Day seven - Onto the road

Day 7Big day today 42.7km but we are bang on target at Goulburn weir. The last 14.5km were on foot as the river deteriorated into something horrible. At least Jim was there to film some of it at Murchison.

We finished after the sun went down and then collapsed at Cynthia and Nick’s cabin at Seymour so all we did was eat and go to bed, all tuckered out.

From Giovanni

The swamps south of Shepparton mark the southern edge of the fruit fly exclusion zone. That is the sign that we are leaving the rich alluvial flats of the Goulburn Valley and working our way towards the thin topsoil of Seymour and into the hills behind.

The map is dominated by two huge irrigation channels that run north from the Goulburn weir, dominating the landscape and the river.

In the morning we drop Steve back into the river to paddle to Murchison. It is an uphill battle through shallows and snags and we end up waiting some time for him to show. The local member, Sharmon Stone, gives up and leaves me in charge of an award winning vanilla slice that she has bought for Steve from the Tartura bakery. A few other locals introduce themselves to me before they go. That’s the problem with adventures, they are unpredictable.

Having missed all that for the camera we make Steve paddle a bit further upstream where we have found a good vantage point beside an old railway bridge. As always, the stuff we can get to is “nothing” compared to the grueling stuff he has faced on his own. If it wasn’t for the evidence of his little camera a support crew could become suspicious of the consistency of that message.

After that, he has to get out and walk back to the highway for the trip up to the Goulburn weir. Between the real challenge and the cinematic detour he is about two hours behind. The challenge brings out the real trouper in him and we walks to the weir without stopping pulling in just after dark.

Interest builds

The physical journey is staying on track, thanks to Steve’s doggedness, but my contribution to proceedings, the media coverage, has left something to be desired. We have had local television and newspapers along the way but that has not brought huge crowds.

For a variety of reasons, today’s report is being tapped out the next day and there has been no media release today.

This is the first day we have missed, though, and the consistency seems to be delivering results. We get the first glimmer of interest from Melbourne radio and then television and then a newspaper. I get a little excited after trying to get interest for a fortnight before hand and then the first week of the trip.

Perhaps it is possible after all.

Funnily enough, just as my hopes rise, others fail. Plug the Pipe, the rural based group opposing the pipeline, have been to Melbourne at least twice before, once in a Ute convoy which got some media attention but had no effect whatsoever. Some of their supporters are beginning to flag. “We’ve been fighting for two years and some people feel that now the pipe is going into the ground it’s all over.”

There’s a lot riding on this trip. Not only are some of the supporters at the end of their tether, it is Steve’s fourth expedition and they have all cost him considerable amounts of money. He may not be able to continue. The river, too, is reaching a couple of tipping points. There are plans to move the dam at the mouth of the Murray further up stream and flood the lower lakes with seawater to reduce the appearance that the river is dying. There are already pipeline being built between the lakes, to save one lake at the expense of another. Prominent academics, notably Mike Young, are stating publicly that it is not feasible to save the river system and that we have to decide which parts we want to save.

“That is like asking a patient which organs it is prepared to do without so that it can keep working” Steve points out. “I’d like to think we could give the river a break, stop stealing its lifeblood for a while, and give it a chance to recover.”