Barmah And Beyond

FOUR-WHEEL DRIVERS AND CAMPERS CAN INDULGE IN THE MURRAY RIVER’S RED GUM FORESTS, QUIET BACKWATERS AND SANDY BEACHES.

- Ron & Viv Moon

WE HAD TURNED onto the Toupna Crossing Road on our second attempt to get to the Millewa River Road, our first effort thwarted by a small creek that had oozed across the track and was about 30 metres wide with lots of sloppy mud on either side. Earlier, we had been turned back by ‘Road Closed’ signs in another indication that the Murray River, so tantalisingly close, was running at its normal high Spring water level and limiting access to several spots along its length.

We were in what is now the Murray Valley National Park on the NSW side of the river, east of the town of Mathoura and downstream from Tocumwal. While by far the most extensive area of park is centred around the red gum forests just east of Mathoura, outliers of the park dot the river up nearly as far as Mulwala, about 110km east. In all, the park covers nearly 42,000ha of red gum country and, with the adjoining Barmah National Park of more than 28,000ha on the Victorian side of the river, forms the largest river red gum forest in the world.

The Murray Valley NP was, up until 2010, a state forest, where logging helped sustain many of the communities along the river, especially Mathoura. Certainly from our drive through it, the park needs better management, with the most obvious issue being the thinning of the many red gum saplings that have sprung up since logging was banned. These dense stands demote the growth of big trees that supply nesting hollows and, in the end, are nothing but an increased fire hazard.