Peter and Vicki's Travel Blog: More interesting places and people in Riverland! - Berri, Loxton, Wilabalangaloo, and Renmark.

Woke up to a very foggy morning but it soon lifted and although a little chilly it was a beautiful day.

Berri is a "berri berri" nice town - you can guess who said that :) . Lovely parks and gardens, wide streets, enormous median strips, very clean and tidy and right on the banks of the Murray. Love how the towns on the Murray have lovely parks and walkways right along the river for all to enjoy!Visited the monument to Jimmy James (the second) who was a famous blacktracker. He was used extensively by the Police forces in SA,VIC,NSW and the NT to track felons, escapees and missing people. The monument was quite impressive being sculptured out of black granite which was polished and engraved with images of birds and animals - a part of Jimmy's spirit world. It was appropriately nestled in the native trees on the river bank.

We climbed the Berri Lookout Tower - got a different perspective of the town and the river before we headed to Loxton.

BERRI

I liked the reflection of the river in the highly polished granite - very effective!

Getting use to the houseboats moored along the river bank - interesting seeing all the shapes, sizes and designs!

Now this really is a HOUSEboat! lol

View of lovely Berri nestled in its colourful trees, the river calmly sailing on by and the fertile farming fields ready to be sown in the background

The main street.
All the Riverland towns have these style streets - very wide and split by a huge grassed , treed and gardened median strip. Very pleasing to the eye!

A goodbye to lovely Berri as we cross the Murray on the Berri Bridge

LOXTON

We crossed the river and motored 20kms to Loxton - "the garden town of the Riverland". It's the centre of one of the most productive agricultural and horticultural regions in the state - a lot of orchards and market gardens along the road. The riverwalk in town was a bit of a problem as the path was flooded, but we enjoyed a wandering around other areas of the charming town. We visited "The Pines", a historic home and garden built in 1909 by Heinrich and Mary Thiele. Their daughter, Mrs Ella Kingdon, generously gave the home and its contents to the people of Loxton after her death in 2003. The Tree of Knowledge in the river side picnic grounds, displayed the year and level of all the Murray floods - the 1956 one was "floodnormous"! The Award winning Loxton Historical Village is a step back in time experience with 38 fully furnished buildings and sites exhibiting farm equipment, machinery and household items used by the early settlers The mighty Murray passes through the chambers of Lock 4 just outside of Loxton on the Berri side of town and boasts a nice picnic ground picnic area.

Lots of healthy citrus orchards, particularly oranges, along the road to Loxton.
Picking is about to begin so they are laden!!
Amazing that such fruitful trees grow here in what seems scrubby land - see foreground
Never judge a book by its cover! :)

Each Riverland town adds to the Murray's story - interesting and informative!
Another world this river life! Tough and challenging!

Oops...our walk along the river bank came to an abrupt end! :)

Great town for walking, running, biking! Excellent scenery!

The famous Pepper Tree - very old! 1878 it was planted!

How Loxton acquired its name

The Historic Village
Brings alive days gone by and the lives of the hard working pioneers who struggled to tame this inhospitable land.
Lots and lots of admiration for these people!

The nice parkland and picnic ground along the riverbank

The Tree of Knowledge takes pride of place here!
This magnificent old river red gum has experienced the cycles and impact of the mighty Murray for many, many years -
it still lives to tell a tale!.........................

1956!!!! The official peak was approximately 10.2 metres. Can't even begin to imagine that amount of water!
See behind - the river is in flood now and it seems nothing compared to some of the levels on this stoic old gum!

Loxton is very proud of their Sporting Champions - both have roads in the town named after them!

Built in 1925, the limestone in this lovely church was quarried by the local congregation

The Rotunda, coupling as the Anzac Memorial stands proudly in the median strip park.

"The Pines", Loxton's Historical House and Garden
This lovely sandstone villa set in beautiful gardens was built in 1909 and bequeathed to the people of Loxton for display and entertainment purposes by Mrs Ella Kingdon. The contents of the house have remained untouched and represent a great snapshot of the lifestyle of one of Loxton's pioneering families.

We scooted back through Berri and picked up the Sturt Highway and headed for Renmark. We stopped and had a look at the Murray's colourful cliffs from the SA National Trust Reserve,Wilabalangaloo, also a great example of a Mallee habitat - a dry climate and the soil is often sandy and salty. Mallee is an Aboriginal word meaning "having many stems" and describes a group of Eucalypts that grow 2-9metres in height. These Eucalypts withstand drought conditions by storing water efficiently in their lignotubers - an under ground stem. The Mallee habitat has a rich diversity of flora and fauna.

