Meditation, mindfulness, communing with nature: all come to mind as we paddled our final 57 km to the Goulburn Murray confluence. Stages 17 and 18 saw Jamie and Pete in the scorpion, at times stroking out the rhythm of the paddle strokes in silence and in awe of the river and its surrounds. I can’t speak for Jamie, but for me, a non-meditator, the quiet (broken only by the raucous cries of Sulphur – crested cockatoos, or the occasional almost eerie call of Whistling kites) allows me to enter a lovely peacefulness of existence, banishing the concerns of daily existence to another time and place. The last 20km stage was completed on a cool cloudy day by Jamie and Jane in the Dagger Drifter II and Gin and Pete in the Rapid Rider.
These final three stages are similar to those that precede them. We passed only one constructed “cut-off”. Everything was navigable other than a potentially dangerous chute through a massive log debris jam against the Stewarts Road Bridge. Sandy beaches, mostly “occupied” by car campers, were few and far between until the lower reaches of the final stage. Again, cormorants were common with an occasional Australasian Darter, plentiful Black and Wood ducks, Azure Kingfishers together with Superb Fairy wrens, Pardalotes – both Spotted and Striated, and White throated Tree creepers occasionally calling. One disappointment is the amount rubbish that litters the river itself and its banks. This ranges from cans to old sofas and chairs, from discarded balls and li-los to car bodies. It’s a shame we can’t care for our beautiful places better! Champagne and lunch helped us celebrate completion of the last section (Stage 19) of the lower Goulburn, leaving only the upper reaches from Woods Point to Eildon Dam for next spring to complete our Goulburn Grail.
Click this Video link to see a snapshot of Stages 17-19
Access:
Entry point - This access point is where Stuarts Bridge Road comes very close to the Goulburn River. The entry point is via a steep bank but the toe is flatter and provides easy boat access, although muddy rather than sandy.
Take out - Exiting the river is difficult as the banks are high and mostly vertical in the upper half. We paddled about 150 m downstream on the Murray River where we could scramble up the bank and haul the boats up by rope.
Statistics:
Date - Saturday 9 June 2024
Mapped distance 19.7 km, from Stuarts Bridge Rd. (Chainage 545.9) to the River Murray (Chainage 565.2) (Chainage is the distance downstream from the headwaters at Woods Point).
Time taken 4:03 hrs (4.9 km/hr), 3:06 hrs paddling (paddling speed approx. 6.4 km/hr)
River Gauge Height (Goulburn River at McCoys No. 580000) = 1.645 m
4 paddlers in 2 boats: Jamie & Jane in a Dagger Drifter II, Pete & Gin in a Rapid Rider.
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