The weather up here was fine and sunny, although a little cool – much better than the day on Melbourne with cold weather and showers. It was a pleasant day for exploring around this area.
Cobram is located in the Murray River, about half way between Yarrawonga and Tocumwal. Along this stretch river there are a total of 103 beaches. These are ideal for camping, bushwalking, cycling, fishing, swimming, bird watching, canoeing, water skiing and boating. The most famous beach in this area is Thompson’s Beach which is described as the largest inland beach in Australia. It is on a bend in the river and has a play area and barbecue facilities. It is floodlit in the evening and has fine stands of River Red Gums.
It also has a noisy bunch of those horrible Corella parrots that constantly shriek and squawk in the forest of Red Gum trees along the river bank.
In 2006 a new concrete bridge was completed across the Murray River at a cost of $9.6 million. It joins Cobram with Barooga and replaces the remarkable De Burgh truss lift bridge which was completed in 1902 and was the first bridge across the Murray to be totally funded by the Victorian government. The bridge was officially opened on 3 December, 1902 and is still standing.
Barooga (across the river in NSW) is named after Barooga station which was established by George Hillas in 1847. The historic Barooga homestead still stands on the Barooga-Tocumwal Road about 5 km west of the town. The word ‘barooga’ possibly means ‘my home’ in the language of the Wiradjuri Aborigines.
We found a busy little cafe by the causeway where we bought a coffee and then went back to for lunch after we had explored a little of the area.
The town has some Botanic Gardens that were opened in 1993 and cover an area of 2.4 ha where the town’s old cricket ground used to be. The trees were purchased with donations and palm trees at the entrance were transplanted from Seppelts vineyard. It has a commemorative sundial and special trees which include a lone pine from the hills at Gallipoli.
Most of northern Victoria is in drought. The paddocks are dry with scarcely a blade of grass. On the flat lands along the Murray River things aren’t much better although irrigation does provide a thin cover of green grass.
This area is criss-crossed with irrigation channels that provide water for farms, vineyards and orchards. Some of these are hundreds of kilometres long. One unique feature to be found north of Barooga is ‘The Drop’. The Drop is a feature where the main Mulwala Channel drops a few metres into the Berrigan Channel. Rather than just leave a waterfall because of different levels in the land, the authorities have created a small hydro electric power station. When the water of flowing, this mini hydro plant can power 1600 homes.
The furthest point of our exploration was at Yarrawonga, thirty two kilometres upstream. The twin towns of Yarrawonga (Victoria) and Milwala (NSW) are a haven for boaters and water skiers. There are more accommodation rooms on these two towns than in Buckingham Palace. They also have the largest golf course on Australia with 42 Holes. The Murray Valley Highway runs close to the river and we were able to gain access to the river bank at a number of places.
However, one of these access roads started out as a nice gravel road but turned into a four wheel drive track before it reached the river. We managed to turn around on a narrow place where it crossed a levee back. We didn’t see the river, but we did get a shot of the local wildlife.
By now my new car was extremely dusty and I was glad to find a car wash before we returned to our resort.
Tonight, we are heading back to the Cobram Hotel for dinner and then tomorrow we will try to find an interesting way to go home.
