Cobb Hwy

28/5/2018.  Monday.  R & R were out of bed about 7:00am and away having breakfasted and packed down about an hour and a half later.  The plan was to get back to Echuca and camp north of Moama in the one day covering the same distance (about 500kms) it had taken them to do in three.  They were lucky where they had slept, 20kms north of Wentworth, as it had been dry (they did hear a couple of drops on the canvas during the night).  Although they did see signs of rain along the way to Mildura, it seemed dry in the mallee country between Euston and Robinvale.  When R & R arrived at Robinvale, mid-morning, they had a free shower at the information centre and the lady there indicated that it had rained heavily overnight.  R & R enquired about the track to the junction of the Murray and Murrumbidgee and she was not sure about how wet it was there.  She said something about the track being a bit “dippy” and not good in the wet.  R & R popped into an op shop and bought a couple of pieces of fruit at IGA.  Five kilometres east of Boundary Bend, at 11:50am, RL took the track called Passage Camp and headed one kilometre north toward the Murray.  The track leading to Mitchell’s Passage Camp (Mitchell camped there in his exploration through the area) was very sandy and quite deep for about a kilometre before RL took the right hand track towards the Junction.  The River Track was not sandy and it was dry (there was no sign of any recent rain) but it was rutted. And RA did find out what she meant by dippy.  Thank goodness they were not towing something larger.  The Hum had shifted into four wheel drive and chose his lines carefully at speeds less that 20kms/hr (sometimes much less than that) and they were rewarded with a fabulous view of the junction where the two largest rivers in Australia meet.   R & R also saw a good example of a canoe or scar tree.  The track coming back from the junction out to the Murray Valley Highway just north of Nurung was quite a bit smoother. It was not sign posted off the highway at the eastern end which indicates it was designed to be one way.  All in all, it took about one hour to drive nine kilometres with a photo break somewhere in the middle.  Shortly after 1:00pm, R & R came upon a sign which read Swan Hill – Wine Region.  It was interesting to note that there is always a different perspective to a drive when going back.  You see things you did not see last time or you see them in a different way.  At 1:30pm, RL stopped at Piangli, near the river for lunch and they rang H, their daughter.  It was a lovely warm 21*C.  They drove past the sign about rice first being grown in Australia nearby which prompted RA to look it up.  A guy called Joe experimented with the growing of rice in Nyah in 1905 and found a strain that proved successful.  It would appear that rice is grown near the Murrumbidgee but perhaps a little further up.  By 2:30pm, R & R were at Swan Hill with about 160kms to Echuca.  R L drove back past Lake Boga and then he drove on a section of the highway that they had not been the other day as they had diverted via Koondrook to be closer to the river.  To their surprise R & R saw yellow bales which looked just like hay or silage from a distance.  Closer it was quite obvious that it was cotton as the ends of the bales were open and white.  On the ground nearby, low brown bushes had little white tuffs in them.  R & R passed by a couple of other attractive lakes, Kangaroo and Charm,   Fortunately, the next cotton crop they saw had enough space for RL to pull over on the side of the road and take a photo.  There was dry land farming in between the ones with irrigation and either sheep (some with lambs) or cattle and some farms producing large quantities of hay. Occasionally, RA has mistaken the smell of olive orchards for dairy while driving past.  They are not dissimilar.  At Cohuna, about 3:40pm RL spotted the sign he’d been looking for and stopped to photograph it.  $500 fine for not giving right of way to stock crossing the road!  In Echuca, R & R stopped for fuel and by 5:00pm were heading out of Victoria and into New South Wales through Moama.  About 20kms north they did see a small herd of cattle in the long paddock but it appeared not to be supervised.  It was getting late with the sun starting to dip in the west as R & R headed north to Mathoura on the Cobb Highway. They saw a full moon at dusk as they drove out another 8kms towards Tocumwal to the free camp spot they had selected at Edward River Bridge.  On the drive in, assisted by lights, a logging truck was being loaded and kangaroos bounced across the road.  It was way too late to look at and appreciate the setting.  They just unhitched the camper and put it up with the flies as rain was forecast.  At 6:30pm, R & R were having coffee, ringing S, their daughter, and preparing dinner.  After dinner they read and did diary.  RA found it a little unnerving to arrive and be setting up late … but at least they were warm and dry … and the wheels had stopped turning!

