Murray River Archives - INSPIRING MAX

F: Flooding

April 8, 2024April 8, 2024 inspiringmax

Australian weather is changeable. Floods can and do happen very quickly, sometimes without notice. On more than one occasions we have been traveling and have had to change our plans because of floods. I find it fascinating that a road that you could drive easily on one day, the next is totally cut off by flood waters.

It is also weird to me that as I wrote this blog post last weekend, New South Wales had a significant weather event and many parts of the state are again in flood. Watching the football on Friday night which was playing in my home town was very funny. It was pouring with rain and the players were tackling like they were on a slip and slide. the field was covered in water. Our team won as they held on very tightly to the ball and fortunately no-one was injured.

The excess amount of rain everywhere leads to the serious risk of life threatening flash flooding. The secret to dealing with flooding is always to

Be Prepared and Be Alert and Never Drive Through Flood waters.

The following photos are of Wannon Falls during floods. The water was very brown and smelt very earthy. The water was also flowing very hard and fast.

The other major problem that Truby ( our Iveco truck and slide on camper) has in the wet is that she is heavy. This means that the places we can stop are limited. We need either gravel or a hard surface so she doesn’t get stuck in the mud.

The following photos are of the Murray River in full flood. It is the longest river in Australia. We had been there six months before this and the river was several metres lower.

E: Echuca’s Old Port

April 6, 2022April 6, 2022 inspiringmax

The Murray River is Australia’s longest river and it divides the Victorian and New South Wales states. Echuca is a city on the Victorian side and Moama is its sister city on the New South Wales side.

Founded in 1853 Ecucha was once Australia’s largest inland port due to the river trade. Paddlesteamers were very busy going up and down the Murray carrying people and cargo, mainy redgum timber and wool. To honour the city’s history, Echuca has built a Discovery centre around the old port.

The original paddlesteamers have been brought back to life and today are used for tourism. Unfortunately, for us we visited Echuca on a long weekend. This meant the paddlesteamers were fully booked. Never mind, next time will do.

The Port of Echuca Discovery Centre was amazing. We spent hours emersing ourselves in a forgotten time. Learning about life in the early days of Echuca. I loved that they have rebuilt the original wharves mostly using the original timber. They are 3 stories high. This is due to the various changes in river depth and so at any level the cargo could unload. The flood marker below gives an indication or the river levels. During our visit the levels were low.

The scary thing for the river crews was that if the river level dropped too much the paddlesteamers became “stuck” and couldn’t move until it rained and the river levels rose again. This often meant waiting it out until the snow melted or the rains came.