Day 284 / 2014 - Deniliquin to Moama-Echuca

Moama-Echuca is a beautiful area and well geared towards the tourist. There are stacks of options for accomodation, lots of sights and plenty of tourist shopping. There is a whole area dedicated to tourism centred around the old wharf and along High Street.

Leaving Deniliquin we headed towards Moama-Echuca via the Cobb Hwy. We passed through Mathoura stopping for a short break to have morning tea then continued on towards Moama. Our next accomodation is at the Maidens Inn Tourist Park where we planned o stop for about 3 nights. The park is listed as a Big 4 but also belongs to the Aspen Parks group. We managed to aquire a nice site right above the Murray river where we can sit and watch all the house boats and paddle steamers meander by. The site is large with plenty of room for both caravan and car. We have seen some funny sights on the river. We watched 2 people just float down the river summerged up to their necks just letting the current carry them along. There was also a guy in a foot operated paddle canoe drifting down the river fishing and a number of people braving the cold water going for a swim.

Next day we headed for the Tourist Bureau just across the border in Victoria. Fortunately Victoria and NSW are both on daylight saving time so there is no changing of clocks when we crossed over. Changing the clocks would get a bit tiresome as we are staying on the NSW side of the border we would have had to modify the time each time we crossed over and back. Once in th tourist centre we got an idea of what we would like to see and do such as a Paddle Steamer trip, the Holden Museum and a look around town and the shopping precinct.

We picked the Emylou lunchtime cruise which goes for an hour and a half travelling upstream taking us past the caravan park we are staying at. The lunch is an extra and can be purchased while onboard. I though the cost was a little expensive but the meal was very nice. The paddle boat is driven by a working steam engine with the boiler fired using local redwood timber. As we sail along the Captain gives a comentary on local history and recounts stories as we pass other paddle wheeler boats.

Returning to the Wharf we walked back up the road towards the discovery centre which is an interactive museum on the history of paddle steamers traversing the Murray Darling River area. The Murray itself is over 2500Km long and goes through 3 states. The Darling River joins the Murray near Wentworth with its upper reaches beyond the back of Bourke in NSW. Cargo steamboats would carry supplies up to outback towns and stations in the upper reaches of the Murray and the Darling then return loaded with Wool and other produce for local industries and export.

Echuca is the closest town to Melbourne from the Murray where the supplies and produce would then travel between Echuca and Melbourne by rail. The steamboats demise occured when rail reach these towns and stations and were able to transport directly to Sydney or Melbourne bypassing the river system. 

An operating stationary steam engine and boiler is setup outside on the wharf. As we walked passed the operator asked Anne to pull the string. She was sceptial and expected it to be some sort of joke but it blew the steam whistle she then received a certificate as an honourary whistle blower.

Echuca was the setting for the Mini Series "All the Rivers Run" Staring John Waters and Sigrid Thornton. The steamboat 'Pevensey' was used in the series and was renamed to the Philidelphia for the duration of the series. The Pevensy is now used as a tourist boat carring passengers for 1 hour cruises up and down the river.

Moving on we then visited the National Holden Museum which houses about 40 Holden cars from the original 48-215 (FX) to the current Commodore. There are also a number of concept cars and test cars which never made the production line including a Commodore convertable built by the apprentices of GMH. All the cars are in original mint condition or restored back to original.

High Steet is the main tourist shopping precinct containing a lot of boutique shops, cafes, resturaunts and hotels. The main shopping precinct is further over in Hare Street and has all the regular shops such as Big W, Coles and Woolworths. Moama and Echucha are linked by a bridge that crosses the Murray River. Moama is a much smaller town but still has its own shopping precinct. The original reason for the twin towns was brought about prior to federation where goods were subject to customs duty and control when goods crossed between states. Once federation came into being both towns were already well established.

Moama is managed by NSW and Echuca is managed by Victoria. This must create some problems one comes to mind is car rego is very expensive in NSW while cheaper in Victory hence a lot of cars in Moama have Victorian number plates