The Murray is Australia’s greatest river. Rising high in the Australian Alps, it meanders 2,575km (1,600 miles) through three of Australia’s six states on its journey to the sea at Goolwa, South Australia.
The Murray river’s significance to the traditional owners of the land is well-recognised, and the many middens, graves and sacred sites along the banks bear further proof. The river was also immensely important to early European inhabitants. From the early 1800s when explorers Hume and Hovell named it Hume and a few years later when Charles Sturt renamed it (not realizing it was the same river), the Murray was a main artery of inland exploration and settlement. Today, the Murray wetlands are an important ecosystem and are home to native wildlife including platypus, crayfish, Murray short-necked turtles and at least a dozen varieties of fish, and the Barmah forest and lakes (30km north of Echuca) seem likely to become Australia’s next national park.
But, to understand more about the river, why not immerse yourself in it, literally?
The obvious place for a swim is the sandbar between the Iron Bridge and the Redgum Wharf. The sandbar is visible from the bridge, but by road, you have to travel right into Moama and take the first left to find the signs to Moama Beach. If you’re crossing the bridge from Echuca on foot, you’ll be able to hop the guardrail and scramble (carefully!) down the slope to shortcut through the bush, saving yourself at least 20-minute walk.
Moama Beach is the most popular swimming spot in town, and can get quite crowded. Fortunately, it’s quite a long sandbar and boats are not permitted to tie up there, so the whole area is available to swimmers. The river bottom slopes gently at the wharf end but is steeper near the bridge. You might see people swimming out to passing houseboats and paddlesteamers or jumping from the bridge pylons, but both activities are risky and best left to local teenagers with more testosterone than common sense.
Tannery bend is several bends upstream of the iron bridge and is accessible from Echuca East via the middle track through the Banyula state forest. The bend is named for the leatherworks that once stood there, but is more commonly known as Chinaman’s bend. That name refers to the Chinese market gardeners who once lived and worked on the adjacent floodplains, and is not meant to be derogatory to anybody in any way. The bend is sandy both above and below the waterline, is shaded from the afternoon sun and is in a speed-restriction zone for motorboats, so it’s an ideal place for parents to bring children for a refreshing splash. The next bend upstream, Bowers’ Bend, is now silted up and covered with reeds, but was once the location for the Echuca swimming club and generations of local residents (including my grandfather) learnt to swim there.
My favourite place to swim is The Point, the first bend downstream of the Campaspe junction. There are no signs showing the way, but if you turn from Warren street to the right past the cemetery and then follow the Campaspe river downstream until it joins the Murray, you’re almost there. The river banks at The Point are covered in a mat of exposed tree roots and sometimes also with rubbish left by inconsiderate houseboaters, but the river floor is beautifully sandy and slopes so gently that you can walk out about 20m in places and still not be out of your depth. If there are no houseboats tied up and you go late enough in the day for the waterskiers to have packed up and gone home, it’s a wonderful, tranquil place where the setting sun reflects in the water and the lawnmowers and televisions of the town are far away.