Across Australia - Part 7 - Echuca on the Murray River, Victoria, Australia

 Hello dear readers, I hope you and yours are doing well, whether you are in the depths of summer in the northern hemisphere (I hope you are safe from the raging summer forest fires that have been devastating areas in the northern hemisphere), or in winter in the southern hemisphere, as I am - although I was reminded today that spring is only a week away - and we still need lots more rain.

Last time during my Across Australia journey series, I took you to Mansfield in the Victorian High Country and we visited Craig's hut which featured in the Man From Snowy River movie. 

This week we travel north west from Mansfield to Echuca on the Murray River - the border between the states of Victoria and New South Wales. Echuca was the home of the Murry River paddle steamer river trade in days gone by, and the 1983 Australian TV drama series All The Rivers Run. 

To orientate yourself - here is a close up and an overall map. The orange line is our SPOT tracker route. Echuca is 223km from Melbourne, the capital city of the state of Victoria. 

Leaving Mansfield, our first stop was Benalla. We visited to the Visitor Information Center and discovered that Benalla is famous for its street art featuring over 80 murals and hosts the annual Benalla Street Art Wall to Wall Festival over a weekend usually around March or April. Looks like we had just missed it by a few days. 

Click here to see Benalla Street Art Murals. We set about exploring, but there are so many you would need much more time to see them all. 

Here is another Benalla web site - Enjoy Benalla

While we were exploring we discovered an Analemmatic Sundial. These were used as early as 2nd entury AD. 

According to the instructions - stand on the figure eight - the Analemma - at today's date and your shadow will tell the time. 

So my husband stood on April, and yes his shadow landed on 12 o'çlock - correct! 

The Analemmatic Sundail is credited to astronomer and mathematician Cluadius Ptolemy. The Benalla Sundail was built to mark the centenary in 2005 of Rotary International. The Sundial is in a park overlooking Lake Benalla next to the walking path. You can find out more here - Lake Benalla

From Benalla we continued to Echuca on the Murray River. We had a nice spot at the Echuca Discovery Riverside Caravan Park to set up with trees as a backdrop and near a walking path along the Murray River, so it was along here that we walked every day 

A little video I took at the caravan park - the birds you can hear are Kookaburras - see photo below

There is so much to explore around Echuca - history, natural landscapes, culture. The first place to start is the Visitor Information Centre located in the historic wharf precinct of the Port of Echuca. 

Home to the traditional Yorta Yorta people, the Murray River (Dhungala) was an important part of their sacred, cultural and traditional lives for tens of thousands of years before white man arrived, with the river and forest providing a year round resource for food and timber. 

Winding approx 2,600km from the Snowy Mountains in New South Wales in the east, along the top edge of Victoria to South Australia in the south, the Murray River is one of the longest navigatable rivers in the world. Added to this is the Darling River which runs approx 2,740kms from near the Queensland-New South Wales border and joins the Murray at Wentworth. I mentioned this in my previous post - Across Australia Part 4

The first white man to settle near Echuca was ex-convict Henry Hopwood in 1853, where he operated a small punt across the river and later a pontoon bridge. Settlement began in Moama in 1845 (Moama is the twin city of Echuca - but on the New South Wales side of the river). 

In 1853 Captain William Randell was the first white person to travel upstream on a paddlesteamer from Goolwa in South Australia to Moama, on the PS Mary Ann, beginning the riverboat building and river trade. Sadly I couldn't find a photo of PS Mary Ann - but I did find this PDF which gives some information and a drawing. 

By 1872 the riverboat trade at the Port of Echuca was clearing 240 boats annually, and Echuca was the largest inland port in Australia (and the third largest port in Australia). At its peak in 1865 the wharf was over 300 metres long. The wharf is built in levels to accommodate the height of the river. The tide seemed quite low when we were there. 

The paddle steamers and the barges they towed, opened up inland Australia, delivering goods (including bales of wool, timber, mail, food etc) to and from otherwise isolated stations (farms) and towns along the river. During dry summers boats were often not able to move up and down the river. This trade continued until railways and roads took over. 

