Located 105 km south-east of Adelaide in South Australia, Wellington is a small settlement on the banks of the River Murray. Like Tailem Bend,
prior to European settlement the area around Wellington was home to the
Ngarrindjeri people. They made bark and reed canoes and lived on the
fish and the animals which came to the riverbank.
Originally established as a private enterprise in 1839, the Wellington Punt was the earliest and most important ferry crossing on the Murray River.
The Wellington ferry was a vital link on the Great Eastern Road to
Victoria, being used by travellers, stock and the mail service.
In 1849 the South Australian Government took over its operation and
constructed a new ferry landing which, in the early 1850s, served the
escort coaches bringing gold to Adelaide from the Victorian goldfields.
The Wellington ferry was busy. Reports for February 1852 indicated
that a total of 1234 people and 1266 horses and bullocks, pulling 164
carriages, crossed the river during that month. Total fees collected
were £64. During October to November of the same year the punt serviced
3000 passengers, 361 carriages and 2777 draught oxen.
The early ferry services unreliable and sometimes dangerous and out
of action for several days at a time. Sand drifts from the Lake region
caused extreme concern and often became a barrier to the crossing.
Recurring floods also interfered with the ferry service.
At least four Wellington punts have sunk during a crossing. Perhaps
the most notable was in 1958 when the ferry sank with a truckload of
cattle and three cars. The divers who later recovered the vehicles
reported that there were other derelict punts on the river bottom.
and it takes no more than 10 minutes to cross the other side and you are on your way again!
Previous blog posts:
staying overnight at Mt Gambier
The Beachport Jetty
useful URL's ....
Wellington on the Murray River
The Historic Punt Crossing at Wellington
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Over the Christmas / New Year period we camped at a park near Corryong. Most of our time was spent lazing around reading, sleeping and or eating! But we managed to get out for a couple of day trips .... one of them being to Khancoban which is just 20 klm's from Corryong.
Khancoban is a small town in New South Wales, Australia. The town is located 567 klms (352 mi) from the state capital, Sydney and 13 klms (8 mi) from the state border with Victoria, in the foothills of the Snowy Mountains, near the upper reaches of the Murray River. At the 2006 census, Khancoban had a population of 281.
The town is a popular launching place for tourists exploring the Snowy Mountains area including Kosciuszko National Park. Khancoban is linked to Jindabyne and Cooma by the Alpine Way, a scenic route that takes travellers past the ski resort of Thredbo. The closest regional centre is Corryong, 20 klms (12 mi) to the west in Victoria.
Khancoban was constructed to house workers involved in the Snowy Mountains Scheme, Australia's largest engineering project, designed to provide hydro-electric power and water for irrigation to vast areas of the nation. The town is still mainly populated by workers employed by Snowy Hydro Limited working in places such as Murray 1 and Murray 2 Power Stations.
Khancoban Pondage, when full, covers an area of around 500 hectares and is located in NSW.
The Khancoban Pondage is fed by the following creeks and rivers: Swampy Plain River and Khancoban Creek.
the above images were taken at the Khancoban Pondage and if you look very carefully you will see someone swimming just at the base of the water outlet. There are signs every where telling people not to swim within 200 metre's of these outlets where the water can rise rapidly.... and with little warning!
it was soon time to head back to the caravan park for a lazy afternoon of reading and sleeping ....
Further blog posts will be uploaded over the next few days on our visit to NE Victoria.
Previous blog posts are:
The drive from Ballan to Corryong
our visit to the Colac Colac Caravan Park
our visit to Corryong
an early morning walk
I appreciate the helpful advice that is available on the following websites:
Old Tallangatta
Colac Colac Caravan Park
Tallangatta (Sydney Morning Herald)
The Mitta Mitta River (DPI)
Lake Hume (Wikipedia)
Huon Reserve Rest Area (Caravan.com)
Explore Australia
Corryong (discover the Murray site)
Wikipedia
Snowy Mountains - Khancoban
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This time last year - December 2011 - we spent sometime in North Vietnam, mainly Hanoi, Halong Bay and in the mountains around Sapa.
When we arrived in Hanoi, we hired a guide to meet us in Sapa and to take us trekking complete with an overnight homestay with a H'mong family.
On the afternoon of the first day of trekking we came across two women building a home for themselves. Well we can only assume it was to be their home, according to our guide who said it was. We found this to be rather at odds with what we had read of the H'mong culture.
There are eight different ethnic groups in Sapa including Hmong, Dao, Tay, Giay, Muong, Thai, Hoa and Xa Pho. The majority of citizens in Sapa are Hmong and Dao people which accounts for over 70% of the population while the last four groups only comprise more or less 1% of the people in total. A large number of ethnics are subsistence farmers, distributed unevenly throughout the district while others live in Sapa town, providing various kind of travel services to make a living.
The men are accountable for physical demanding work like building the house, making agricultural implements, ploughing and threshing whereas women take the responsibility of planning, weeding, harvesting, preparing food and making clothes. Children and the elderly help with the lighter work like household chores.
Gender roles in Hmong society are very traditional. Men are to provide for both the physical and spiritual welfare of the family, while women care for the children and maintain the household. At mealtime, it is customary in the Hmong culture to allow the men to eat before the women enjoy the meal. The wife is typically consulted before major decisions are made, but the husband is given the final authority.
So to see these two women happily building their home was interesting to say the least ....
We did not speak their language, and did not ask why, but perhaps it was because they did not have a partner / husband, maybe they were just 'very independent' women, who knows. One woman was walking down to the riverside and shoveling the sand into the pail to take back up to the structure that was being built and then the other woman continued to lay the bricks using the wet sand from the river.
the following image is the view we had as we came back down the mountain ... the red arrow is where we came across the women building their home:
It
was interesting to see them doing this quite happily and it made me
think about these hard working women that continued to smile even though
this was back breaking work!
Wikipedia website on the H'mong People
Other blog posts will follow soon on trekking in North Vietnam.
stay tuned!