29/5/2018.  Tuesday.  It rained on and off during the night after 2:00am.  R & R woke at 7:30am with a little more rain at 8:00am so they waited a while for the flies to dry a little.  After taking a photo of the wrought iron images at the camping reserve and of the Edward River and its bridge, RL drove back out toward the main road at about 10:15am.  There had not been enough rain to make the unsealed road impassable.  They popped into the information centre at Mathoura before heading to Deniliquin information centre.  In the door way there was a model of Roger the Ram which was an irresistible photo moment.  Deniliquin is a town which sits on the Edward River and boasts holding Guinness world records for the most utilities assembled in one spot and the most people wearing blue singlets anywhere in the world so a photo of the utility up the pole and the mosaic utility were a must.  R & R walked downtown to look in three op shops and along the river front before a late lunch at 1:00pm and leaving for Hay 120kms further north on the Cobb Hwy.  Along the way R & R stopped at several of the interpretative panels and artworks: the bronze merino at Wanganella is witness to the development of the Peppin merino and its impact on the Australian wool industry, the legend of the headless horseman (said to be the ghost of a drover who died there) at Black Swamp, the Royal Mail Hotel at Booroorban which sits in the middle of Old Man Plains and a stand of gum trees which was the sight of another stop over for the Cobb and Co coaches.  They did see evidence of the use of the long paddock where, closer to Deniliquin, sheep were grazing unsupervised on the wide grassy stretches on the side of the road and, quite a bit later, a large herd of cattle with a camp for the horses and stockmen nearby.  For the most part the land was flat and relatively treeless with lower grasses and shrubs and yet the horizon there did not seem flat.  It looked curved!  For much of the day R & R saw channels with water and some irrigation with sheep feeding on green grass but more often than not the vegetation was dry and sparse.  Along the entire journey there was what looked and felt like tufts of cotton on the side of the road.  About 10kms south of Hay their suspicions were confirmed as RL drove closer to the massive building they had seen on the horizon for a while.  The site had a signboard Auscott Ltd Gin 11 and there were thousands of bales lined up.  The lady at the information centre said that it was harvesting season and it was huge business for Hay.  Each bale is about 3 tonne and the seed is used as feed as well as the fluff for making cotton.  The big complex over the road had originally been a rice facility. With rice no longer big business it was being used for the storage of cotton.  R & R walked a little around town before finding the camping spot at Sandy Point.  It was a wide but relatively shallow spot in the Murrumbidgie River where in the olden days, before a bridge was constructed, drovers crossed their cattle.  R & R set up and had coffee at 5:00pm before walking all the way back to the bridge just because they could.  Before dinner they put RL’s photos on to the laptop and deleted some of them and after dinner they chatted a while with S.  They read and wrote diary for a while.  R & R were surprised by the number of caravans camping at Sandy Point.  They knew where they had come from and had a clue where they were going … but where was everyone else coming from and going to?

