The industry the Railway killed — Federation to the Sea Ep-4 - Hipcamp on the Murray River

Added: 2026-05-19

[00:00:00]Just jump on that track and just follow that track. And at some point you're just going to see other tracks heading off towards the river.

[00:00:06]Just jump on those and follow them down and you'll find gems like this. Today on the other hand, I'm not camping out here free camping.

[00:00:14]This weekend coming is a long weekend and I can tell you now when I was looking at I was really surprised to find this yesterday with nobody here.

[00:00:21]Today I'm going to Echuca. I'm actually staying at a Hipcamp called Riverlin, I think it's called.

[00:00:27]The way I I've used Hipcamp in the past before on my longer trips just so I know I've got a place to stay.

[00:00:33]Um the one I'm staying at tonight is on the Murray again in Moama, other side of Echuca. Again, two towns, one river.

[00:00:43]We'll talk about that [music] when we get there.

[00:00:46]But having uh that site set, I know I'm going to have a camp without being surrounded by a bucket load of people.

[00:00:54]The other thing about doing the Hipcamps and [clears throat] along this this route that I'm taking, I think we're going for 14 or 15 days, something like that, maybe even 20 days.

[00:01:04]But the itinerary shows that like where I am now, I know I'll I I know I was going to find Well, I knew I was going to find somewhere to camp here for free.

[00:01:14]Along here, 100% off grid, bring your own toilet, bring your own power, bring your own water, that sort of thing. The thing with Hipcamps on such a long trip, you can say I want to stay somewhere with a shower, I want to stay somewhere with a toilet or or or or stay somewhere with none of that, but just be guaranteed a spot.

[00:01:33]So you can split your trip up into segments if you like of I've got a few days off grid camping and then I'm going to have something that's a bit closer to civilization with showers and toilets, etc. So you're going to you can search on Hipcamp to find those sorts of things.

[00:01:51]You can search an area and filter things out to say that that want to have this or that, etc. And what it does it gives you that on a longer trip it gives you that peace of mind if you like that you're going to have those facilities set along the way. So far in this series we've had episode one at Corowa, uh the the the birthplace of Federation, the town that started that because of a a border tax going across that river.

[00:02:18]Then we went to uh Yarrawonga, the sunken forest, which now is just the anglers' paradise.

[00:02:25]Then to a secret World War II base, and today we're going to [music] Echuca as I mentioned. And Echuca if if you said that this river spanning the longest river in this country, if it had a capital city, it would be Echuca. At its peak uh Echuca was the busiest inland port in Australia. More paddle steamers operated in Echuca than anywhere else in the world. If you imagine like even where I am now a paddle steamer like almost filling up the scene behind me here taking goods to and from Echuca.

[00:02:59]This here was the highway that drove the nation at that point. And on a personal note, Echuca when we first moved down to where we are in Cohuna Echuca was a place that we went to as a bit of a touristy thing. We went and jumped on a paddle steamer and went down the river on a paddle steamer and it was kind of surreal to think that what you're sitting on standing on and being transported on was the same sort of thing that did it all that time ago. And every time that someone comes down here to visit us or stay for a longer period, we take them onto a paddle steamer to experience that as well because the history you just feel it as you're on one of the paddle steamers. So if you do go to Echuca at any point and I'll show you more about that. I've got places in mind to take you today that will open your eyes as to how this place was formed. [music] But if you do come here or to Echuca it's definitely worth getting yourself onto a paddle steamer and going for a trip.

[00:04:01]>> [music and singing] [music] [music] [music and singing] [music] [singing] [music] >> The Port of Echuca was built between 1864 and 1865. It's all made of red gum timber.

[00:04:39]It's It's about Well, just over about a kilometer long, I reckon it is. At its peak, over 50 paddle steamers operated simultaneously loading wool, unloading supplies, filling up for the next run upstream. So, they brought in wool and bucket loads of timber here. The timber was used for building things. It was used for fuel for the paddle steamers and and the steam engines and so forth.

[00:05:00]The timber was a biggish big timber was a massive massive industry here. If you think of it in today's sort of mentality, this river was like the super highway that brought goods and services pretty much all over the eastern seaboard of Australia from Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia, and Victoria all the way to the ocean. When you look at this wharf and look at the height of it, and it is massive. It is so tall. And you think to yourself, why on earth is it so tall? And it turns out it's only for the river rising and falling. It's this three three stories to this thing.

[00:05:36]And they've used all three of them over time depending on what the water level is doing. So, when there'd be a lot of rain upstream of here, the water the the river level would rise. So, they needed still to be able to unload and unload all the goods um that wharf. The amount of wood that's in here is is is just insane. There's so much wood.

[00:05:54]And the engineering behind is pretty simple, but the the thinking behind it is like next level next level sort of solution finding. Before the railways come, this was the super highway.

[00:06:04]Everything that was produced inland like wool, wheat, fruit, dried fruit, timber.

[00:06:09]Timber was a huge thing here. It all came through the port of Echuca.

