Oh how lovely it has been relaxing for three days at Echuca on the banks of the 'Mighty Murray' River. 

We left Cobram at 9.00am and stopped for our morning tea break at Wyuna, the tourist attraction of the 'Big Cherry'.  It is promoted as the 'Big Kev Cherry' and they are trying to attract the tourists, something like they do at the 'Big Strawberry'.   But they have a way to go to match the 'Big Strawberry"! Two Italian brothers started the Cherry Orchard some year ago and they were interviewed on Sunrise in 2016.  I guess it was when they had the 'Big Kev Cherry' made.  By the look of the place things haven't boomed in the last two years, but maybe it is different when the cherries are ripe later in the year.  They were very trusting with the money!  We purchased a couple of tubs of Cherry ice-cream from the fridge and left our money in the box on the counter, like those before us.

We arrived at the NRMA Echuca Caravan Park about 11.00am, along with so many others.  Once settled we walked to the boat ramp, not far from the caravan park, and then it was a drive into the town later in the afternoon.  The CBD was actually within walking distance of the CP, so the park is a great location.  We checked out the options for a paddle steamer cruise, and there were plenty.  It is 35 years since the film 'All the Rivers Run' was filmed at Echuca, starring Sigrid Thornton and John Waters.  We were just a day late, as there had been a day of celebrations the day before, on the 5th October.  But as it was Saturday, we did have the choice of doing a dinner cruise.  There was either a two course dinner on the MV Mary Ann, which looks to be a relatively new boat, or a five course dinner on the 'PS Emmylou', which was the 'Bad Guy' paddlesteamer in the film 'All the Rivers Run'.  The paddlesteamer was the 'PS Providence' in the film. I have purchased the DVD, so looking forward to a movie night when we get back home.  It came with an audio disk and I think the audio will be good for our trip across the Nullarbor.  

The MV Mary Ann is a flash looking boat and I have found that it was purchased by the Moama RSL Club in 2014, after serving as a family owned cruising restaurant for many years.  Since the purchase it has had an amazing make-over to become a state of the art function vessel.  The old paddlesteamer 'Emmylou' was more to our liking.  We were here to take in the history of historic 'Echuca' and enjoy the tourist attractions.  The only thing was we really didn't need the five courses after the Strawberry Pancakes of the day before.  But to hell with it......we decided 'To Do It'!  So a lovely evening we had, cruising upstream on the Murray River for an hour and a half and then back to Echuca.  Although we enjoyed the evening, we all agreed there was one thing that would have made the experience better.  There was no background music, so the cruise lacked atmosphere, but the meal was very nice.  The 'Emmylou' was built in the early 1980's and is powered by a 1906 Marshall and Sons steam engine.

Sunday was the first day of daylight saving over here and our body clock didn't adjust well. We found ourselves having a cooked breakfast at 9.30am.  But plenty of people do that on a Sunday and pay big dollars to do so, in these tourist places.  I enjoyed Pete's bacon and eggs, eaten out under the caravan awning.  I can't remember when we were last somewhere on a Sunday morning, when the weather was nice enough to enjoy a meal outside.  But we have eaten a few meals outside here at Echuca.

The rest of Sunday was a bit cruisy!  We did some washing and after lunch went to the National Holden Museum.  The Holden Museum in Echuca is dedicated to preserving the models and their memories.  Approximately 50 vehicles showcase the 70 years of Australia's own Holden.  The vehicles and memorabilia are courtesy of Holden Ltd, Holden enthusiasts and private collectors.  The Museum opened in 1993.

From there we crossed the bridge to the NSW town of Moama.  Echuca has a population of 13,000 and Moama has a population of approximately 6,000.  Echuca is in the Victorian Shire of Campaspe, a Shire that covers 4,500 square kilometres.  The total population of the Shire is 37,000.  The Shire formed in 1995 when four shires were amalgamated, together with half the Shire of Rodney.  The Shire offices are at Echuca.  Moama is in the Murray River Council.  In 2016 the Murray Shire was abolished.  It only included two towns, the other being Mathoura.  It was merged with the Wakool Shire to form the Murray River Council and the Council offices are in Moama.  The region is promoted by Echuca Moama Tourism.

A new bridge is to be constructed over the Murray River just down from the caravan park, near the boat ramp.  It will take two years to construct and $97 million will come from the Federal Government, $96 million from the Victorian Government and the NSW Government will contribute $87 million.  The new bridge will provide a flood free crossing between the two States and ease the daily traffic of 18,500 over the current bridge, which was built in 1878.

We found this absolutely amazing bowling club in Moama, but we very nearly didn't.  Not far across the bridge, the Moama Bowling Club was an impressive sight as we came around the roundabout, so we stopped for a look.  To us it looked like the greens had been ripped up and were being replaced.  With synthetic we presumed, but they certainly didn't appear to be going about the renew process as we would have thought!  Thank goodness a guy came out and John decided to ask him what was going on.  He was told they intend to build a hotel on the site and there was a new bowling club on the other side of this massive building, we had been attracted to.  The guy told us to walk through the building.  Well what a building!  Just beautiful!  Full of pokie machines of course.  And when we got out the other side and across the railway line, there was another 'sight to be seen'!  Two synthetic greens under a massive cover and two grass greens.  All opened last December.  There was the 'Under 25' men and women's selections happening.  We think players were from Victoria and NSW.  We stayed and watched for a while and saw some very good bowls played, particularly by the men.  The Moama Bowling Club had a plaque on the wall that said 'Venue for Elite Youth Sport in our Region in association with the Bendigo Bank Academy of Sport'.

