October 2008
I've been to Mildura up in northern Victoria on the Murray River with my friend Roberto, performing as a Connie at the Mildura Show.
We had a wonderful time chatting to the locals and distributing our swap cards. There were plenty of farmers and their kids and grand kids. Also timber getters, nature enthusiasts, park rangers etc. And people of many backgrounds including Italian, Greek, Pacific Islanders, Aboriginal people of the local Barkindji, Latje Latje, Wemba Wemba and Wadi Wadi tribes - and of course descendents of the English, Scots, Irish etc. settlers.
A big thanks to the Mallee Catchment Management Authority for inviting us up!
On the way back to Melbourne we detoured to visit the junction of the Murray and Murrumbidgee Rivers. I went for a swim across to New South Wales and back. This is a deeply historic place. I imagine that it was/is of great importance to Aboriginal people. Soon after settlement during the hey-day of the paddle steaming river river boat era this would have been a very bury place as steamers carrying grain and other goods plied the waterways. Now Victoria side (behind me as I took these shots) is a reserve with old-growth River Red-gum woodland. In New South Whales on the far bank to the left of the Murrumbidgee is a timber/firewood harvesting areas. I found it to be a maze of tracks weaving among a mix of old growth trees left for habitat, chain-sawed stumps and young re-growth trees. The land to the right of the Murrumbidgee is cleared for farming.
To get a feel for the Murry steamboat era, I recommend the novel All the Rivers Run by Nancy Cato (although it has little mention of the Aboriginal way of life at that time).
The junction between the Murray and Murrumbidgee rivers |
Looking upstream (north-east) along the Murray from the Murrumbidgee River junction
|
||
Throughout Victoria and South Australia the big dry is taking it's toll on native vegetation. This was apparent to us on this trip in the dieback of roadside trees all the way from Melbourne to the Murray. Rangers we met at the Mildura Show told us that the dieback is now apparent across vast swaths of the Mallee national parks. This is clear evidence of a shift in climate since mallee species live for up to 500 years, re-sprouting after fire from large underground lignotubers which can way over a ton. Mallee trees are tough as nails and normally don't just curl up their roots and die en-mass during droughts. Apparently even the spinifex grasses - perennial desert adapted species - are dieing back. The severe water deficit in the river systems is obvious by the high number of vineyards and orchards that have been let die. Drought-stressed mallee tree |
|||