30/5/2018.  Wednesday.  R & R were out of bed about 7:30am with the promise of a fine day and the plan to sleep at Ivanhoe Caravan Park about 211kms north of Hay.  Hay had only received 3ml of rain so they were hopeful that at least for the next couple of days it would remain dry so as not to close the unsurfaced road beyond Ivanhoe to Wilcannia a further 182kms.  About 9:30am with the temperature already up to 11*C, R & R were packed up and heading to the Post Office to post a card to their grandson, D.  The journey to Ivanhoe along the Cobb Hwy was interspersed with points of interest and the Long Paddock markers, for tourist stops, broke their journey to ponder life in the early days and the changes that have occurred over time.  Just 16kms north of Hay, at the sunset viewing area, it was wide and open and almost treeless.  This was the case most of the journey.  Where the road came near water either from creeks or channels, there were lovely stands of trees; otherwise trees in a cluster off in the distance often meant homesteads, tanks or dams with a windmill, fed by a bore.  About 20kms later a grand building remained in good condition.  The One Tree Hotel, built in 1862, was a staging post for Cobb & Co. and was so named after the one and only gum tree near fresh water on the otherwise barren plain.  Sometimes the ground was so bare the glass, thrown by passers-by, glistened in the sunlight.  The one tree has long since gone; the One Tree Plain claims to be some of the flattest country on earth.  There were grasses and shrubs some of which had dried and tumbled against the fences.  Although the sun was shining, the wind, blowing from the west, was bitterly cold.  R & R noticed that there had been no power lines and then one appeared to cross the highway and remarked on this as it seemed unusual.    RL stopped at Booligal which was 70kms north of Hay about 11:00am.  They had coffee and banana and made sure they took some photos of the Lachlan River.  The explorer, John Oxley, named this place when he was exploring down the Lachlan, Booligal, from the aboriginal word meaning “windy place”.  It was, like Hay, an ideal spot for stock to cross the river.  Electricity only came to the area in the mid-1980s at the cost of $29,000 per property.   R & R saw two utilities with large trailers full of goats and, just north of the river, a farm where white sheep were feeding on green grass that could only have been watered from the river.  Just after noon R & R stopped again at a lovely rest area surrounded by trees.  It was named Baird’s Truck Stop and commemorated the life of an early truckie, Bill Baird, who following in the steps of the Cobb & Co tradition, delivered mail and goods to Ivanhoe before the road was finally sealed in 1999.  It 1981 it would take him 5 ½ hours from Hay to Ivanhoe including some drop offs on the way.  Several of the creeks R & R passed were dry, but in season they would have provided enough water for tress to grow and thus provided cluster of trees to break up the openness of the plains.  R & R saw sheep, some with lambs, as the number one choice of stock being farmed along the way.  They only saw one heard of cattle.  Emus were plentiful with fewer kangaroos and one dead black pig.  Interestingly, crows seemed to prefer roo from the menu.  Fencing on both sides of the road gave way to the use of grids.  About 1:00pm RL stopped 70kms south of Ivanhoe to have a rest and lunch.  Moangal Station was to the west of the road and could been seen as buildings and sheds with a couple stands of trees; otherwise everything was flat and virtually treeless.  In the 20 minutes they sat, only three cars passed by.  The Navigator indicated many bores; 14 Mile, 2 Mile, Brooklyn, Kerr’s Camp, Jeff’s and Wurly, all within a 10km radius.  It occurred to RA that these bores and the water they bring are the lifeline for people out here.  RL stopped at the interpretive panel at the Long Paddock Visitors Site where several cars, caravans and utilities (belonging to the drovers) were parked about 500m from the road. All that remains of Mossgiel, 50kms south of Ivanhoe, is a sign, a house and a cemetery.  This once thriving town suffered from drought, an outbreak of typhoid and its remaining young men going off to war, and never recovered.  R & R still saw cotton fluff on the side of the road and could only assume that it was being grown along the rivers that they could not see from the road.  Possibly from the trucks carting it!  Just before they arrived in Ivanhoe R & R saw a sign Mitchell St which is the entrance to a correctional facility.  At 2:00pm RA paid $23 for a camp site and they were airing out the flies to make sure they dried.  Their Optus mobile had no reception so they used the Telstra dongle to send a group email about their status.  R & R walked downtown and spoke to a guy in the multi-services building and to a couple who were preparing an op shop for opening.  They all seemed to show a commitment to the community and its future.  R & R read all the panels and took photos of the public art.  By 4:00pm they were back to set up the camper and have a coffee.  There were issues with the door jamming so RL took it to pieces.  He went for a shower while RA covered the vent as they planned on being on unsealed road and then she had her shower.  After 6:00pm R & R were able to sit a while before dinner.  After dinner, RL read and RA wrote diary and worked on a post draft … she was a little frustrated as there didn’t seem enough time in the day to do everything.   

