Nhill Revisited

Here we are, back in Nhill, on the Melbourne to Adelaide highway.   The town with the highway that runs through the centre of it.   Plus the toilets, that used to play classical music.   The town where the locals always ask 'How's your morning been?'.    And the lovely Vietnamese cafe which has excellent coffee, plus a huge array of delicious cakes on display.  

The local Council run caravan park which is one of the best we have seen, with its recently refurbished ablution block that has heat lamps over the shower cubicles.

Plus the lovely park next door, and the lake and board walk.  

 A place worth stopping at for a rest.  

I also forgot to say that the caravan park in Shepparton had fluffy bath mats in each shower cubicle, the first ever, however even that cannot beat the heat lamps here.

Yesterday, we set off reasonably early, from Shepparton, intending to follow the route that we used to take from Adelaide to Benalla.    A bit of a zig zag route.   We followed the road map instead of Google maps which wanted to take us on a different route.     No doubt there was a shorter way.

At one point we did check our spot on Google maps just to make sure we were heading in the right direction.  Lack of confidence!  

It appeared from the sign posts that all roads lead to Echuca.    Not a place we want to return to yet.

So we travelled through Corop, Elmore, Bendigo, Charlton, Donald, Warracknabeal, Dimboola and finally reached out destination in Nhill.   

The roads were deplorable, with many potholes, but the worst road was one that was corrugated, even though it was sealed, which reminded us of being on the Oodnadatta track.   Also there were road works everywhere.   Well at least there was an attempt to fix the roads.

It took nearly eight hours!   

The stop for morning coffee was lengthy due to the delay in our coffee arriving at the table.    The milk had been over heated so the gentle sips took ages.   A very friendly little settlement though.   The kind man in the shop next to the coffee filled up a bowl of water for Piper.

Piper  had a little sleep while we took our small sips of coffee.

Now I cannot remember where I took the following photographs.    

A very old country service station!

A sad looking deserted shop.

This town had a most picturesque church, with murals painted on the front of it.

We stopped for lunch, and then for an ice cream, the trip seemed to go on forever.   

When we arrived here, it started to rain.   Always the way.

All the items in the cupboards were everywhere, the drawers were out, and one of the turnbuckles on the side of my bedroom had come off.    Signs of rough roads.

Today the rain cleared and the sun came out, and the world looked beautiful again.

The ornate lead lighting above the pharmacy door.

Morning coffee was at the Vietnamese bakery, together with a pastry of course.    Then we bought some cherry filled small cakes to take back with us.   Plus two oversized bread rolls.   So delicious.

There is Vietnamese street food there as well.

After a restful day we went for a walk around the lake, in perfect sunshine.   

                                        

Tomorrow we drive the last 400 km home, mostly on the main highway.

It has been a great three weeks.

On the way home

At the moment we are currently in Shepparton, only 75 km south of Tocumal, which is where we were staying exactly one week ago.     

The main highway, Goulburn Valley Highway, runs north from Melbourne, through Shepparton, and then joins the Newell Highway at Tocumal which runs north to Goondiwindi, Queensland.     Although I have travelled on various parts of this highway, I never knew its significance as a major road north to Queensland. 

We are no longer following the Murray River, although from Albury to a few kilometres past Shepparton we are following the line of the river, just further south.    We will cross it again when the river crosses the main highway, Adelaide to Melbourne, in South Australia.  

Yesterday we followed the Hume Highway (Sydney to Melbourne) which was bliss as it was an expressway with two lanes on each side of the highway.   And a well maintained highway too.

We took the exit to Benalla, and found a place to park the car and van, with some difficulty and plenty of discussion.

Benalla was Walter's home town, he lived here from 1953 until about 1961, although his family continued to live there for many years after that.   Sadly, most have passed away, or moved to other places.

Walter's family home, which is still well cared for, and now has a high fence in front.   I am amazed at how high the trees have grown in the last few years.

The church where we were married in 1967.

                                         

This house has nothing to do with Walter's family, but It has been beautifully restored and with lovely ornate cast iron lacework around the verandah.

Harrison's Hardware Store, which Rudolf (Walter's brother) managed until he retired was no more.   It has been replaced by a cheap goods shop.    I find this very sad.   It was a fantastic hardware store.

