The whole country celebrated the Australia Day public holiday today and Faith and I decided it would be cool to go and see some of it, Australia, instead of going to the beach like usual.
It started as an overcast sort of day but not too hot so we decided to head to a place on the Murray River called Waikerie where there was some silo art we wanted to see. It would be a long day but we were up for it so saddled up the big dog, my Landcruiser, and hit the road...Much of which looked like that below.
With some county music keeping us company the big dog ate up the kilometres taking us further from the big smoke and closer to the Riverland.
This area, South Australia's Riverland, is renowned for vineyards and citrus fruit production and our final destination, Waikerie, is considered the gateway to the region. It's fertile ground and covered with vineyards, orange tree plantations and general farming land for crops and stock. It also follows the Murray River, a popular spot for water sports, houseboat holidays and holiday homes.
With the lucrative industry of fruit production being so prevalent in this area there are some very strict rules around bringing fruit and vegetables into the region. It's all about mitigating the risk of fruit fly which can easily devastate the industry.
We actually have a fruit fly outbreak in Adelaide at the moment making it even more important to obey the no fruit and vegetable law.
Above you can see the quarantine bin on the way to Waikerie. That yellow thing is just the top of the bin; Below is a large holding tank for the stuff people deposit and it contains any fruit fly that may be in the produce.
One simply pulls in and deposits any fruit or vegetables that may be in the vehicle. One can eat them of course, but cannot transport them past this point - Big fines apply. On the roads into this region coming from the other States there are actually checking stations where they search cars. I am not joking.
We had no contraband to deposit but we stopped for these photos anyway and then headed on to Waikerie and the silos.
On the way to Waikerie I saw the sign below, Griffens Marina, and took the dirt road down to the river to find a houseboat berthing area. The boats are floating houses, some are huge with six double bedrooms and six individual bathrooms! People live on them and they can be hired for holidays. Of course they're not all massive as you can see. Some are medium sized and some are downright tiny! All the tourists ones are large though.
A houseboat holiday can be as relaxing as one likes or, if one has a ski boat for instance loud and raucous too. They are fully equipped and anyone with a car license can drive one; They give you a one hour lesson before they turn you loose. At night one needs to tie up on the bank where people will often have a BBQ and a camp fire. Of course not on private property, and that's where these marina's come in handy. Of course there's hundreds of kilometres of river bank to tie up on that isn't private property too.
We took some snaps, checked out some of the boats and then were back on the road bound for Waikerie and the silo art.
Here you can see Faith standing at the base of one of the silos for perspective.
The silos are for holding wheat. Farmers would usually transport it here, off-load and get paid. That was before Viterra took over. That massive company closed many of the silos, many around the country, forcing the farmers to transport their grain directly to the docks, and other massive Viterra holding areas, sometimes hundreds of kilometres away adding a lot of additional transport cost to the farmer. Of course they would then not pay as much knowing the farmers had nowhere else to take it. It's called monopolising I guess.
So, the silos generally sit unused and the small rural towns in which they stand loses precious income. That was until someone decided to start painting them and now all over Australia grain silos are being transformed. It brings people into the towns to view them and, like us, they spend money. It works nicely and the art work is amazing.
I'm not a huge fan of the one of the left but on the right is a cool looking piece of art!
It depicts a Regent Parrot which inhabits this area; They fly in very noisy flocks and make nests in tree hollows along the river. Unfortunately their numbers are in decline so if you get a chance to see a flock of these flying around, consider yourself fortunate.
The artist was Jimmy DVate from Melbourne. He has done other silos and you can hit his Instagram page at if you're keen. jimmy_dvate or dvate.
Above you'll note the silos are painted on both sides. Jimmy did a big yabby and a Murray Hardyhead fish on the opposite side of the parrot, both are found in the river nearby. Again the Hardyhead is in decline due to loss of wetland area and river regulation.
Oh, another cool thing he incorporated is shown above in the top right image at the base of the tree; It's the Spin Daisy. This plant was believed to be extinct but now blooms across parts of South Australia's Riverland. It is one of the rarest plants on earth and work continues to replenish the endangered plant.
