The LAND
n 1813, the explorers Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson crossed the barrier of
the Blue Mountains beyond the youthful town of Sydney. Their discovery of a
I
route to lands of rich grazing potential led to a rapidly swelling tide of land-
hungry settlers which swept along the inland river systems in their wake.
Europeans first named the Murray River the Hume after the explorer Hamilton
Hume. This Australian-born son of a convict, accompanied by a retired British sea
captain, William Hovell, set out from Sydney in October 1824. Their aim was to
find an overland route to the south. On 16 November 1824, they sighted the river
that was later to be renamed the Murray. The person responsible for this new name,
which was applied to the river's entire length on 23 January 1830, was Captain
Charles Sturt, who set off from Sydney on 3 November 1829. He followed the
Murrumbidgee River to its confluence with the Murray River, then followed the
Murray to the Murray Mouth.
Originally, the Murray was known by various names according to the languages
of the Aboriginal tribes who lived along its considerable length. Unlike most of the
Aboriginal culture of the region, not all the names have disappeared into oblivion;
we have been bequeathed several of these names in different Aboriginal languages.
Aboriginal names are gentle on
the ear, especially when spoken by a native speaker. To experience this is a delight and a
rare privilege. The words flow like music  soft, burbling and mellifluous, like the water
of a creek. Ancient names for an even more ancient river: Yoorlooarra, Parriangkaperre,
Tongwillum, Goodwarra, Moorundie.
Later, in 1836, the exploration frenzy was still running hot, and the explorer Thomas
Mitchell arrived at a hill near the Murray River, south of its confluence with the
Murrumbidgee River. In those days, there were reed beds beside the river. They extended
about 50 kilometres downriver and about 40 kilometres upriver from Swan Hill. The
black swans there made a big impression on the weary explorer. The racket they made at
night ruined his sleep  hence the name of the site. As was so often the case, the place
already had a name; it was called Matakupat by the local people due to the large number
of platypus in the river there.
These days Swan Hill is famous, not for its noisy swans, but for the Swan Hill Pioneer
Settlement. The settlement, opened in 1961, was Australia's first outdoor heritage
museum. Here, with the assistance of numerous relics, life on the Murray and in the
nearby region of the Mallee from 1830 until 1930 is re-created in a remarkably
convincing manner. (A similar and very spectacular sequel to the pioneer settlement,
called Sovereign Hill, is situated in central Victoria in the old goldmining town of
Ballarat.) Even travellers who are sophisticated and prefer to steer clear of tourist sites
will find both these heritage towns worth a visit.
T H E MURRAY- DARL I NG BAS I N
Three-quarters of New South Wales, over half of Victoria, the south-east corner of South
Australia, and an area of Queensland which exceeds the total area of Victoria, are within
what is known as the Murray-Darling Basin. The Basin is approximately one-seventh of
the entire Australian continent. (To provide some sense of scale, Australia as a whole is
roughly the size of Western Europe or the United States.) The Basin is one of the world's
most extensive navigable river systems. Today, it is also one of the world's richest fruit
bowls, as a result of an extensive and complex irrigation network.
The three main rivers are the Murray, Darling and Murrumbidgee, but today, all the
paddleboats of the Murray-Darling river system are located on
the Murray. The approximate lengths of the rivers are considerable: the Darling is
2530 kilometres, the Murray is 2520 kilometres and the Murrumbidgee is 1575
kilometres. Of this river system of over 6500 kilometres, approximately 5000
kilometres were navigable by the flat-bottomed, shallow-draughted paddle steamers
and their barges. In addition, there are another 1600 navigable kilometres of
tributary rivers such as the Goulburn, Edwards, Rufus and Wakool.
RI VE R CHARACT E RI S T I CS
On average, the distance along the river is roughly three times the distance between
its start and finish as the crow flies. The Darling River, which joins the Murray near
Wentworth, New South Wales, is actually longer than the Murray proper. The
headwaters of the Darling are far to the north in central Queensland.
Australia is believed to be earth's oldest continent and is also the flattest. Its
once-high mountains have been abraded to hills and its snaking rivers are shallow,
normally narrow, and often intermittent. Nevertheless, Australians can count their
blessings, for without these watercourses, Australia might not be the wealthy nation
it is today. Even with the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia is not only the flattest
continent  it is also the driest settled land mass. (Curiously, Antarctica receives
even less precipitation than Australia because the air in this frozen desert is too cold
to hold moisture.) After heavy spring rains, the northern inland rivers can be trans-
formed from bone-dry riverbeds to awesome, raging torrents many kilometres in
width, which sweep all before them. Up near the Queensland border with New
South Wales, the river Darling often swelled to almost one hundred kilometres in
width.