On the Berri-Renmark Road (Sturt Highway) - unfortunately it is a monument to what was -it has shut down!
Looks good though!

WILABALANGALOO

The Mallee habitat

This pretty little plant is called Eremophilia and provides a colourful contrast to the muted greys,
and greens of the mallee

On our way into Renmark we stopped and "smelt the roses" and enjoyed a Devonshire Tea at Ruston's Rose Garden, the largest rose garden in Australia. We've never seen so many roses! The garden is home to the National Rose Collection and has a huge array of modern and heritage varieties. Just beautiful! The climate in SA is very conducive to roses and all the gardens are full of them - such a beautiful flower! and the colours and perfumes amazing! An unusual combination, but a bonus, there is a car museum there with a collection of vintage and historic racing cars! Something different!

David Ruston's story and sculpture is on the Heritage River Walk in town

The roses were absolutely gorgeous! Could have gone mad with the photos!

"The Drop"

We have never seen so many roses - miles and miles of them!
Scent-sational!

Enjoyed inspecting this character as we enjoyed our Devonshire Tea - homemade scones! :) Yum!

Ruston's Car Museum

Wow!

Posh!

Zippy!

A hotty!

Interesting! What a year 1922 was!

The start of the "second car" for Aussie families! :) The 60's!

The work horse!

More healthy orchards with orange laden trees ready for the picking
Lots and lots of orchards around Renmark

We visited "Olivewood"Estate, the home of the Chaffey brothers, who are often referred to as the founders of Renmark. The brothers were Canadian by birth and previously founded successful irrigation settlements in California, USA. The brothers had been invited to Australia during the course of a tour of America by Alfred Deakin, a member of the Victorian Parliament of the day, to investigate the possibility of establishing an irrigation colony in Australia. The chosen land was what is known as Mildura. The Victorian parliament decided to negotiate. In the meantime, South Australian Premier Downer contacted the Chaffey brothers and immediately made land available on the Murray. The agreement to establish the Renmark Irrigation Colony was signed on 14th February, 1887. This made Renmark the first irrigation colony in Australia.

The First Irrigation Colony in Australia - Renmark, South Australia on ...

These are very old olive trees - huge trunks!

What an interesting way for a town to begin! and what a lovely town it is! Again lots of beautifully manicured parks and gardens, a great 5km waterfront walk - part of which we did, wide streets and median strips, terrific shopping centre and community facilities. Very impressed!

RENMARK

Though there were other white settlers in the area prior to their arrival, the Chaffey Brothers are honoured as founders of Renmark with the establishment of an irrigation colony, the agreement signed 14th February, 1887. 30,000 acres from Bookmark Station lease was granted to the Chaffy's on which to build the new colony. Vineyards and fruit blocks slowly emerged through the district. Now the Renmark irrigation area is predominantly horticultural and viticultural, although a small amount of grain is also produced in the un-irrigated sandy soils that adjoin the irrigation area.

What a productive area! Under irrigation, grapes are grown for table use, for winemaking, and for the production of high quality dries fruits. Stone fruits such as apricots, peaches,plums,and varieties of citrus fruits, advocates and more recently, a range of nut crops thrive in the soils and climate of the Renmark district. The total area of Renmark's irrigated holdings is approximately 4500 hectares.

The beautiful parks and gardens along the riverbank -including the 5km walking trail with interpretative signs and picture highlighting the history of Renmark

Renmarks lovely main street

Magnificent red river gums line the bank

The Renmark Club overlooking the Murray - what a position!
Nice for a drink, a meal and and a relax and watch the world go by on this beautiful river!

A surf shop on the river!! :) :)

The old Renmark Hotel - very retro!
Initially, renmark was almost a prohibited settlement but in 1897 a liquor licence as granted to the Renmark Hotel and it became the first community owned hotel in the Commonwealth and was administered by a trust.

The Irrigation Trust offices

Sturt was a busy boy in these inland areas! Like Flinders on the coast!
Got to admire these explorers - they must have had a huge sense of adventure and curiosity to tackle
the harsh Australian conditions!

The house boats so lovely nestled on the banks amongst the gums and willows!

Off for a weekend on the Murray!

Or you can simply remain moored to the shore and enjoy a stationary weekend on a houseboat!

We went out to Headings Road Lookout, Paringa, and watched the sunset over the Murray and her grand cliffs before we settled for the night on her banks in the tourist park in Renmark. Caught the last rays of the day shedding their pink light over the still waters - a peaceful end to another great day in our beautiful country.