geological history. Sands of different colours could have come from floods in different tributaries. Coarser sand following wet years and clayier sand following dry years. John asked the question, "Why can't people, or groups adopt a stretch of river, to look after, in the same way that groups adopt a stretch of highway?" Sounds like a good idea to me - putting it out there.

Although strictly a B&B, John fed me a beautiful meal, washed down with a few glasses of red in front of his wood fire. We talked for hours, which is why this post is so late. Definitely a place I would like to return to with Ruth and a friendship I would like to foster.
John, who had been a horticulturist before moving to Langi Oonah, had also noticed what was happening to the trees. Without prompting from me, he also thought that it might be root rot (a soil fungus called Phytophthora, also known as cinnamon fungi), because of the way previously healthy trees suddenly lost condition and died. I have been watching trees like this too, it is different to die back caused by insects, drought, or prolonged flooding. The trees behave differently. Recognising root rot is part of horticultural training. In Germany it was part of my training as a landscape gardener, my former profession. It spreads through soil particles, on shoes, boats, cattle, it can even move in water: virtually unstoppable. If the death of the old trees was caused by cinnamon fungus, it would explain why the older suffering trees were clumped, why the trees next to water did worse than those a little further back on higher ground and why they often had so few roots. You can learn something from every step in life and from all people.

More on dieback caused by cinnamon fungus Phytophthora cinnamomi
https://www.environment.gov.au/…/24666…/files/p-root-rot.pdf

When John's wife (who was away at the time) heard that I was doing a study to help look after the river, she said "make sure you look after him". There are nice people in the world. These are two of them.

Tomorrow I make for Tocumwal in search of a dry campsite. I thought I might try Time Out Resort. It seems to be flood protected. Perhaps I can camp on their land.
If anyone reading this post had stories, or pictures of bank collapse, or tree decline (particularly river red gums), I would love to hear/see them.

Murray River Paddle 2016 Day 6 Yarrawonga Rest Day Oct 21

Yarrawonga rest day today. A chance to catch up with Ruth, meet locals and to go to the library to see what this area of the river used to look like in the early days of settlement.

Transporting my gear around the weir.
Its a long walk so worth calling ahead to the canoe club to see if they might be able to help you out with the portage.

The river is so important to people here that it seems everyone has an opinion or a bit of information they wish to share. Tom, from the yacht club told me how he is editing a book on natural history of the Yarrawonga area and what he has learnt in doing so; about the sand dunes that form on the north western side of bends in the river and how these are millions of years old. Tony from the motel who told me of what it was like in the 93 floods. He is sure of the date because he got engaged the day before over 300,000ML a day as passed through the Yarrawonga weir. This is nothing compared to that he said. There was an older gentlemen who thought the MDBA was to blame for the high river. He had friends who live in Tocumwal who were worried about the high river. He thought that all levels were controlled by people and was angry. He did not realize that most of the current flow at this point of the river comes from two unregulated rivers, the Ovens and the Kiewa. It is easy to blame. It's sometimes difficult to accept that we cannot control everything, let alone the weather. We may have regulated the Murray, but it is still a wild river. It is something to be proud of, but also respected, there are consequences. We can no more stop all floods than we can all droughts. The variation in river height drives river and forest health. River towns and farmers have learnt to live with the risk this presents. It is something to be proud of, not attacking each other about.

Historical records of what Yarrawonga was like before the weir. The weir defines the town, but its history and the memories of the people who live there began long beforehand.

I took these photos from Chinaman's Island, where there is a lovely interpretive walk about lakes environment. The red sky heralds unsettled weather for the next few days. Looks like more jumper days - and in Late October!

Tonight I am enjoying a night in a motel and a meal out. It's been great by the lake but I'm ready to move on. Next stage: 5 days into Echuca. Will be awesome pre-paddling the marathon course. Lots of memories.