The main street of Benalla, with plenty of trees.   It was quite busy too.    

The bridge over the local river, Broken River, which flows into the Goulburn River, which runs through Shepparton.    Walter told me he used to jump off the bridge into the river below.   I can imagine his mother did not know about it.    And to think we would not let our children jump off the Henley Jetty, although I know they did do so.   Children are fearless, and parents see danger!

So many memories.

We then drove another sixty kilometres west to the city of Shepparton, where we are currently staying in a lovely caravan park just outside of the city.

Today we walked around the main streets.  So many shops!    Sadly most of the people were gathered around, and in, the big named stores at the side of the city.    K Mart, for example, was packed with shoppers.  We also noticed that the road on the way in was lined with 'strip' shopping.    Again, all the big named shops.    Bunnings, Woolworths, BigW being some of the names.

We found this beautiful leafy street, with wide pavements, plenty of trees and gardens, and only a narrow strip for cars.   

And then we crossed over this extremely busy street, with trucks and cars, to get back to the car.

Interestingly Shepparton has a very large migrant population living here.    This was a reminder that Walter's family were in a similar situation 70 plus years ago.     However, from looking at the services on offer here, they certainly have much better support.  

The beautiful lake, with paths around it.    I took Piper for a walk around part of the lake.

Next to the lake was the Goulburn River, which starts in the mountains and ends in the Murray River near Echuca.    Another very muddy river.

The Goulburn River on its way north to the Murray River.

Tomorrow we head south West, back to the main Melbourne/Adelaide Highway.    We aim to stop in Nhill, the town that no longer has music in its public toilets.

A day of sightseeing!

Today, we made a trip around part of the Hume Reservoir, in glorious sunshine, with a beautiful green countryside made even more stunning after the heavy rain yesterday.    We saw lots of cows.    Dairy country.

On the mat below there is a road which comes in on the left of the map, above Bonegilla. This is where the dam wall is situated.  We drove down to Bonegilla village where we had a weak cup of coffee at the cafe.   It cannot  always be perfect, although it nearly always is, in Australia.

We continued  down the reservoir and then along the bottom until we came to a town called Tallangatta, which is pronounced with the emphasis on the 'lang' part '' Tal-LANG-atta.   I cannot get my tongue around this one as I think it should follow the pattern of all the other places ending in 'gatta'  for example, 'Coolangatta'.    Walter keeps testing me!

Except for the lower arm of the reservoir, the rest of the water follows the old Murray River.    If you enlarge the map you will see the dotted lines of the river.

So back to Tallangatta.    In 1956 they moved 104 houses from the existing site, which was going to be flooded when they extended the dam, to another site 5 miles down the road.   A huge undertaking.

The old butter factory on the hill above the old town.

The old Tallangatta site, where it is possible to see the markings of the bases of the houses, plus the streets.   It was never a brilliant place to build a town, as there was a creek running behind the town, and it often flooded.    The reservoir is very low at the moment, due to low rainfall during the last couple of years, so there is no water currently covering the old town site.

The moving of the houses.

There was a settlement called Bolga where the town of Tallengatta was to be re-established, so it was incorporated into the new settlement.   I am not sure the people were happy about this.

As well as moving the wooden houses, they also dismantled and rebuilt 37 brick houses and moved 73 pre-fabricated houses from other towns.   They built two new hotels, three banks, a butter factory and a hospital.   Plus a new shopping centre. The existing state school was relocated.   Quite a mammoth undertaking!    Not to mention the amount of money that was spent.   

Some of the houses in the centre of the new town.

I think this was one of the wooden houses that was moved to the new town.

The shopping centre.

The old railway line is now a rail trail, some of it sealed, which runs for kilometres.   The bridge below is part of the rail trail.

                                        
Once we left Old Tallengatta we drove along the inside of the reservoir.    So basically we drove along the opposite side of the arm that we had already travelled.   This was not our intention, as we were going to cut across the hills to the top part of the reservoir.    So easy to get a bit lost when you are not concentrating enough!

We drove along a very narrow dirt road which often had alarming drops on the side facing the water.   Luckily there was no other traffic.

