RUFUS RIVER RUN

AT THE CONFLUENCE OF THE MURRAY AND DARLING RIVERS LIES THE NSW TOWN OF WENTWORTH, THE STARTING POINT FOR OUR TREK ALONG THE MURRAY AND LAKE VICTORIA TO RENMARK IN SA

- KEV SMITH

IT WAS while we were around the Wentworth-NSW area on the Murray River, when I heard about the Rufus River drive. Wentworth itself is chockers with history, dating back to 1830 when explorer Charles Sturt and his crew rowed down the Murray River and reached the junction of the Darling River, where he wrote in his log, “a new and beautiful stream apparently coming from the north.”

Sturt was the first white man to encounter the local Barkindji people along the river, and they did not welcome the new arrivals. It was just six years later when explorer Thomas Mitchell travelled down the Darling to the junction of the two rivers. This opened the door to an influx of European overlanders who moved sheep and cattle along the rivers to find better pastoral lands.

Houses were built from early 1851, but Wentworth wasn’t proclaimed until 1859. Over the next few years it boomed from the river traffic, with police quarters built and a solid town emerging – it’s reported that in 1895, 495 vessels passed through the customs office at Wentworth.

Today, Wentworth has a strong local population and plenty of tourists visiting year-round. There’s plenty to see and do around town including the replica of the 1879 wharf, which was claimed to be the busiest port in NSW in its heyday (after Sydney and Newcastle); the heritage-listed buildings lining the streets; and Junction Park, to see where the Darling and Murray rivers meet. Explore the history at Fatherly Park and its old implements, the Paddle Steamer called Ruby, and McClymont House which was Wentworth’s first courthouse built in 1863. There’s also Sturt’s Tree, and the monument to the Ferguson ‘Fergie’ tractor, where back in 1956 nearly 40 Fergies worked day and night building a levee bank around town when it was threatened by the worst floods at the time.