Aug., J RosENHAiN, A Thousand Miles on River Murray. 49 



A THOUSAND MILES ON THE RIVER MURRAY. 



By O. W. Rosenhain. 



{Read before the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, i6th April, 1917.) 



Eighty-six years ago that great Australian explorer, Charles 

 Sturt, explored the Murray waters and opened up to the world 

 the largest river system in Australia. In that wonderful boat 

 journey from the mouth of the Murrumbidgee to the sea and 

 back, Sturt and his gallant companions rowed no less than 

 1,600 miles — the longest boat journey on record. What a 

 wonderful journey that must have been, gliding down this 

 glorious river in all its virgin beauty, before the ruthless hand 

 of the white man had begun its work of slaughter, crime, and 

 destruction ! Hardly any of the scenes observed by Sturt in 

 his memorable journey are to be seen to-day. On the whole 

 length of the Murray not one pure native is to be seen ; his 

 canoes have gone ; his burial-grounds have been desecrated ; 

 the only records are a few large eucalypts, at intervals, from 

 which bark canoes have been cut. 



The desire of my life has been to make a journey on the 

 Murray, but circumstances never seemed to fit in until the 

 31st of August, 1916, when I left Echuca on board the good 

 passenger steamer Ruby for a thousand miles' run to Murray 

 Bridge. Comparatively few people have any idea or are 

 aware of the many attractions which the Murray offers to the 

 traveller and tourist. In the Murray Australia possesses an 

 asset which her legislators from the very earliest stage have 

 failed to grasp or realize. From Albury to the Murray mouth, 

 at Goolwa, the river has a length of 1,366 miles, and practically 

 the whole distance on both sides of the bank the land is nearly 

 level, and lends itself easily for channelling and irrigation. 

 During the distance from Echuca to Murray Bridge it 

 passes between what is known in Victoria as the Mallee, 

 and on the New South Wales side as the Riverina. 

 These districts are known more or less as dry and 

 rainless areas ; but when the Murray overflows large 

 tracts of country are inundated ; inland lakes, creeks, 

 and water-holes are filled, and presently everything is green, 

 luxurious, and beautiful. To my mind the Murray can be 

 compared to the Nile, as it overflows practically every year, 

 and had our legislators in the early days spent money in 

 utilizing this water for irrigation purposes and cultivating the 

 lands, by the building of dams, locks, and weirs, millions of 

 acres would be under crop — either wheat, maize, lucerne, or 

 fruit ; but now, with the exception of Mildura, Renmark, and 

 a few small settlements, the whole of this thousand miles is 

 practically waste country. The squatter in the early days 



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