The long road home

20 September

From St George we chose a route south west along the Castlereagh Highway, across the border into New South Wales, parallel with tributaries of the Darling that come together forty or so kilometers north east of Bourke. We took a short detour to visit the opal mining town of Lightning Ridge (a gentle rise in an otherwise flattish but lightly treed landscape) where an outburst of gross tourism feeds on the travails of the necessarily eccentric mining characters who scar the landscape with their pits, scrapes and diggings. The scene reminded me of the many bunny scrapes in the garden before we fenced the buggers out.

We came back across good dirt roads through the back blocks to our preferred trail at Brewarrina and then on through to Bourke. We have all heard of Bourke (“back of Bourke” for those overseas, refers to what used to be the Australia of the imagination, where only an explorer or a desperate man would think of going) and we were surprised to find a most modest little place. But when reading the promotional literature that you collect at the Information Centres along the way, you are led to believe every town is exceptional with outstanding features that make it a cut above the rest. Usually the literature still boasts of an agriculture that has probably past. The long list of produce and the money that was generated have now largely gone with the drought and when you ask about a particular crop, “haven’t put a cotton crop in for two years and we’ve no water allocation at all this year” is the sort of remark you hear.


From Bourke you have options, but the Kidman Way (that starts at Cunnamulla and follows the old route that Sir Sidney Kidman’s drovers first cut to take cattle and to carry wool to the river steamers on the Darling) stays loyal to the compass and runs on south through Cobar, Griffith all the way down to the Murray at Tocumwal. It is a very good road carrying little traffic. A night was spent at Hillston, a bright little town where millions have recently been spent on fine civic delights like a new dual carriageway, pavement and lighting right through the town. Everyone is promoting the place in a most community minded way which is good to see; however the “For Sale” signs on many businesses in the High St tells of hard times getting harder. We spent a night in the Gundabooka NP south of Bourke, where there is some very interesting aboriginal art, good walks in the stone country, and a small but good campsite amongst the Mulga forest.

Next stop Griffith. We did not know that Walter Burley Griffin, following his appointment to design the layout of Canberra, was also responsible for the design of Griffith and Leeton These two towns are the market and labour centres that have benefited from the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Project that was commissioned early last century and was the precursor to the Snowy Mountains Scheme. Griffith is booming, and growing in population rapidly. The population is 50% Italian extraction, with Indians, Iraqis and even some Anglo Saxons scattered amongst the orange groves and vineyards. What a difference a sensitive hand can make to a community. Griffin’s layout is grand (and of course has boulevards radiating form a circular focal point) and integrates the irrigation canal through the centre of the town. The main shopping street faces south to the civic buildings and wide gardens across a broad dual carriageway. We thought it was magnificent and quite the finest large country town (about 28,000 pop) we have seen. It is what Shepparton could have been.

One of Griffith’s treasures is the “Hermit’s Cave”, which had us spellbound. Griffith is on flat ground but is flanked with a craggy sandstone ridge to its north. The town has now grown to the foot of this rise, but in 1920 the orange groves were several kilometres distant across open grassy country. An Italian named Ricetti, who had arrived after the first war, made the south facing outcrops his own. Over two decades he used the local material to build dry stone walled terraces and staircases. He occupied three of the small caves. He planted vegetables, fruits and flowers, and lived a hermit’s existence, but was actively supported by the local community and had many visitors. There are many photographs of him in the surroundings he largely created and it would be a wonderful thing if his works could be restored. During the Second World War a different frame of mind prevailed and being an Italian he was interned, during which time the Rotary Club made it their responsibility to maintain his dwelling place and gardens until his return. He did return but now found work locally and visited “My sacred hillside” when he could.

We didn’t leave Griffith until well after lunch and we had made up our minds to get to Yarrawonga by dusk, as neither of us had been there before. We did not make it, and that was all to the good. It was getting dark as we found a gateway into the Mulwala State Forest,that sits beside the Murray about eight kilometres west of that township. The Red Gum forest opened onto a small field of grassland beside the banks of the river, where a wide stretch of water arced away in front of us. So many camps beside rivers and waterholes, and this was one of the best. Our last night with stars, the remains of our pantry just sufficient, one bottle of good Argentine red left, and Slava on the iPod. What more could anyone ask for? We unwisely tried to exit the forest by continuing along the river, as a late night passer-by had evidently done. Fortunately we found our way out of the forest again after half an hour. Don’t go in those forests without a map! We reflected on the meaning of Yarrawonga and it’s effect on the aged who live there. It’s a lively enough place beside the weir, with inflated house and land prices all thanks to irrigation. That housing is another crop of sorts. The weather was, for the first time on the trip, overcast. Lovely. We stopped for morning tea with friends in Shepparton, and as we left there the rain started. It was pure delight to be driving back through Nagambie and Kyneton in good rain.

This has been an enjoyable blog to write and we both hope you have followed it with interest. Can we encourage more followers to write comments? And special thanks to those who did because it is good getting feed back on the move. We are planning a trip next year to the top end, starting earlier maybe in April, and lasting perhaps two to three months. The Gulf, here we come!