Many Rivers to Cross – Murray River

From its youthful beginnings high in the Snowy Mountains above Corryong to its meeting with the sea at Encounter Bay, the Murray River crossed across the wide open lands of the continent of Australia. The banks are lined with massive eucalyptus, called Red Gums and there are lots of billabongs. In case you’ve ever wondered, this was originally an aboriginal word for a pond of still water. In the Australian outback, a billabong generally retains water longer than the creeks or rivers, so it may be the only water for miles around in the times of drought. Now you understand a lot more about Waltzing Matilda, don’t you?

Famous film tie in here – Corryong is where the poem The Man from Snowy River was set, and that’s the film you’re trying to remember, it’s on the tip of your tongue, unlikely character actor appeared in it, came out in the 1980s – got it yet? Nope? Okay, I’ll help you out – Kirk Douglas was the guy who turned up as an unlikely Australian!

South of Mildura is the Hattah-Kulkyne National Park which has to be an angler’s paradise. It’s full of calm lakes surrounded by oddly shaped red gums and the waters support over two hundred species of birdlife – not surprising when you visit, as you can see that the river and lakes literally teem with golden and European perch. Continuing along the river and heading inland a bit, you reach the vast Murray-Sunset National Park which contains the largest tracts of wilderness in south eastern Australia, namely over 50,000 hectares of salt lakes, sand dunes, pine forests and scrub. Depending on when you visit, you could be in for a hallucinatory experience as winter rains alter the chemical composition of the salt lakes, breeding algae which turn the lake beds pink. Right allow the Murray you’ll find kangaroos, emus, and lizards are commonplace and the avian life – wedge-tailed eagles, Major Mitchell cockatoos, parrots, wrens and mallee fowls – is colourful and varied, including whistling kites, peregrine falcons and pelicans that live on the river all year round.

Murray photograph by pamelaadam, used under a creative commons attribution licence

 

© blueworldgardener.co.uk