[00:06:12]Everything needed inland, machinery, provisions, people, everything went out from here. There were there were a movie. Was it a movie or was TV show? TV show I think it was All the Rivers Run that was filmed here in the Port of Echuca. And as as nice as it is to look at the Murray River now and you go, "That's a pretty pretty nice outlook, you know."

[00:06:33]It wasn't looked at that way. It was looked at this is the infrastructure for industry now. At its absolute peak in the 1870s and 1880s, over 50 paddle steamers were working this river out of Echuca. The wool from stations across New South Wales, Victoria, and Queensland came down through all the tributaries, loaded onto here, and then unloaded from here onto the train down to Melbourne via train. The end of this industry started when rail really picked up. When rail went to Deniliquin, then to Hay, then to Bourke, every time that railway line extended further inland, the steamers lost another reason to actually be here.

[00:07:10]And by the 1890s, the trade from the port was really dying off. And by the 1900s, the great age of the paddle steamer was effectively over. It then became, I guess, dormant for a while and then it was a bit of a tourist thing, as it is now. The PS Adelaide, launched in 1866, is the oldest operating paddle steamer in the world, and she's still going now. It still steams the same river she worked in the height of Echuca's commercial era. Most things from 1866 are in a museum. The Adelaide is still on the water. Here's the thing about Echuca. The town that the river built survived that river's decline. The things that made this town, that awesome port, the paddle steamers, the heritage, the old historic buildings and everything that are here, all of those things survived that down decline in the in the in the paddle steamers and the the commerce through the wharf because of what it is.

[00:08:07]That historic nature of all of this brought all the tourism to this town.

[00:08:12]That's That's the main thing from this town now.

[00:08:15]>> [clears throat] >> There is still, like other towns up and down the Murray, there is still other industry, there is still agriculture, but the main thing that drives this town is tourism. Hare Street, the main heritage strip, which what us locals would refer to as the port area, which is like the heritage area, the tourism area. Echuca is a big big town. There is, like, McDonald's, there's Hungry Jack's, and KFC. So, the town is that sort of size. But, away from all that in the tourist part, all those heritage buildings and so forth are still there, and they're still operating in many different ways.

[00:08:49]There's lolly shops, chocolate shops, camping stores, um heritage things where you can go there and get dressed up in a for a photo, those sorts of things, the regular cliche sort of tourism thing.

[00:09:01]And like most things up and down this river, when there's two towns either side of the river, they tend not to agree on many things. The community is the same. People will cross this bridge every day to come to work and pick up kids from school, all that sort of things. Like, the town is pretty much the town. It's >> [clears throat] >> It's It's When people talk about Echuca, they they're thinking Echuca Moama.

[00:09:21]It's It's one in the same, really. And that That's Echuca. If you're coming through here, and realistically, if you're going to do anything along the Murray River here, and you get to central North Central Victoria, Echuca is pretty much on your map. You've got to go and come here and have a look. It's It's definitely worth coming to. I remember I I've got a feeling that that going through that museum that I went through earlier used to pay for that, but that's not the case anymore.

[00:09:45]Don't know if you heard that through the microphone, but the paddle steamer was coming back. I'll show you what it looks like. You can actually go and jump on this thing and go for a ride.

[00:09:50]>> [music] [singing] [music] [music] [singing] [music] [singing] [music] [music and singing] [music] [singing] [music] [singing] [music] [singing] [music] [singing] [music] >> Here's how I did Riverland. So, I got in here yesterday afternoon, set up, took the afternoon off, had a bit of a wander around here, and it's a it's a pretty bloody good campsite.

[00:11:10]So, it is a Hipcamp. There are six spots here, I think there are.

[00:11:15]Um there's a couple of permanent uh like caravans that sit here all the time, hence the permanent.

[00:11:21]There's what I didn't realize about this place is that if you're a fisherman or a water skier, that sort of thing, and you come up to a chooka, it's a bit of a pain to get into some of the boat ramps.

[00:11:32]Some of them the water flows pretty heavily and or pretty fast through them and other ones it's just so busy you're you're going to struggle to get your freaking boat in there.

[00:11:40]This place actually has a boat ramp. So if you're staying here and you're bringing your boat the the boat ramp here is pretty sheltered.

[00:11:46]>> [snorts] >> Um and you can put your boat in and just swing it around here to the foreshore and you set it up at the foreshore right at your camp which is quite nice.

[00:11:53]The facilities here there's barbecues.

[00:11:56]There's power, there's water, uh there's portaloos.

[00:11:59]If you've got a big group, they've got a separate area for a bigger group for a larger group so you're not going to interfere with everyone's peaceful camping. Like where I am this morning, I'm the only one here given. I think tomorrow there's going to be so to maybe today someone else is going to come and set up right where I'm standing here actually right next to right next to my my campsite just here.

[00:12:19]Uh anyways, uh so that's that's this place. At night time as well there's all these like fairy lights and stuff. It's it's actually pretty cool. I I was I'm quite impressed with it.

[00:12:40]>> [music] [music]