Due to flood control systems this no longer occurs on the Murray-Darling, but
seasonal rains still make a big difference to the water levels in the river. In the
heyday of the river trade, there were no locks or dams, and the rivers could usually
be used for only eight months of the year. The delays that could be encountered on a
river system as fickle as that of inland Australia are dramatically illustrated by the
experience of RS. Jane Eliza. This vessel still holds the record for the longest river
trip (in duration) ever made
above and below: Modern-day vehicle punts across the Murray River in South Australia.
on the Murray-Darling river system. Hampered by prolonged drought conditions, she
took three years to travel from the river port of Goolwa in South Australia to the outback
New South Wales town of Bourke on the Darling River. Ironically, her return trip, aided
by swift floodwaters, with two barges in tow, took her a mere two weeks! It must have
been a hair-raising trip, but a relief to be on the move again nonetheless. Such is life in
the Australian outback. Despite the vagaries of river depth and many other frustrations,
the Murray-Darling and its tributaries became not only a national highway, but the liquid
foundation of the national economy.
T H E R E D G U M F O R E S T S
There are several extensive areas of red gum forest remaining along the course of the
Murray River. The largest and best known is the Barmah Forest in Victoria. Its 29 500
hectares consists of the Barmah State Park (7900 hectares) and Barmah State Forest
(21600 hectares). It is not the only red gum forest on the river  there are also extensive
forests at Moira and Gunbower. Before the arrival of Europeans and the timber industry,
the Murray's red gum forests were even more extensive. But even today, the Barmah and
Moira forests together total about 40 500 hectares. Surprisingly, the Barmah Forest was
made a reserve back in 1908. The objective, which continues to this day, has been to
manage the area as a total ecological system. This means that it is not only managed as a
wildlife refuge, but also as an agricultural operation capable of sustainable, multiple uses,
which include highly selective timber production, honey production, restricted cattle (but
not sheep or goat) grazing and public recreation. Unlikely though this combination
sounds, it appears to have been achieved with great success.
The Barmah Forest is a section of the huge Murray River floodplain to the east of the
port of Echuca. This plain was formed by the Cadell Tilt Block, which blocked the
original watercourse, diverting it into two separate rivers: the Murray and the Edwards.
This wildlife paradise sprawls along the plain, with a river frontage of 112 kilometres.
Here is a maze of lakes, creeks, swamps and marshes, meadows and, of course, red gum
trees. There are about 4500 hectares of lakes
above: An original red gum bullock cart complete with a huge red gum log sits on display for
visitors to the port of Echuca in Victoria.
and swamp, in addition to thousands of hectares of the eucalyptus species, grey box
and yellow box {Eucalyptus moluccana and melliodora) which hold the relatively
high ground on the low ridges. The magnificent red gums, however, have no need of
high ground. They not only tolerate frequent inundation by the river  they thrive
on it. Soaring to about 45 metres with a girth of up to four metres, these trees were
the mainstay of the timber industry in the old river-trade days. They have been
supplying mill logs, railway sleepers, wharf piles, mine shaft slabbing and building
timbers for over 150 years. The wood of these trees is a rich, deep red and is dense,
fine grained, extremely hard and strong. On the timber properties scale (of one to
ten), river red gum (to give its correct title) rates extremely highly, with a density of
nine, compression strength of eight, shear strength
of nine, hardness of nine, toughness of six and cleavage strength of over nine. All
these properties are combined in a timber which is fairly rot resistant, can handle
extended periods of immersion and just happens to be located conveniently
alongside the Murray River, where strong, durable paddleboats were required.
Unfortunately for the river trade, the abundance of this remarkable timber proved to
be a double-edged sword. Red gum is also an ideal material for railway sleepers and
it was the railways that finally led to the demise of the river trade.
Deep in the heart of the Barmah Forest is the Dharnya Centre, an interpretative
visitor centre opened in 1986. It is built of local materials and is designed to suggest
the shape of the Aboriginal ovens and middens of the region. Descendants of the
local Yorta Yorta people participate in the centre's management. It is certainly a
good place to begin an exploration of the Barmah Forest, because there are videos,
sound recordings, paintings, numerous displays and even guided forest tours. There
is also a large mural depicting the creation of the Murray River by the Dreamtime
spirit being, Biami.
above: A red gum railway sleeper with its characteristic rich, red colour.