The wharf precinct is an interesting place to explore. In the Port of Echuca Discovery Centre (entry is free), you can learn more about the history of the riverboat era.

Echuca is the home of the oldest still-operating wooden hulled paddlesteamer, the PS Adelaide built in 1866. You can book a river tour. 

A must on our visit to Echuca was to book a cruise on the paddlesteamer the PS Pevensey (built in 1911), which was used during the filming of the 1983 Australian TV series, All The Rivers Run, starring Australian actors Sigrid Thornton (Philadelphia - Delie) and John  Waters (Brenton Edwards) which we re-watched before we left on our trip. I have wanted to visit Echuca ever since I saw the TV series back in 1983. The boat was named the PS Philadelphia for the series. (ie Paddle Steamer Philadelphia).

The TV series was based on a 1958 novel by Australian writer Nancy Cato which tells the story of a shipwrecked English girl, Philadelphia, who in the novel, became the first woman paddle steamer captain on the Murray River, and is centered around the Murray River paddlesteamer trade. I re-read the book while we were away. 

The PS Pevensey, built in 1911, is still powered by her original 20 horse power steam engine. They blow their horn as a way of communicating with other vessels, particularly when there is restricted visibility, ie around bends or coming into port. The river certainly has a lot of bends! You can hear the horn in the video below - 

Below you can see the steering wheel. The river boats used one tonne of wood a day and take about an hour and a half to steam up. That is a lot of wood from a lot of trees! The engineer had his lunch warming in alfoil on the engine. 

Captain Pearl Wallace (later Pearl Hogg, née Collins) was the first woman paddlesteamer captain and qualified master mariner on the Murray River. She earned her River Master’s Certificate in October 1947 at age 36, breaking barriers in a male-dominated river trade. Her life inspired the novel All the Rivers Run.

We enjoyed our one hour cruise, and had lovely weather for it. There are lots of cruise boats along the Murray River - some which people live in and some which can be hired for a cruise. 

You can book an hour, overnight or several day cruises from Echuca and other places along the River. There are several companies offering cruises. 

The boats carry a flag, believed to have originated in the 1850s. The red cross of St George, four blue bars representing the rivers Murray, Murrumbidgee, Lachlan and the Darling. The five stars represent the colonies - New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania. In the corner is the flag of the United Kingdom. 

The flag you see below here is the flag used in Echuca, known as the Combined Murray Flag, used from Mildura to Albury. 

The left hand flag you can see (on the poster) is used in the upper reaches of the Murray, and the right hand one in the lower reaches (South Australia). 

We have always known that the border between the states of New South Wales and Victoria was the Murray River, what we didn't know is that the Murray River is claimed by New South Wales, and the border is actually along the bank of the Murray on the Victorian side. Curious. 

We walked along the street one street back from the wharf, looking in the shops and at the many heritage buildings, taking photos, and broused in an old bookshop. We had a lovely lunch in an old house at 51 Murray Esplanade built in 1896 and at one time known as Telley House and now a restarurant called the Beekeepers Table. 

Some birds from my husband - clockwise from top left - Pied Currawong, Australian Little Grebe, Eastern Rosella, White Egret, Eastern Swamp Hen, Rainbow Lorrikeet, Masked Plover, immature Blue Faced Honeyeater, and in the center a White Faced Heron. 

Another look at those Masked Plovers

and those parrots - from left to right - Rainbow Lorikeet, Eastern Rosella, Pink and Grey Galah

Echuca Railway Station constructed in 1864 when the railway connected Echuca to Melbourne, the capital city of Victoria. 

That's it from me today. I hope you have enjoyed this visit to Echuca. It is a lovely place to stay for a few days, especially exploring the history along the wharf precinct and going on a river cruise or taking walks in the bushland along the river. 

Nest time we will explore a silo and mural art trail in Rochester and other towns south of Echuca. I hope you will visit. 

More info - 

Port of Echuca

Echuca - Women of the River

Echuca River cruises

Murray river Paddle Steamers

Paddle steamer history South Australia

Visit Victoria-Paddle Steamers

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