15th Feb 2011
Sunday, we finally got under way from Victor Harbor about 10.00am a lot later than I would have liked but we won’t go into that. Starting off with a gloomy sky and a threat of rain it was quite cool as we travelled to Murray Bridge to follow the Murray River upstream and as we did the skies cleared into a beautiful warm sunny day. We crossed the Murray River at Murray Bridge over one of the few bridges in the lower end of the river. South Australian Roads maintain a system of free cross river cable ferries operating 24/7, you come across these every where and it’s a very functional system, we usually arrive at the boom gate just as they have left but then again we are never in a hurry. Turning left we followed the river course through ‘Murraylands’, grazing and grain growing country past numerous country villages and farming communities, turning off the main road to check out riverside settlements and the views whenever possible. Past the large town of Mannum on the other side we continued upstream through Bowhill, Purnong, Nildottie, Walkers Flat and on to Swan Reach where the nature of the terrain was now changing and we were starting to see large vineyards and fruit groves amongst the grain fields. Several times we crossed the Murray by ferry just to view the tall sandstone cliffs from the opposite bank. There’s a lot of water moving downstream the river is in flood and will get higher, many riverside camping and picnic areas are already under water and it looks strange to see people fishing off jetties with water half way up to their knees. Comments from residents stating they haven’t seen the river this high for at least 15 years are commonplace and they are all excited about it. It’s not a raging torrent of dirty water but it is flowing fairly hard, cross river ferries strain at their cables and complete a fairly large arc as they cross the current from one side to the other and I guess they wouldn’t risk operating if it wasn’t safe to do so.

Continuing north towards Blanchetown you pass into what is known as the ‘Riverlands’ region, encompassing centres such as Morgan to the west Waikerie ( pronounced Wakery as in bakery), Barmera, Berri, Renmark in the east and Loxton further south. Blanchetown is where the Sturt Highway crosses the river via a high concrete wide spanned bridge, strangely enough the old concrete bridge still stands alongside looking perfectly ok and makes a great viewing platform for taking photos of the cliffs and downstream to the 1st lock system on the Murray.
The Murray River’s lock and weir water management system was constructed in 1920’s and 1930’s to help control water level enabling cargo and paddle steamers to always navigate the waterways. Source: ‘Official tourist information brochure’
By now the day was drawing on so we discontinued the river drive and followed the Sturt Highway a few kilometres into Waikerie where we booked into the local caravan park for a couple of nights, by this time we had covered almost 300 kilometres and had checked out the majority of settlements and viewing sites from Murray Bridge upstream.

Waikerie is right on the Murray, a clean, tidy looking town, with a population of 5,114 (when the brochure was printed) it is big enough to support the several essential businesses such as a Woolworths and is approximately 174 kls from Adelaide. The name Waikerie is said to mean ‘many wings’, after the giant swift moth ‘wei kari’ the name given by the original indigenous community, it was established in 1894 when the first settlers arrived by paddle steamer. Large fruit groves of citrus and stone fruit dominate the farming district now and in recent years hundreds of hectares of grape vines have been planted making the area one of the largest tonnage producers in the Riverlands. Source: Official travel brochure
Over the next few days we will use Waikerie as a base and visit as many centres of interest as time permits.