Tonight we are in Swan Hill staying at a another Big4 Caravan Park.  This one is near the Murray River and we are still in Victoria.  If we go over the bridge we will be in NSW.  Wherever there is water there seems to be a Big4!  There are two Big4's in Swan Hill and Peter put the wrong address in the Nav Man, so we are 3 kms out of town.  But that's okay.  It is a lovely park, it is nice and quiet and more importantly there are no mosquitos!  I think there might be some at the other one!  There didn't look to be too much water in the Murray, where the other Big4 park is.  In fact we found out later, that the river is actually the Marraboor River or 'The Little Murray' and it joins into the Murray River at Swan Hill.  We have had another very enjoyable day.  We left Horsham by 8.45am after a very cold morning.  'Jack Frost' was about this morning!  I gave Wally and Clara a little play on the jumping pillow before we left and the ice had just melted!  I think they liked it better under the basketball ring while we waited for Pete to do the 'dunny run' nearby!  We travelled down the Western Highway towards Melbourne and stopped at Dadswells Bridge for another 'BIG Aussie Icon' photoshoot.  This one was the 'BIG Koala' and he is very BIG.  So much so there is a little tourist shop inside the koala!  It was constructed in 1989 and is about 14 metres tall, made of 12 tonnes of bronze cast and steel, and is covered with a mixture of fibreglass and bronze paste.   It gets 9/10 on the Iconmetre and is said "To be one of the most photographed man-made attractions in Australia".  We were close to the Grampians at Dadswells Bridge and sadly they were looking very bare.  The fire in January had come right through to the highway in places. We left the Western Highway before Stawell and took a road to St Arnaud.  We were going a longer route to Swan Hill as St Arnaud was where my Great Grandparents had been married.  I thought I might just find something more about them there.  Apparently the Historical Society has a great lot of family history and the volunteers at the information Centre did their best to get one of the members to open up for us, but unfortunately it couldn't be arranged.  I have spoken with one of the ladies though and left my contact details, plus relevant info on the relies.  She will be in touch if they do have anything there.  So I was very pleased with that.  Peter had a good chat with the gentleman at the Information Centre (I'm going to call him Bob) and found out about the area.  We also watched a DVD on the early history of the town, which does give one an insight as to what it would have been like in St Arnaud in 1869 when George and Mary married.Feeling very satisfied and with Peter having been given directions from Bob on the best road to travel, we set off for Swan Hill.  We found a spot on the side of the road to have lunch and with the inverter enabling us to use the microwave, we heated up the soup.   We have been using it for the muffins for morning tea.  Today it was whizzing around for a bit longer and it hardly dropped the level of the batteries.  So we were pleased with that.  We are going to use the inverter more and see how the power level holds up, before we go up through the middle of Oz.  Today (as I am having another go at this blog) we boiled the kettle at lunchtime and the battery level hardly dropped again. Back to our lunch yesterday!  Our lunch spot wasn't far from a farm house and the farmer probably had great delight in roaring pretty close to the van with his tractor and airseeder, as he moved to another paddock.  If it had been Pete he would have given this caravan on the side of the road, some good toots!  Bob had told Peter the farmers were quite wealthy in this area, especially around St Arnaud.  The last two years had been very good, but prior to that the seasons hadn't been quite so kind.  They had no water for stock and it all had to be carted.  Many had got out of stock for that reason, but we did see little lambs today, the first time in our travels.   Peter was in his element travelling this farming country.  Before St Arnauds there were huge arched sheds and lots of them,  which he suspected was a  piggery.  If so, the piggery was huge and Bob confirmed that they had 35,000 pigs and there is a larger piggery on the other side of town.  There are three piggery's around St Arnauds.  At the end of 2013, sadly the Turkey Factory closed and 50 families lost their jobs.  Most have had to seek employment elsewhere.  Sadly it is a story we hear more and more.  Not enough employment to keep families in these rural areas.  The lady said "Now they have lost a teacher at the school, because the numbers have dropped".  One can only nod.  We know only too well what she is talking about!  Bob said "The area had 2 inches of rain a couple of weeks ago, so it was a good start to the season".  We saw evidence of that all afternoon.  Crop coming up nicely and lots of hectares seeded and still being seeded.  One or two little combines working, but mostly big machines.   We crossed into the 'Mallee' just after Wycheproof and that country was very similar to home.  All of these small rural towms have something to catch ones attention.  At Wycheproof some fella was turning scrap metal into junk (in Pete's words) and there was plenty of it.  Enough for him to stop in the main street so I could go back and take a photo!  At Lalbert there was a very old wool press placed in a structure in the main street.  Another photo stop.  Peter had not ever seen one like that!  And when we got to Swan Hill, there was that BIG Murray Cod opposite the Information Centre.  He gets 8/10 on the Iconmetre.  He does look like he could do with a paint touch up though.  I think touching him is the closest Pete will ever get to holding or catching a Murray Cod.  They say occasionally a BIG Murray Cod is caught in the river!  I would imagine these days, it is very occasional!!  Our quick tour of the tourist attractions, provided us with info about Burke & Wills travelling through Swan Hill and the pumping of water from the Murray River for the towns water supply.   The 'Burke & Wills Tree' is said to be one of the largest Moreton Bay trees in the Southern Hemisphere.  It was planted around 150 years ago to commemorate the visit to Swan Hill in 1860 by explorers Burke & Wills.  The tree stands 30 metres high and is 44 metres wide with a trunk diameter of 4 metres.The Burke & Wills monument is in the main street of Swan Hill.  The photo I took of Peter studying the monument, also shows a red brick water tower in the background.  This red brick 'Water Tower' was the first to be built in 1883.  Water was pumped from the river to the top of the tower by a wood fired steam engine and the water then flowed by gravitation to surrounding businesses and private residences.  There is a water slide around it now and a small pool at the bottom.   We decided to stay the one night in Swan Hill and spend more time at Mildura, but we did visit the Pioneer Settlement before we left the next day.  It was excellent and we can thoroughly recommend it to anyone travelling through or staying in the town.   We did "um and ah" whether to do it as the cost was $23.50 each (and that's with our seniors discount) and you start to wonder if you are going to see again, what you've already seen!  The idea was born in 1962 for a 'Cultural Centre' and 'Living History Museum' in Swan Hill.  The 'Pioneer Settlement' it became and was officially opened in 1966.  Their vision was to build it around the paddlesteamer 'PS Gem' which had been languishing as a guest house in Mildura for sometime.  The 'PS Gem' was purchased and they found a ship to tow it to Swan Hill, anticipating that it would take 10 days.  It took 10 months as the river level was so low, but finally in 1963 she found her new home in a pool at Horseshoe Bend in Swan Hill.  The community then turned their eyes to building up an extensive collection of items big and small, which represented the history of the Mallee.  And they certainly have done that!   The complex is spread over 7 acres and you can wander around and enjoy.  Your ticket does enable you to come back on a second day as well.  We watched a 75 year old lady spinning alpaca wool and others volunteer to man the tearooms and shops.  I had never seen a wooden bath and the travelling 'Kaiser Panorama Stereoscopic Theatre' was incredible.  I loved the old ploughs that were in 'Plough Heaven'.  There was just so much there, but I think this piece from a story about 'The Mallee Bull' sums up the resilience of early settlers and is a good way to finish this blog: 

The Mallee is a punishingly harsh environment - poor, dry country with very little vegetation beyond the scrubby mallee tree itself.  In 1902 it was written that nobody knew who made the 'Mallee' but the Devil is strongly suspected.  Enter 'The Mallee Bull'; a symbol of strength, unbreakable determination, and particularly, endurance.  20 photos