Kimba, Peterborough and the Murray River towns.

                                
                                                        The big Galah at Kimba.
                                      John said these are the two Galahs! Not "noice" John!

                                                     Sunday 28^th August

We left Ceduna  on Sunday and drove through farming country to Kimba for one night. The canola crops were stunning, carpets of yellow spread as far as the eye could see. The wheat crops looked healthy, they are still a couple of months away from harvest at the end of the year. Hoping our farmers have bumper crops all around.

One of the exibits at Steamtown.

Coming into Peterborough.

St Cecilia's, a heritage hotel.

The quilt in the Town Hall

                                                            Old hotel in Peterborough.

Monday 29^th August.

A few hours drive the next day brought us to Peterborough, a steam train town. John was keen to visit the train museum, an attraction in the town. The caravan park was nearly full, a lot of contractors doing work in the town had taken lots of sites, good for the park owners to have regular money coming in. Not so good for the rest of us, if we had been any later the “no vacancy “ sign would have been out. We booked in for two nights, both nights we spent there it was freezing!

Tueday 30^th August.

John joined the guided tour the next morning at Steam Town, he found it interesting to hear the history of steam in Peterborough. There is a light show on at night at the same venue. I was happy to sit in the motor home for an hour and read while John was off on the tour. I knew there was a cappuccino to follow down in the town later.

Peterborough has some nice old buildings, one side has the business retailers, the other side the administration buildings. The Town Hall houses a federation quilt, depicting the town’s history.

                      

                                                                   Sunrise at Peterborough.

Wednesday 31^st August

Leaving Peterborough after breakfast, we passed some little old towns on our way to the Murray River towns, including Terowie, the town where General MacArthur gave his famous speech, part of which he said “I shall return” during WW2. This town has old buildings, most of which are in disrepair. Sad to see.

building in Terowie.

Terowie railway station.

General Macarthur, wife and son.

Burra and Morgan are just the opposite, town pride can be felt everywhere, their buildings are well preserved. Morgan is on The mighty Murray River. We were now in the irrigation fruit growing area of South Australia, a fruit fly free zone prevented us bringing in our fruit and vegetables.

                      

                                   Murray River at Loxton.

Thursday 1^st September.

 We are staying in Loxton in a park on the Murray River. There’s not much activity on this part of the river, no houseboats going by and no paddle steamers. The park at Swan Hill backed onto the river, a paddle steamer went past a few times a day.We were there a couple of years ago. I did take a photo at Morgan of a stationary paddle steamer.  Echuca and Mannum have the paddle steamer tours up the river, John and I have been on the river in previous years.

The Murray River is one of the our longest rivers and the third largest navigable river in the world after the Amazon and the Nile. It is continuously navigable for 1986 klms from Goolwa to Yarrawonga and spans three states. It’s total length is 2,756 klms. The river is a major water supply for over 1.5million households. It has stately gums growing along its banks.

The highest ever flood reading was in 1956, the Tree of Knowledge in Loxton has a record of the levels on it’s trunk. Another marker near the ferry at Morgan has the 1956 flood at over 11 metres.

                                                             Flood record at Morgan.

Paddle Steamer

Historical Village.

                                        
John and I went through the Loxton Historical Village this morning. It gave us a good insight to life in a country region. The street was unpaved and old stores, bank, schoolhouse plus a settlers cottage were open for us to look around. John had a look around old farming equipment and shearing shed. Later we looked around the town and went out to one of the locks that are used to control the flow of the water on the Murray.

Tomorrow we head towards Mt Gambier.

 

Riverside drive.