Ovens Odyssey Stage 8 - Wobonga Lane (Eurobin) to Nimmo Bridge (Myrtleford)
- River Rambler
- Feb 10, 2019
- 2 min read
Updated: Jan 5, 2022
This is a relatively long stage at 20.5km. Having come off a number of stages at 36-40degC, the weather really turned for this early February paddle. We started and finished the day in sunshine but had heavy rain and cool temperatures in between.
What can we say about this stage:
- There is a huge amount of river stabilisation works evident in this stage.
- Hop gardens dominate the floodplain in the upstream 1/3 of this reach.
- The downstream 2/3 of this reach is adjacent to the Happy Valley Creek and the river seems really keen to avulse to that northern side of the floodplain. This is because the river channel is becoming perched and there is a channel (that joins the Happy Valley Creek) sitting lower on the floodplain, is straighter and therefore steeper than the Ovens River.
- There is an abundance of native and exotic plants in this reach. Exotic trees include Crack, Black and Pussy Willow, Poplars and Box Elder. The native trees vary from just River Red Gum where the river pushes up against the valley margin and Box and Peppermints are evident. Tea Tree and Tree Violet are more abundant in this stage than in the downstream reaches.
- Fauna observed in this reach included a Tiger Snake in bank stabilisation rockwork (rock beaching) and a platypus close to the Myrtleford end. We had just been commenting that morning that it was surprising we had not seen platypus on the previous 7 stages. We are confident they are present throughout the river but they are just difficult to observe. We were lucky this day!
- Rain, glad to see it but why on our paddle?! It only rained for about an hour, but boy did it rain.
- Access is good at either end and there is an option to get in or out at Selzers Lane so the stage does not have to be so long if you want a shorter paddle.
Click this Video link to see some of Stage 8 .
The stats were:
- The eighth stage of the Ovens Odyssey was paddled on 9th February 2019
- 20.5 km (Ch:46.8 to Ch:67.3) (note Ch:46.8 = Chainage 46.8 river kilometres downstream from Harrietville Ch:00)
- Time taken 6 hrs (a fair amount of time spent fishing during this stage)
- River Height - Eurobin Gauge 1.99
- 2 paddlers (Jamie &Pete) 2 kayaks
Hi Jan, thanks for the comment/questions.
Yes, lucky to see the Platypus, hope I can get better footage next time.
I am using a GoPro camera for the videos, and pull some stills off that imagery, however, most of the stills are taken with my iPhone 8.
Murray Cod will eat anything they can get in their mouth, mostly fish and crustaceans (shrimp, yabbies, crays) but they will also take animals off the surface (e.g. mice, ducks). On Ovens Odyssey Stage 3, Pete observed a kingfisher hitting the water in the same location and on the 3rd occasion was nearly taken by a cod in a big swirl at the surface. Macroinvertebrates are a key part of the food cha…
Again very informative .. delighted to see the platypus.. well the arrow pointing to platypus! Also pleased to see you not just fair weather paddlers/filmmakers .. What are you using to film, by the way? Just a phone? You keep it so steady! BTW - what do Murray Cod feed on? Are there certain macro or micro invertebrates that are essential to river health? Are these impacted by low flows?