We walked around the silos and grabbed a few pictures and then took a stroll on the cliff-tops along the river as there's a walking trail. You can see the river which is very narrow right here and in the background is one of the many lagoons that dot the riverside.
After we were done with our walk Faith wanted to check out a garden centre we'd seen on the way in. I've done a couple of collages to try and show it to its full extent but I'm not sure one could understand what it's like without going there themselves...There's just so much in there!
Faith found some hand shaped fly-swatters. I'm not sure they're designed for boobs though...That's what my hands are for! These images give you an idea of what this place was all about...Stuff everywhere.
Surprisingly this is a working plant nursery and Faith wandered about for almost an hour looking at things and taking notes. We bought a couple things, plants, and then headed away after a good chat with the lady that ran the shop.
From here we were on the way home although considering that drive home was 200 kilometres we stopped on the way at a couple of interesting places.
Before we could hit the road we had to hit the water though.
That's the Waikerie ferry below. It carries cars across the river between Rowe Street on the Waikerie side and Taylorville Road on the northern side of the river. It is cable operated as are all of the ferries that cross the river and it is operational 24 hours a day, for free.
Below you can see us waiting to get on, middle right image, and then on the ferry with the lower centre image being a shot out my side window as we were crossing. In the lower right corner is the road up and off the ferry.
We turned for home and hit the gas once off the ferry. The road was a fairly minor one. It was a bit bumpy in places but was far from the worst I'd been on. It was 110kp/h all the way.
Before long we came to Lock 2, a place I had never been; We decided to take a look and were glad we did as it was pretty cool. Below you can see Lock 2, those grey gates, and the weir above and to the right.
This second image below shows the flow indicator and a marker showing flood levels. See that one at the top? That's the 1956 flood level. You can see Faith standing there for perspective.
So, basically the river is contained by a series of weirs that keep the levels at the right height. If you look in the image you'll see the water on the left of the weir is higher than on the right. Of course boats can't go up or down the weir and that's where the lock comes into play.
The lock is a large holding pool with gates on either end, up-river and down-river. So, if you want to go up-river they equalise the water to the down-river level, open the gates and you enter. They then equalise the water to the up-river side, open the gates and you exit and carry on up-river. Easy.
Above you can see the down-river side of the weir and the up-river side (top left and right). There's some sign boards with information which I might do a separate post someday and a closer shot of that flow indicator and flood-level meter.
We didn't stay long here although right beside the weir and lock is a really nice picnic ground, lush green grass and really well maintained so we'll probably be back.
Our last stop was Morgan. We hadn't planned to stop here but I was thirsty and pulled in for a drink. We headed down to the river for a look around and came across the old Morgan wharf. Just a ruin now.
This wharf used to be 168 metres long, the largest on the South Australian stretch of the River Murray. (The Murray flows through three Australian States beginning in the Australian Alps and travelling 2,508 kilometres to meet the sea in South Australia's south east near Goolwa.)
Building on the wharf begun in 1877 and two more stages helped make it as long as it was with the last stage happening in 1912. This is the portion you can see with the rest of it being deemed too unsafe to remain; The rest was dismantled in 1994.
The wharf was constructed from redgum wood sourced locally and was built at varying levels to accommodate passengers and cargo from different types of boats. There was four steam-operated cranes which were used primarily for hauling wood and grain, two of these are still on the site. The wharf predated the rail line so was vital to the economy of the area.
Alas, all things come to an end and the wharf is a sad remnant of a more simple time. These days it's not safe to stand on it and hundreds of people water ski past or float by serenely on their houseboats and probably don't give it a second thought.
Speaking of coming to an end, Morgan was our last stop before home.
Our day trip was a 420 kilometre round trip and we had a really nice time. Sure, it's a lot of driving but we interspersed it with walks and, of course, we hit a bakery in Waikerie called the Waikerie Bakery for lunch. Ok, it wasn't really called that...I just liked the synergy of that line. We did have lunch at a bakery, in Waikerie, though and it was nice.
Overall we had a really nice day, a different sort of Australia Day this year but enjoyable just the same! Thanks for scrolling through and looking at my pictures and if you read the text I really appreciate it.
Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default - Tomorrow isn't promised.
Be well
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