Then out of nowhere there were traffic lights!   On red.    After thinking that we may be there for hours, they changed to green.    Apparently they were widening the road, and preparing to seal it too.

So pleased we took this road as it led to a gorgeous little village called Bethanga, where the general store had a lovely cafe.   Walter chose the fattening option of a bacon and egg roll, freshly cooked, while I chose the slimming option, a ham and salad roll.   Piper ate our crumbs.    

Opposite the general store was the Post Office/clothes shop with a hairdresser beside it.  There was not much else, a hall on the corner, a couple of old churches and a few houses.   I am fairly sure we saw a golf course a few km before we arrived at the village.    I think it must be quite a tourist stop though.

We continued on until we reached the top part of the reservoir and then followed it until we reached the main Murray River again.    I thought that the Murray River started below the dam, but this was not correct, as the Murray River continues past the reservoir, and ends up in the mountains somewhere.

The top part of the reservoir, with the Murray River flowing under the water somewhere.

And finally the upper part of the Murray River, which I know does not look any different from the photograph above.   The difference is with the currents, which you can see very clearly from the bank.   There was also a sign warning of swimming in the strong currents.

Very picturesque.   And muddy looking.    So it is not just in South Australia that the river is muddy.  And murky.

So we turned around at this point and drove back along the road, over the steel bridge and back to our caravan.

 I made pizzas for dinner, which I have proudly perfected somewhat. I buy pizza bases from the supermarket, put the toppings on them, put them in the frying pan to brown the bases, then pop them under the grill until they are nicely brown and the cheese is bubbling.   Delicious.   

Tomorrow we head west, firstly along the Hume Highway to Benalla (Walter's home town) then onto Shepparton, where we will stay for two nights.

Bonegilla - The Migrant Camp

 

We visited Bonegilla today, an interesting place but also very depressing.    Walter and his family spent nine days here when they first arrived in Australia in 1953.  They were then sent to a migrant camp in Benalla, 125 km away.   

Bonegilla is an Aboriginal name meaning 'deep water hole' or 'big cattle camp' and pronounced Bone-gilla.   However, the Europeans called it Bone-a-gilla, and this pronunciation has stuck, together with the negative reputation.

The Migrant Reception Camp operated from 1947 until 1971.    Bonegilla was an old army camp, and the organisation of the camp was in army style until the end of the 1950s when conditions improved immensely.

It was isolated, 12 km from Wodonga, 300 km from Melbourne and 600 km from Sydney.   The land around was stark, with gum trees, and brown in the summer.   There was relentless heat and sticky flies in the summer and freezing conditions in the winter.

New arrivals travelled by train from Melbourne, then put onto buses at Bonegilla Station.   Often they travelled by night.   

The shock for migrants was great;  the isolation, the heat/cold, the dormitories, the long drop toilets, and the unpalatable food.   And they were treated as second class citizens, with all men classed as 'labourers' and all women  'domestics' regardless of the skills that they brought with them.   They were also given tags on string when they arrived at Bonegilla station, which they had to wear around their necks.

Initially the camps were full of displaced persons from WW2, but after a couple of years this was extended to people who wished to migrate from Europe.    The reason was due to the labour shortage in Australia.   So the assisted migration scheme started which brought thousands of people to work here.  The government of the time promoted the country as a place of freedom and opportunity with plenty of industry, plus sunshine and beaches.   Quite different to the initial reality. 

There was also a scheme for British people too, the 'ten pound pom'.   However, they were placed in hostels and their skills were recognised.   They also had a choice about which jobs they wanted to do.

Assimilation was the ultimate aim!  Once in Australia people had to forget about their home country, learn English and learn to be 'Australian' and be loyal to the British throne.

Bonegilla was also the largest and long lasting migrant reception centre in Australia.

Of course the idea was to move people out of the migrant camps quickly, but this was not always easy.   Although there was work, it was not always well paid, or long enough, to find accommodation for the family to leave the camp.    Walter's family stayed in the migrant camp in Benalla for ten months before they could find a house to rent there.

The camp below looks a bit bland now, but quiet and peaceful, with kangaroos hopping about munching on the watered grass.   

