Mildura - A family holiday covering 2 states

[rainbowgirl]

I am guessing a Noisy Miner

After looking at a couple of websites I agree. Thank you.

 

[rainbowgirl]

Three Noisy Miners came to visit us while we were having our picnic lunch but I only got a photo of one of them. Miss 7 fed them a little bit of bread. The chirped happily and then flew away.

It was quiet for a few minutes while we went back to eat our lunch. Suddenly we noticed a large line of ducks walking towards us. There was a delay between feeding the Noisy Miners and the ducks arriving so I'm not sure exactly how the birds communicated but somehow the word was out that we were sharing our food. We found a little bit more of the bread for the ducks but I don't think we were able to feed all of them. More ducks kept arriving even after all the bread was gone.

 

[rainbowgirl]

Duck, duck, duck, seagull, but not a goose in sight.

 

[rainbowgirl]

The flag pole next to Lock 11 has flood markers on it.

My mum and dad went to Mildura for their honeymoon in 1956, a few months before the flood. They arrived by train and stayed at the Grand Hotel which still operates today.

At the moment the train line to Mildura is for freight only.

Many of the rail crossings in Mildura don't have boom gates or lights.

 

[rainbowgirl]

It was hard to get a good single shot of the flood marker and the lighting was dull at that point.

Mr Rainbow was trying to find the 1956 flood level. I pointed up near the top. It's the second red mark from the top in the image in the previous post.

In 2016 the lock was flooded and the Weir was removed to allow the water to flow freely.

Oops, I haven't explained the Weir yet have I.

 

[rainbowgirl]

The below quote is from the web page I referenced earlier in the thread.


"The Weir comprises 24 steel trestles, each weighing approximately 11 tonnes. The weir can be removed from the river by means of an electrically-driven winch to allow flood flow to pass and enable maintenance to be carried out. The weir pool has a storage capacity of 36,200 megalitres.

Lock 11 is a concrete chamber with four steel lock gates. The lock is filled by opening four butterfly valves upstream. Water enters the lock chamber via two tunnels, accommodating approximately 4.5 megalitres.

Although the Mildura Weir and lock were completed too late to benefit the early paddle steamers and other river boats, the system today serves an increasing number of houseboats, paddleboats, tourist cruise boats and other pleasure craft.

The Paddle Steamer Melbourne passes through the lock up to 1,000 times a year.

Visitors are welcome to access the island between the lock and the weir during the day. The island's 15 hectares of bushland provides a habitat for many native animals.

The Mildura Wharf is about 800 metres upstream from here and was vital to river transport from the 1800's."

 

[rainbowgirl]

Initially we couldn't figure out what all the equipment, machinery, tracks (almost like railway tracks) and fencing was all about on the island. Eventually we figured out it was all connected to the Weir which could be taken apart and put together as needed.

 

[rainbowgirl]

There were more pelicans than just the one on our side of the weir. They probably look smaller than the emus in the field photo but it's the best I could do with my smartphone.

The best photos I took of pelicans were the ones taken at San Remo near Phillip Island. I got some really great close ups there, but I don't have access to those photos at the moment.

 

[rainbowgirl]

We also saw a large houseboat going through the lock. When we were on the bridge(which also doubles as one of the lock gates) we chatted to the men on the houseboat. There were 11 of them sharing the houseboat for the week. They were having a great time and were very friendly. They answered questions happily from Miss 7 and Miss 12 and waved to us as they exited the lock.

 

[rainbowgirl]

Miss 7 loves all the Pokemon characters but she'd never played the collectable card game before. We found a very friendly games shop who had a "learn to play" session each week. The shop also supplied the cards if you didn't have any to play with. Miss 7 has played another collectable card game before so she quickly picked up the dynamic and the rules of the game. She loved the experience. The staff and players were very helpful and understanding and Mr Rainbow was also there to lend support when needed.

Miss 12 read a book. She was grumpy and tired. I went over to Coles to get some bread. We still hadn't found a bakery we were happy with so we were using supermarket bread for the whole week.