We continued on our sojourn to case out the area, travelling east to where we had seen the Discovery Park on the NSW bank of the river the night before.  It was named Maidens Inn.  We could see so many cabins on the bank of the river during our cruise.  To conclude our day, Peter cooked a roast and we enjoyed dinner together, on what was a warm balmy evening.  It was so nice to have this warmer weather and we haven't had a roast dinner, apart from purchasing a cooked chicken, since Katherine.

Monday....I got the Thermomix out from under the bed again and made a Zucchini Slice and a Banana Cake.  I think that will be it for this trip.  Unless I make another Zucchini Slice before we head across the Nullarbor.  In the afternoon Dorothy and I went for a cruise on the PS Pevensy which was renamed the 'PS Philadelphia' in the iconic film.  I just couldn't leave Echuca without having a cruise on it.  We both really enjoyed it and even better, because it was 'Seniors Week', we got one cruise for free and a discount.  It only ended up costing us $17.50 each for the cruise and the Discovery Centre,  We paddled downstream to another big resort, named Tindarra.  In 1842 the area was settled and Moira Station ran merinos.  Because of the river frontage the owners employed a shepherd to look after the flock.  In 2015 the Friends of Old Moama and Tindarra Resort unveiled a plaque that marks the location of the Shepherd’s Hut.  The are many cabins with river frontage at Tindarra Resort.

The guys didn't want to go on the paddlesteamer.  Peter had a massage and John went walking to take some more photos.  They met us at 2.45 pm and we went through the Echuca Discovery Centre together.  We certainly filled in the afternoon.  There was so much to see on the old Echuca Wharf and so much history to take in.  The difficult thing to get your head around, is the State ownership of the River Murray, as it forms the border between NSW and Victoria, the maintenance of bridges and the sister towns or cities on either side of the river.  The river is owned by NSW and this was apparently settled by a High Court of Australia ruling in 1980, when there was a death of a man fishing on the bank of the Victorian side of the river.  There is so much 'Stuff' you come across when you are searching the web, attempting to get your head around the difficulties of managing this 'Mighty Murray' river system.  A waterway that is so vital to the livelihood of so many families in both States. 

Echuca was founded by one of the most enterprising characters of the early colonial days, an ex-convict named Henry Hopwood. In 1850 he bought a small punt, which operated across the Murray river near the Campaspe Junction.

The 'Historic Area' of Echuca was declared in 1966 and this provided the framework for later heritage protection.  In 1960 no working steamers operated at Echuca, but the newly formed Historical Society worked with the Echuca Apex Club to acquire a paddlesteamer as a symbol of Echuca's former glory days.  The 'PS Adelaide' was purchased.  It had been built in Echuca in 1866 and had spent 86 years carting logs by barge to an Echuca sawmill.  It was purchased with Apex funds for 950 pounds and returned home to Echuca in October 1960.  It rested in Hopwood Gardens for the next 20 years.  Hopwood Gardens is towards the western end of the Echuca Port.  In 1985 Their Royal Highness the Prince and Princess of Wales recommissioned the restored vessel.

The City of Echuca town clerk, saw the immense benefits of restoring the old port and steered Council through the acquisition of historic steamers and buildings.  With Councillor Quinn they successfully lobbied the Government for funds and the first spike was driven into the wharf in 1971.  The town clerk Kevin McCartney was behind the purchase of the 'PS Pevensey'.  The paddlesteamer was built in 1911 and was purchased in Mildura for $20,000 by the Council.  There was concern that with the sale of the paddlesteamer, it would affect the future of the young shipwright Kevin Hutchinson, who was working in Mildura, so he was invited to move to Echuca.  He arrived with the 'PS Pevensey' in 1973 and since then has passed on traditional skills to apprentices, who later became shipwright/skippers on other Murray River steamers.  Apart from the skipper, the crew of the 'PS Pevensey' was drawn from a group of volunteer river men known as the 'Pevensey Club'.  The availability of this cargo boat and Echuca's many intact historic buildings undoubtedly prompted Crawford Productions to choose the Port of Echuca to film 'All the Rivers Run', based on Nancy Cato's novel.  When the film was released in 1984, Echuca was put on the map.  The 'PS Pevensey' is the oldest and most authentic paddlesteamer operating daily from the Port of Echuca.  The vessel is still powered by her original 20 horsepower steam engine and remains unchanged from her working days.

The Echuca wharf is an outstanding survivor of the booming Murray River trade of the late 1800's, which facilitated the rapid expansion of pastoralism and transformed the economies of the Victorian, New South Wales and South Australian colonies. The original wharf was constructed between 1864 and 1867.  It was listed on the National Heritage List on the 26th April 2007.  In the mid 1800's the historic wharf supported up to eight red gum sawmills.  During the glory days of the three story Echuca wharf, it turned over more than 240 steamers a year and today it is still home to the largest operating paddlesteamer fleet of anywhere in the world.  The decline of the paddlesteamer era began to decline in the late 1880's.

I could probably go on and on with all the information I took photos of, during our three day stay, but I think I have typed enough about this historic town, that provides the record of the knowledge gained and the enjoyment experienced, during our three night stay.  I hope we have the opportunity to visit Echuca again one day and we have both agreed we could easily relax for a week here.  Maybe we will be able to see the new bridge over the Murray River and the rest of the restoration work completed at the wharf.  The floods of 2016 did considerable damage and work is being carried out to stabilise the river bank. 

On the road again tomorrow.  Another blogging dot is on the map of our trip around Australia.