The Mighty Murray

We have just returned from a magical two day trip with Dad and Kerry to the exquisitely beautiful river Murray, on a farm called Brimin near Rutherglen in Northern Victoria.

The Murray marks the topmost border of Victoria with New South Wales, and has been the focus of much attention during Australia's terrible drought as its flow is running at an all time low, depleted by excessive irrigation and water shortages.

It is still, however, home to a huge variety of native birds and animals, and the dawn chorus is one of the most stupendous events I have witnessed.

Uncharacteristic heat, hovering around 38 degrees C, meant Dave and I spent most of our time being water babies, floating around aimlessly listen to infinite varieties of birdsong, to keep cool.

The Murray is very special to Dad who spent much of his childhood here on fishing trips with his father Ivan and brother Bruce. Here is Dad's version of events:

We parked away from the old “widow-maker” Murray river red gums whose falling limbs will squash a car in a second. (Sexist term that isn’t it!).

Went fishing. Well, 90% of the time I tried to coax violently wriggling worms onto hooks fatter than they were, or untangle fine fishing line I couldn’t see.

I also needed the half a brick we used to use as a sinker in the “old days.” None of this fancy new stuff. Current carried the line back to shore in no time.

Discretion being the better part of valour and all that, we bought some young cod to which Dave applied his culinary magic. Cod are biting on cheese for God’s sake. Their preference is Camembert, none of this Kraft cheddar stuff.

Returning to the car, minding my own business and thinking that Kerry, Kate and Dave were down by the river, the fiends jumped out from behind the car with a loud “boo” and my heart suddenly hit formula one speed. Buggers!

One could be forgiven for thinking that the deep throated boom-box noise of the three nearby emus was not “bonk, bonk, bonk.” It was like a sound coming from the other end of a long PVC pipe.

Emu video below.....

Here is where we were on a sat photo.... You can see the boarder line. We swam the bit in the middle, one of the few bits of the Murray in Victoria.


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