Aug.,"! KosK^iHAiK, A Thousand Miles on River Murray. 55 



Victoria, in New South Wales — so named after bloody conflicts 

 with the blacks at this point. The blacks were practically 

 exterminated in these encounters. They were very numerous 

 about this part of the Murray in the early days, and it is said 

 were a source of great danger to stockmen and early settlers. 



Lake Victoria plays a very important part in the scheme 

 for the conservation and locking of the Murray River waters. 

 Situated in a natural basin some four or five miles from the 

 Murray, it occupies an area of 25,600 acres. It is filled from 

 the river by means of Rufus Creek and Frenchman's Creek, 

 and at flood level is said to hold a volume of 22,000 million 

 cubic feet of water. By the terms of the inter-State " Murray 

 waters " agreement, the lake, which is situated 35 miles from 

 the South Australian border by water and about 18 miles by 

 land, is ceded by New South Wales to South Australia, to be 

 used by the latter State as a storage basin. By means of the 

 proposed locks it will be possible to fill the lake even in periods 

 of low river flows. 



We next come to the Devil's Elbow, one of the sharpest 

 turns in the river, the navigation of which is always a source 

 of anxiety to river masters, especially at low water. The 

 curious chff formation is very striking, and it was a pity we 

 did not land here. Further on we pass some very fine willows 

 growing on the edge of the water. Then we come to Pollard's 

 Cutting. Here the river cuts across the bend, and thereby 

 eauscs the river proper to silt up, forming an intricate and 

 difficult channel, the navigation of which at times tests the 

 skill of river captains. A great many of these cuttings have 

 occurred in the course of the Darling and Murray Rivers, and 

 it is said that within the last 50 years the lengths of the rivers 

 have been materially shortened thereby. They are not an 

 unmixed blessing. While they shorten the journey for the 

 steamers, they increase the rapidity of the river's flow and 

 shorten the period of navigation. One of these cuttings in the 

 South Australian territory, known as Daly's Cutting or Goat 

 Island cutting, a, few miles above Renmark, has come into 

 much prominence lately. During the very low river of 

 1914-15 the Renmark Irrigation Trust constructed a dam 

 across the mouth of this cutting in order to rai.se the level of the 

 river to the pumping station. The flow of the river was 

 diverted into the old channel round the island, with the result 

 that the level of the water at Renmark, three miles uj) stream, 

 was raised by three feet, and navigation was made continuous 

 lietween the railhead at Paringa and Renmark. The next 

 point of interest is Linsay's Cliffs. This is in the Cal Lai 

 district, on the extreme verge of settrement in western New 

 South Wales. All this district originally formed part of the 



