8 Oct 2014
32 days until I can stop about whether I have turned the water pump off.
We left our camp site at Bourkes Bend near Yarrawonga and headed north west. We stopped at Lake Charm for morning tea where all the business’s were for sale as a job lot, including a caravan park, bottle shop, post office, fuel station. There were a few houses still being occupied and this beautiful display of flowers was on show.
Where is Nyah you ask. It is a tiny village with almost no shops (just a post office/general store) and is about 27west of Swan Hill. It is on the Murray River on the Victorian side. a couple of kms west is Nyah West which grew up around the railway line in 1915. It is known for its intact heritage listed street scape, which has only one operating business,
We are camped at the Nyah Sports complex which was a former trotting track. There are about 37 campers here tonight. It is on the banks of the Murray River and is a free site although they do ask for a donation. This morning a gentleman in a ute came around to welcome us to the area with information to impart as well as some dried fruit and sultanas for sale.
Finally we were ready to drive back into Swan Hill for a look around and to stock up on fruit and vegetables as we had to give up what we had in the van before at a quarantine stop.
Swan Hill has a rich history with the Murray River and its paddle steamers. There is a Pioneer Village there which I had a look at.
I also had a look at the BIG Murray Cod which was a prop in the 1993 movie “ Eight Ball”.
The first record of rice cultivation in South Eastern Australia was in 1906, when the Victorian Government allocated 200 acres of land on the Murray River to former Japanese Parliamentarian – Isaburo Takasuka. Despite floods and droughts, he managed to produce a crop for commercial sale in 1914. This was in the Vinifere Forest area and this is the site of that first rice crop.
Tomorrow we are heading for Mildura – not sure where we will end up camping.
No comments:
Post a Comment