56 RonEJ^HAHs, A Thousand Miles on River Murray. [ 



Vict. Nat. 

 Vol. XXXIV. 



Lake Victoria Station, which had a frontage of some 50 miles 

 to the river and ran back from the river for 70 miles. 



A little after sunset we passed the South Australian border. 

 The boundary fence between South Australia and Victoria can 

 easily be seen. The boundary between New South Wales is 

 nearly eight miles furtlier up the river, and South Australia 

 contended for many years that the Victorian boimdary was 

 wrongly fixed, the real boundary-line being the 141st parallel 

 of longitude, along which the New South Wales fence runs. 

 The dispute was finally settled by the Privy Council in favour 

 of Victoria. The boundary fences are designed to be vermin- 

 proof. A little way on is the old Customs House, which, before 

 federation, was the crossing-place between Victoria and South 

 Australia. The river from this point onward flows only through 

 South Australian territory. The first place of importance is 

 Rcnmark, the great South Australian irrigation settlement, 

 710 miles from Echuca. It is not nearly as large as Mildura, 

 the irrigated area being 5,300 acros, while that of Mildura is 

 over 30,000 acres. Renmark is chiefly known for the very 

 fine oranges that are grown there. At Renmark we stayed 

 four hours, and drove around the settlement in motor-cars. 

 From this point onward there are quite a number of small 

 settlements, the first one being Berri, which has an irrigable 

 area of about 3,000 acres. Loxton and Pyap are also small 

 irrigation settlements. Overland Corner, which is 800 miles 

 from Echuca, was the famous crossing and camping place in 

 the old* overlanding days. 



The next place of importance was Morgan, which is 105 miles 

 by rail from Adelaide and 130 miles from Murray Bridge. At 

 this point the Murray makes an abrupt bend. Morgan was 

 formerly known as North-West Bend. We had several hours 

 on shore at Morgan. There are most peculiar cliffs in the 

 neighl:)ourhood, rising very abruptly, and extending for some 

 distance. I managed to pick up quite a number of fossils, 

 such as fossilized shells, bones, &c., &c. 1 handed these speci- 

 mens to Mr. F. Chapman, of the Melbourne Museum, who has 

 kindly classified them as follows : — Among the Miocene period 

 were Coral, Polyzoa, Bivalves, (iasteropod. Crustacean, whilst 

 the Lower Pliocene contained only the one class of Bivalve, 

 Ostrea sturtiana. 



The river now becomes very wide, and is probably about 

 (»ne-third to half a mile across. Oiu" next point of interest, 

 and practically tlu' last one on the trij). was Blanchetown. 

 This place is of peculiar interest, as the William Randall lock 

 is being liuilt here. In the old times this was a busy (x-ntre. 

 The old telegraph line from Adelaide to Sydney and the mail 

 coaches for Wentworth crossed the river here. This lock that 



