Murray River Paddle 2016 Day 38 Kulcurna Station - Customs House

Day 38: 636 km Customs House 22nd Nov 2016

Kulcurna - Customs House (South Australian Border)

Anna and I had a nice brekky at Kulcurna Station. No rush to get away today. With only 30 km to paddle we could take our time. Belinda Hansen, our host showed us old photographs of the area. The owner before the Higgins family had cleared all the trees and dug irrigation channels into the limestone. The cliffs too, were treeless, both on the face and at the top of the cliff. I assume they were cleared, however since the photographs were taken before weirs and dams were built on the Murray, perhaps the natural fluctuations in river height and frequent floods did not allow trees to establish along the cliff toe.


Now, with reliable water, trees have begun to colonise the water’s edge and black box are growing back on the plains where they once stood. Many are descendants of the 1956 flood.There were plenty of big floods before that according to Belinda. Not any more. Understanding how trees got to where they are puts their current condition into perspective. We can’t replicate big floods like the one that occurred in 1956, so we have to make choices. Should we try to maintain woodlands at all costs, or would grasslands, lignum, or mallee vegetation be more suitable to the area long term?Not long after we got going we passed Cal Lal police station. All that can be seen now is its old tin chimney and part of one wall. Its toilet, still standing when I went past in 2012, has fallen down. Everything has got to go sometime... even a dunny :)P.

A few kilometres later we paddled past Higgin’s Cutting. This is one of the cuttings which is now marked as the main river. Just before the cutting there is high ground close to the river channel. Quite a commodity in the times when paddle steamers were the main source of transport in the area.


On this high piece of land two tall palm trees can be seen. It was here that Belinda’s great grandparents, Irish immigrants, settled. With her husband often away for months working, Belinda’s great grandmother had to fend for herself. They bred them tough in those days. With less current flowing, the original channel is now beginning to silt up. Reeds grow on both sides and tree branches reach far into the channel.At 658km we found the border to South Australia, at least on the NSW side. On the Victorian side, it is 12 km later. The border is marked with a large sign mounted on a tall steel post. On the NSW side it is on top of a bank. For an unknown region it is actually in a swamp on the Victorian side. In this high river we were able to paddle up to both. Our clocks reset automatically, granting us an extra half hour (at least theoretically).


We paddled on to Customs house, the old border store and only chance to stock up on supplies in the area. It is the beginning of a canoe trail through the wetlands created by lock 7 and one of the few places that caters specifically for paddlers on the river. We set up our tents in one of the campsites down by the water’s edge and enjoyed a hearty, hot, one pot wonder, cooked up on our trangia and eaten inside Anna’s tent because it had begun to rain. There is something cosy about sitting in a tent while it is raining. They are a bit like cubby houses for grown-ups. Outside, it is dark. Birds are still singing - despite the rain. Pobblebonk frogs are in their element and there are no mossies: an almost unheard of situation on this trip. With the gentle tap of the rain on the tent fabric and darkness all around, it looks like it’ll be an early night. Two more short days on the run into Renmark. I’m hoping that tomorrow this means that we will be able to find time to explore some of the wetland canoe trails this area is famous for.