Gwenda Painter

I finished A Different River : river trade and development along the Murray Valley network by Gwenda Painter (1993) this morning (14 May 2013).

It covers the history of the river in a somewhat sketchy fashion from about 1850 to 1960, although to be fair it is only slim (102 pages) and is probably only of interest to locals. The writing is not great, paragraphs are often totally unrelated, and the chapters are unfocused. But I found the subject matter interesting nonetheless, and there many are wonderful photos from state library archives throughout the book, mostly of people standing on paddle steamers and barges.

Chapter 1 is a brief but colourful and interesting introduction to the steamer trade on the Murray-Darling river system, from its foundation in the 1850s through the 1870s, up until it was set back badly by the drought in 1883-4 and subsequent impassibility of the Murray and tributaries.

Chapters 2 and 3 are on two irrigation settlements (Mildura and Renmark) which were founded by the Chaffey brothers from California in 1887. They were plagued by problems and the scheme collapsed in 1896. Side note: Alfred Deakin, famous for being one of Australia's founding fathers and an early PM, was the Victorian politician in charge of a Royal Commission into the irrigation scheme. This is notable because nothing has changed in 130 years.

Chapter 4 is back to the trade in wool and other goods. The steamer companies changed their mode of operation after the mid-1880s drought, due to the onset of railways and the increased number of settlements. Instead of operating from bases at Goolwa and Echuca, those two towns reduced in importance and the steamers made smaller trips between closer towns. There's also a bit about one former itinerant sailor turned Methodist captain who took the custom-reinforced steamer Brewarrina way into the upper Darling system, beyond Walgett.

Chapter 5 mentions the first step in construction of the system of locks, weirs, and dams that regulate the flow of the Murray, with Lock 1 at Blanchetown (1922), and Burrinjuck Dam on the Murrumbidgee above Gundagai (1907-1928).

Chapters 6 and 7 contain mentions of the ongoing decline in river trade thanks to the general increase in use of railways and trucks, although I got the impression the passenger trade was the last to go, dying in the 1950s. There are also brief mentions of the soldier settlement villages founded in the SA Riverland after WW1, and the Loveday internment camp set up to hold mostly Italians during WW2.

I think the history of the Murray-Darling could make a rich and fascinating book, but this is not that.… (mer)