We were very lucky with the people we encountered in Mildura and surrounding areas. They were friendly and welcoming and happy to share their experiences and listen to endless questions from Miss 7 and Miss 12. The Circus people who were visitors were also very open and friendly. We chatted to some of the performers after the show and they were happy to share stories with us. I forgot to mention in the circus photos that most of the performers also ran the sideshows outside the main arena.

 

[rainbowgirl]

Sunset on our last evening in Mildura.

 

[rainbowgirl]

In the thread which explained how to do trip reports, it mentioned that doing a review of the accommodation was a good idea. I didn't take enough photos at the Sunraysia Timeshare Resort to do a good review however, on the last day of our holiday in Mildura, we were lucky enough to get a tour of the house boats the resort hires out. The next update will have some photos from that tour.

 

[RB]

View attachment 119026

The flag pole next to Lock 11 has flood markers on it.

My mum and dad went to Mildura for their honeymoon in 1956, a few months before the flood. They arrived by train and stayed at the Grand Hotel which still operates today.

At the moment the train line to Mildura is for freight only.

Many of the rail crossings in Mildura don't have boom gates or lights.

Reminds me of the flood markers in Lismore NSW. You look at the marker in normal times & can't imagine the massive height differences when floods hit

 

[rainbowgirl]

See post 118 for commentary on the houseboat tour.

 

[rainbowgirl]

There was a full kitchen with some interesting storage features.

 

[rainbowgirl]

A little bit of luxury on the top deck

 

[rainbowgirl]

What do you think this is?
More photos of the journey home later.

 

[rainbowgirl]

When we were in Mildura we stayed at the Sunraysia Timeshare Resort. Let me know if you want an explanation of timeshare. We don't own a week at the resort but exchanged a week via one of the time bank companies. The resort owns several houseboats which can be rented out for one normal week plus an additional fee of several thousand dollars. There are also costs for fuel and other supplies. The houseboats are moored at a marina on the New South Wales side of the river.

Guests are allowed to take the houseboats out on the river. The controls in the photos are at the front of the houseboat and the BBQ and motors are at the back. You have to reverse out of the marina and need people spotting on the back and side to help. The houseboats are moored really close together and have large tyres on the side of the boat to protect the boat from minor collisions. You need to have a car drivers licence to take the boats out and you are given instructions when checking in. If you need to go through the lock you can hire a pilot who books the time with the lock staff. If the the river is flowing very fast a pilot is provided any time you want to take the houseboat on the river, subject to bookings.

Every time our tour guide mentioned the term pilot I kept thinking of the song from Pirates of Penzance. It's good to know that in this heavily automated world there is still a place for water pilots. "apprentice to a pilot/pirate"

Mr Rainbow is interested in hiring a houseboat next time we go to Mildura. I'm not so enthusiastic. I get nervous reversing a car so reversing and parking a houseboat isn't something I even want to think about (even if I'm not the one in control). If you hire a houseboat you still get use of the facilities at the resort.

The houseboat we looked at had 3 bedrooms and one bathroom. It's designed to sleep 10 people. Two of the couches on board open up to make double beds. The bedrooms were much smaller than the ones at the resort. I'd suggest using multiple small bags rather than large suitcases for a houseboat trip as storage is very tricky. The bathroom was a reasonable size but I don't like the idea of sharing one bathroom between 10 people. At the resort unit we had 2 bathrooms between 4 people.

 

[rainbowgirl]

Life has been pretty crazy in the last 2 months and I never got around to finishing off the trip report. I'm very sorry. Due to technical restrictions on our home network I was using my mobile phone to upload photos into this thread. I now have major problems with my mobile phone and probably won't be able to upload more photographs. (Somehow my Google Play Services app was deleted)

When I can I'll give a summary of the journey home.

The photo above is some surface salt near Sea Lake. It was very tasty. My husband and daughters were quite fascinated by it. I wish we were allowed to go on a tour of the salt processing area near the lake.