31/5/2018. Thursday.  R & R slept well enough though it was a cool 4*C when they got out at 7:00am.  They set about getting underway as soon as possible with the prospect of unsealed road of unknown condition before them.  A lady who had camped overnight near them, enquired about the condition of roads as she had spent a difficult day on very bad roads the day before.  RL gave her his map which showed sealed roads and she contrived a plan to drive down to Hay.  At 8:30am RL drove out of Ivanhoe and it was not long, about 8kms, before the bitumen ran out, at which point he got out to let the tyres down.  The owner of the servo and caravan park had said that there would be random patches of new bitumen which would give relief so RA made a point of checking it out and counting them all up.  Of the nearly 200kms distance from Ivanhoe to Wilcannia, one third was bitumen and two thirds was unsealed.  The road was more or less corrugated but for the most part the Hum drove between 40-60kms/hour.  “I’d rather this than a wet road”, RL commented.  “Absolutely!” RA, who dislikes wet roads nearly as much as winding ones, added.  Over that distance, RA counted no less than 19 stock grids most of which were surfaced.  Somewhere near the middle, the road came to the Mount Manara Range, where it wound back and forth around the base of Manara Hill (202m) and a working station in the middle of the bend and floodway at Manara Creek.  The trees and the rocky outcrops were a brief but delightful change to the otherwise flat open station country which seemed to support more emus and goats than sheep or cattle. About 10:00am, R & R stopped to have a coffee and a break.  The wind was icy and blowing strongly from the south west causing the Ute to use its fuel faster than usual. At a couple of points, road works were being done and R & R saw a workers camp with no less than a dozen sleeping units not to mention utilities and masses of road working equipment.  At another point, a small water drilling outfit was busy.  It was the first time since R & R had left home three months ago that they considered listening to an audio book.  Together they enjoyed two short stories, Trail to Pie Town and Trap of Gold, by Louis L’Amour.  It was a real treat. There was not a lot of traffic.  One caravan passed RL and there were only 4 vehicles and 3 trucks going south over the whole distance except for the time that R & R were stopped to pump up the tyres and empty the 40lts of fuel from the jerry cans into the tank, when no less than 8 trucks and 2 utilities passed by.  It took 40 minutes for them to complete these tasks and by noon they were heading off for the last 40kms of sealed road to Wilcannia which had become much more wooded with mallee and small gums.  The last 20kms to Wilcannia required a left turn onto the Barrier Hwy which took R & R over the Darling River flood plains.  About 12:30pm RL drove over the Darling River and into Wilcannia where R & R walked along the river and down town taking in some of its history as a major inland port for the river trade during the 19th century.  More recently, it appears that the focus is on its indigenous peoples and their heritage. There were billboards with stories about indigenous people and their connections with the land and river.  Elsie Jones OBE who is known for writing “Story of a Falling Star” features on one of them.  There remain in Wilcannia several excellent examples of old historic buildings of creamy yellow bricks and some are still in use.  R & R had lunch in the park before heading east out on the barrier Highway for Cobar 260kms away.  The Darling River flood plain extends at least 10kms out with at least half a dozen bridges to keep the road up and dry.  After a while, RL drove through the MacCulloch Range which was undulating.  Sheoaks were prominent and another feature was the bare red stony ground which may have developed, at least in part, by the feeding habits of goats.  Kids, not yet up to eating for themselves, sat happily on the road verges while the adults feed there.  RL drove past Emmdale Roadhouse where the country side was more or less undulating with more and larger trees.  About 3:00pm, R & R stopped at Cornish Rest Area on the highway just to take a break before the last 119kms to Cobar. They saw some hawks and an eagle but it seemed that there was more road kill than the birds could manage.  It was a relief to arrive at Cobar about 4:30pm and walk to the information centre which they knew would be closed.  The rest area in Cobar was right under its entry statement which is an area of old mine site that has be cordoned off for display.  Cobar has an elevation of 250m, a population of 5,500 and was born out of a copper find in the 1870s.  R & R set up the camper, had dinner and chatted with their daughter, S.  They had only just got into bed when J, RL’s brother in law, rang so RL jumped out of bed, grabbed the phone, got back into bed and chatted for ages while being snug and warm.  In just over 600kms, on the Cobb Hwy, five rivers/five towns! … Murray/Moama, Edward/Deniliquin, Murrumbidgee/Hay, Lachlan/Booligal and Darling/Wilcannia.