Day 3 Tuesday 17/12/2024 Cohuna – Tooleybuc 23 – 30

Phew, that was a hot one! But we did manage to sleep well after 11:00pm.

It isn’t much of a park being more of a fisherman’s camp with a lot of onsite holiday setups, but at least we got our money’s worth being on power and having a swim. No doubt in a week’s time this place will be jumping with a lot more than ducks.

The drive through dairying country to Kerang is interesting. We then pass through the myriad of small lakes like Lake Charm and the large one Lake Boga where Catalina flying boats were serviced during World War 2*. Thanks to the abundance of water here there is an odd mix of saltbush and orchards of fruit, grapes, and olives.

Swan Hill has grown since we visited a few years back, hang on that was 3 cars ago. Any wonder it’s attractive and booming. The amount of agriculture and the grapes and citrus makes it quite similar to SA’s Riverland region.

Tooleybuc is a tiny town just over the Murray River on the NSW side. Well to be pedantic NSW ‘owns’ the Murray as the state border is the waterline on the southern side. We have no idea what to expect as we’ve barely taken notice of the name of the town let alone visited. There’s a 5-minute wait in traffic as the old lift up bridge is undergoing much needed repairs (1925 Percy Allan design). Oohing and aahing with delight we continue through town to the Tooleybuc Sporting Club. A golf club and sporting facilities on the banks of the river they offer free camping with toilets and showers. For an extra $20 per night, there’s power as well.

After lunch we follow the meandering concrete path into town. People are relaxing on the lawns and the old bridge master’s cottage is now an op shop with racks of goodies out front. Woody has a cool beer at the pub, and after wandering the riverbank I sketch the Sporting Club. There are a few other campers here and it gets busier closer to sundown.

We wander over to the Club for drinks and dinner, to discover a veritable oasis. Sitting in the bar and (as always) counting the number of TV screens in sight, we watch the red hots, the dish lickers and the flannel fools. The dining room has two kitchens, East and West and to our delight East is the only one open tonight. We eat enough Char Kway Teow noodles to make up for last night’s summer fast and wash them down with an Andrew Peace Sauvignon Blanc. Hey, didn’t we pass that vineyard this morning?

Accom: $20.00, Fuel: $59.24, Towing Kms 140Kms

*It’s hard to imagine the distances that these long range ‘Cats’ tackled during the war. Their base was in Bowen in far north Queensland and their work took them out through Asia and the Pacific on reconnaissance, mine laying and bombing raids. Then south as far as Lake Boga for servicing because it was out of the range of enemy planes. www.awm.gov.au/articles/blog/catalinas-in-the-pacific