People were put into dormitories, with men and women separated, the young children went with their mothers and the older boys with their fathers, or on their own if they did not have a father.   The toilets and showers were some distance from the huts, and there were always queues.

On arrival each person was given three or four blankets, three sheets, a pillow case, plus plates and cutlery.    The huts were unlined so were very hot in the summer and extremely cold in the winter.

Reports of the awful conditions in the migrant camp got back to Europe, and people became reluctant to migrate to Australia.   Therefore Bonegilla received quite a make over.   The interior of the huts were lined and divided into small rooms, all other buildings were lined, toilets and showers improved, and people were divided into nationalities with cooks employed from those nationalities to cook appropriate food.

Families now could stay together.  Usually they were given two small rooms.   A bit crowded but better than sleeping in dormitories.   

The huge kitchen below looks great with all its stainless steel benches and cookware, but initially this was not so.    The kitchens and adjoining dining rooms were unlined tin sheds.   I read the typical menu for the week, and boiled beef with white sauce and lamb (mutton for sure) were on the menu for dinner and tea.   No wonder Walter is not keen on lamb.    

One of the dining rooms.    

What has Henry VIII got to do with this migrant camp?   I know he was pretty ruthless when it came to his wives but even he cannot be blamed for the conditions in the camp.    It was all to do with reinforcing the fact that Australia was part of the British Empire.    So the recreation rooms were lined with pictures of British royalty and people of current importance.

An example of an unlined tine roof..

The people at the museum found Walter's family records in the National Archives of Australia and printed off their entry forms for him.   The photograph of Walter's entry form is a bit faint, but if you enlarge it, you can see the details.   His stepfather signed all the forms.   

When the family arrived in Australia both Walter and his brother, Rudolf, were given the surname of their stepfather. 

Now this is an interesting photograph of the huts at the G'Day park at the Hume 
Dam.   We had coffee at the cafe there before travelling to Bonegilla.   The huts look the same as the huts at Bonegilla, but with one difference, these are luxury plus inside and come at a high price.   I noticed there were very few people staying there.   Too expensive.

A film was made in 1984 called 'Silver City' which was based on Bonegilla.  It was about Polish immigration following WW2.   

Hume Reservoir, the source of the Murray River.

We went for a drive to the Hume Reservoir and Dam this afternoon.    And now I finally have some photographs of where the Murray River begins its journey to the sea in South Australia.   It flows for 2530 km and is one of the longest navigable rivers in the world.

The upper reaches of the Murray River, before it reaches the reservoir, is a natural waterway that flows down from the mountains and is fed by melting snow and rainfall.   There are also other streams that flow into the Hume Reservoir.     

Before the dam was constructed the flow was seasonal, high at the end of winter and low during the summer months. Work began on the dam in 1919 and it was opened in 1936, and was the largest dam in the southern hemisphere.   It was built to provide water for the towns, to irrigate the surrounding farmland and to provide electricity.   The dam has been enlarged and modified since it was built.

Apparently it only took two years for the reservoir to fill up, which shows how much water comes down from the mountains.

The view of the dam and the huge torrent of water spilling out of the dam.    

                                         

The start of the Murray River as it leaves the dam.    The water is very clear at this point.

The start of the Murray River, viewed from the top of the dam.

The very large reservoir, with the original river hidden underneath.

The spillway.    It was very noisy and a trifle scary.   Piper was very scared so Walter took her back to the car.

The Bethanga Bridge was built between 1927 and 1930, when the Hume Weir was completed and the backed up waters inundated this section of the Murray River.  The old low bridge could no longer be used.   

The bridge is quite impressive  as it is a long, nine span, riveted steel, variable depth, Pratt Truss road bridge of nine principal spans of 82 metres and a total length of 752 metres.  I copied this!`

A view of the reservoir.

We went for a short drive into the hills, which were covered in vivid green grass.   Obviously a very wet area.

I stopped briefly on the road to get a photograph of a green valley but saw two cars behind me so thought I had better move on.

I can never resist taking a photograph of yet another white wooden church, although I think this one is now a house.  

An exhausted Piper, hopefully not dreaming of noisy spillways.

First stop tomorrow, coffee at the cafe by the Hume Dam, then on to Bonegilla which was once a migrant camp and where Walter and his family started life in Australia.