56 RosENHAiN, A Thousand Miles on River Murray-. [vJ"^xxxVv 



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 l)etween New South Wales is 

 nearly eight miles further up the river, and South Australia 

 contended for many years that the Victorian boundary was 

 wrongly li.xed, 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 

 Renmark, 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 chiefiy known for the very 

 line 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 a])out 3,000 acres. Loxton and Pyaj) arc also small 

 irrigation settlements. Overland Corner, which is 800 miles 

 from Echuca, was the famous crossing and camjMng place in 

 the old overlanding days. 



The next place of importance was Morgan, which is 105 mik s 

 by rail from Adelaide and 150 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 

 (jn shon; at Morgan. There are most peculiar cliffs in the 

 neighbourhood, rising very abruptly, and extending for some 

 distance. I managed to pick up quite a numl)er of fossils, 

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

 mens to Mr. F. Chaj)man, of the Melbourne Museimi, 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, 

 Ostrca sluriiana. 



The river now b(;comes very wide, and is ])r()l);ibly ;d)()ut 

 one-third to half a mile across. Our next point of interest, 

 and ])ra( tically the last one on the trij), was Blanchetown. 

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

 is being built here. In the old times this was a busy centre. 

 The old telegraph line* from Adelaide to Sydney and the mail 

 coaches for Wentworth cnjssed the river here. This lock that 



