River Murray Expedition, May 8th – 15th 2011
Created | Updated May 29, 2011
A party of twelve of us from The Waimakariri Combined Probus club (Rangiora) had booked
places on the expedition and eleven flew from Christchurch, picking up (and subsequently dropping
off) the twelfth at Adelaide. In total there were some thirty of us on the boat, gathered from New
Zealand and Australian Probus clubs.
We were somewhat concerned at the start, having been reorganised at short notice – up at 02:30 for
the coach to take us to Christchurch airport and, having to change at Auckland to a buy-your-own-
food 'plane, and another change at Sydney.
Lots of raised eyebrows and worried frowns but as it turned out, our worst fears weren't realised and
were soon forgotten.
From Murray Bridge we were taken upstream as far as the Lock and Weir No. 1 at Blanchetown
in stages, then returning over the five nights aboard. Finally two nights at a hotel in Adelaide,
allowing sightseeing (and, ahem, some shopping for stuff not often seen in NZ).
The boat is some 33m (110ft) long, 10m (32ft) wide and draft of 1m (3ft or so). It was built on
the river in 1981/2 (and is now showing its age). The crew consisted of: Skipper (4-ring Captain,
a 1950s £10 pom), Engineer, 2 Chefs, Cruise Director (with his skipper's ticket, awaiting an
appointment) and a crew member (training for his ticket). The shore trips were conducted by
a shore-based driver in a company coach. In addition, cleaning staff came aboard each day to
do the maiding). As you can imagine, the week wasn't cheap – but pretty good value – not all
that expensive considering the crewing plus the necessary infrastructure. The cabins were self-
contained, small but adequate and clean.
The Murray River (actually the Murray-Darling Basin) drains an area of some 1 million square
kilometres (400,000 sq miles) of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.
At the time of our visit, this lower part of the river was quite full, just 300mm (1ft) or so below the
weir, with greater flow expected over the coming weeks from the heavy rains in those headwater
areas earlier in the year.
This part of the river is up to 1.6km (1mile) wide, contained by sandstone cliffs, between which it
meanders around as rivers are wont to do. Those cliffs are up to 30m (100ft) high – and vertical.
On the open side, where the river isn't up against the cliffs, there are backwaters fed and drained by
multiple inlets.
Lining the river is what's known locally as the 'toothless forest' because it's lined with River Red
Gums (eucalypts to you). Lined on both sides – wherever possible that is – and in some unlikely
places, too, hard up against the cliffs. It looked to be but one tree wide and actually on the edge.
These gums don't have a characteristic shape and are nicknamed widow-makers because in dry
periods they cut off the sap supply to branches and boughs, which can fall off unexpectedly upon
the heads of unwelcome foreigners (Euros and suchlike people like you and me).
Interspersed with the red gums are weeping willows, an invasive, unwelcome species. The gums,
when they die and fall, pull out only a little of the river bank whereas the willows take out great
swathes, thus eroding the banks and muddying the waters – muddied worse than they normally are
(but weren't in earlier days).
Arguably, an environmentally worse invader is a fish – the carp. Called the european carp because
that's where it arrived from, it has changed the character of the river. The native riverlife grazed the
bottom but carp have a different feeding habit – they stir up the bottom silt seeking food with their
barbels, with the result that the river is reddish-brown and opaque, whereas it used to be clear with
the bottom easily visible even in deeper parts (excepting, presumably, after floods).
We were taken on daily expeditions to see the natural history, the wildlife (kangaroos and hairy-
nosed wombats) and to hear enthusiastic, knowledgeable talks by the skipper, on the geology,
environment and history of the area.
Those shore trips included a visit to a place called Nildottie. Now Nildottie is said to be named
after a farming couple whosE male partner had to work all day and every day to get the place going,
with very little sleep. His wife frequently pleaded “what's the chances, Bruce – Bruce, what's the
chances?' ... 'Nil, Dottie, nil'. Unfortunately however, it's actually derived from the Aboriginal
word 'ngurltartang', which means 'smoke signal hill'.
Anyway, at Ngaut Ngaut, at the base of the cliffs is the first archaeological dig along the Murray,
now run as an attraction by the local tribe of the area's aboriginal peoples. Under an overhang of the
cliffs, only a few metres from the water, is an old hearth, its laminations testifying to multiple visits
of people, who left carvings in the soft sandstone. Apparently the tribe claimed the site but had to
fight the authorities quite hard to gain the rights – and are now obliged to ensure all visitors wear
hard hats – 'if a piece falls down there, no hard hat gonna save you'.
May the good lord preserve local council employees.
In the town of Mannum is the Woolshed, a gallery which exhibits 'investment quality' aboriginal
art and artefacts, the quality of which we hadn't seen in quite a few galleries that we'd previously
visited in four major cities - and the other one of the two of us is rather more artistically savvy than
I am. We came away with a rather nice oval wood bowl, carved and painted with a Ttookabli – a
long-necked tortoise.
Another visit was to Mypolonga Primary School, where we were all mightily impressed by our
reception and the organisation by staff and pupils. They make and sell such things as bookmarks,
dried apricots dipped in chocolate ... not easily resisted. They were expecting us (thanks to our
driver) and the whole school turned out.
The highlight of that visit was, for me, paying for the bookmark. A very young pupil was at the till
and saw to the transaction while a (slightly) older pupil stood unobtrusively by – the teacher being
some distance away.
The flight back was better, Adelaide through to Auckland (where we discovered that we'd failed to
convert our two-year residence permit to a permanent one. Oh dear, but not catastrophic, luckily).
All told, an enjoyable and interesting trip.
