The trees have just begun to colour and the hay really is in the barn…and out in the paddocks and lined up along the fences.  We saw lots of it as we made our way along the Murray to Echuca and Moama.  This whole area is now the Shire of Campaspe but it used to be Deakin, named after 3-time Prime Minister, Alfred Deakin.  His major local contribution was introducing irrigation back in the early 1900’s and the whole, very flat landscape is criss-crossed by channels and drains carrying water all over the place and, these days, controlled by a collection of gates and solar panels.  I’m reasonably sure that the solar is just for communication but the network is certainly extensive and the countryside is in fantastic condition.

Similar fantastic country is displayed at the Echuca Historical Society, with a wide-ranging exhibition in the old Police station across the way from the wharf and adjacent to where the stock and saleyards used to be.  It’s overseen by garrulous and self-confessed historyphiles, so be careful should you choose to ask a question (any question!) because the answer will take some little time.  Surprisingly, they were equally engaged with the 1980’s mini-series “All the Rivers Run” as they were with a never-ending collection of local and ancient memorabilia. For the bargain entry price of $6, we got great value and even saw Sigrid Thornton’s wedding dress from the TV – who could ask for more?

Well, Neil from the Great Aussie Beer Shed could ask for more.  We were stunned by the collection of crap stuff that he’s been collecting for nearly 50 years.  Your hefty entry fee gets you a drink and a stubby cooler to wrap around it before he tells you his story.  Mostly, it’s zillions of beer cans (!) but he’s also collected any number of other things  – who wouldn’t want at least a dozen petrol pumps, hundreds of pieces of rusty farm machinery including a stump-jump plough and on top of that, the original Carlton United keg dray, sans Clydesdales?  Very peculiar indeed but it rounded out a lovely day roaming through a range of country towns in northern Victoria.

Each of these towns has some item of local interest.  For example, Tongala has an extraordinary war memorial, specifically related to Vietnam and an Avenue of Honour devoted to the Cavalry regiments, complete with Centurion tank.  It’s all due to the efforts of a few local enthusiasts and there are loads of explanatory plaques.  What is never explained, as far as we could see, is why here in Tongala?  Why not, I guess.

Unsurprisingly, this is dairy country and we may have seen the future, like it or not.  We passed a massive open-sided shed and couldn’t figure out what it was for – that demanded a stop and we discovered maybe 2000 Holstein dairy cattle in a covered feed lot.  It was hard to tell if they even moved them for milking or whether they just stayed forever immobile in the shed.  The countryside in general was littered with herds of cows but this was an extraordinary piece of cow concentration.  

The little town of Stanhope has a Fonterra cheese factory which they’ve decorated with a huge mural made out of over 10,000 photos, mostly contributed by the locals.  It’s sort-of silo art goes industrial.   There’s more silo art in Colbinabbin and even laneway art celebrating the life of locally-born cop, Ron Iddles in Rochester.

We couldn’t leave Echuca without trying out a paddle steamer.  Only one boat, PS Pevensey, was operating so we took a ride up and down a bit of the river for an hour or so.  The old steam engine was a miasma of mechanics as pistons shuttled back and forth and steam hissed and whistled. Up on the prow, the Murray River flag (or at least one version of it) flapped in the breeze and it was hard to imagine how the river could have been over the top of the levy banks, 15 metres above us, only a few months ago.  Except for some massive fallen trees, it all looked peaceful and calm. 

Echuca and Moama had been lovely but we needed to move south to the Bellarine Peninsular.  We parked ATGANI at a small farm outside Moriac called Glenwarra (another HipCamp, Dasher) where it will stay for a month.  Trevor gets to play a week of golf with his LOT Club, Lesley gets a week alone in Sydney and then we both fly to Canada for Rich Francis’ wedding and a bit of tripping around.  Travel (and blogging) resumes in late April. 

As many of you know, the prize for the outright loser at LOT Club golf is a very ugly “Brown Jacket”.  I have high hopes of avoiding the jacket but with just three games under my belt in the last 12 months it’s not hard to imagine what could possibly go wrong.