Mar 25, Echuca, Barmah Forest

Before we left the area, we went to the Bendigo Pottery Works, the oldest in Australia. There was an interpretive center with the history of the company and several of the old kilns they used. They were massive, made to fire big acid jars for the gold miners and roofing tiles and later, pipes for water and sewer systems. Now they make pieces for homes; plates, bowls,etc. I bought a little spoon rest.
We drove from there to Rochester. We were interested in seeing irrigation pipes under the Campaspe River, but couldn't find any information center. So we asked a woman in a park. Her name was Pat Glass and she and her husband have 250 dairy cows. She was in the park with her granddaughter, Annalea. She drew us an map and told us about her son in Witchita, Kansas. Very nice lady. Unfortunately, we decided to skip the pipes.
On the Echuca, on the Murray River. We took a paddle boat ride on the river. The most interesting part was the number of paddle wheelers on the river. The oldest, the Adelaide, was built in 1860. There were some from the early 1900's and the 1920's. Originally they took wool down river to the markets and brought supplies back. Some of them were fishing boats.
There were also scores of new houseboats on the river, some privately owned, many for rent. The Echuca-Moama area is a big tourist area because of the rivers. And they're expecting big crowds for Easter.
We drove up into New South Wales to the Barmah Forest. On the way we saw a farmer setting fire to his fields. We took a picture on the way back. There were dirt hills between strips of field that prevented the fire from getting out of hand. Barmah Forest is a red gum forest, the oldest of the gum trees. It was very dry there. One empty water hole had a sign warning about deep water. The flies were quite persistent, but we took a little bush walk anyway. We disturbed 6 or 7 kangaroos, who just looked at us and hopped away. We also saw a Canoe Tree. Like the Scar Tree we had seen earlier, the Aborigines has cut wood from the tree. This gum tree was huge and we could see the large canoe shape cut from it.
Pictures-Missionary paddle wheeler, Barmah Forest, Canoe Tree, Burned field