Sunday 24^th June

Today we packed up and left Mildura with the intention of only travelling about 150km to the next camp spot. This allowed us plenty of time to explore Wentworth, which is only about 30 km from Mildura.

First stop was the information office. Again, a very helpful staff member gave us instructions and diagrams to reach those places which she had determined would interest us.  I appreciate how she took the time to listen to what would have appealed to us and what she could dismiss as unimportant to us.

Wentworth is famous for a few reasons.  Firstly it is the confluence of the Murray and Darling rivers, so while looking at the one body of water, in fact a “corner” which looks like an upturned large tree root is the dividing line.  

The Ferguson tractor gained its place in history and locals hearts during the 1956 floods, so is immortalized in at least three places, on a pole within Fotherby Park, on a Cairn in the centre of Wentworth and as a floral/shrub display on a bank near the river. 

Finally, but possibly only in our ranking are the Perry Sandhills which provide a bit of a “wow” factor and a playground for the young and young at heart. According to geologists, the Perry Sandhills originated after an ice age (40,000 years ago) and are formed by wind erosion over thousands of years. The dunes are located just outside of Wentworth (6km from PO), and are a unique land formation of 400 acres of continuously shifting sand dunes.  They are used as a backdrop in many films and TV shows.

There was a lovely brass monument to an icon of the region a nomadic recluse or hermit called David James Jones, but better known as “Possum”. Sometimes the local landowners would catch a fleeting glimpse of a man in the bush but for many years they didn't know who he was or where he'd come from. David James Jones came to this part of Australia just prior to the Depression as a non-union shearer from New Zealand. At the time he didn't have a shearer's ticket so he couldn't get a job. Nobody would employ him and because he couldn't get a job he couldn't get money to buy a ticket either. So it was a never-ending cycle. He eventually decided to shun society entirely and he lived along the river basically between Renmark and Mildura for about fifty years.  The station owners would find things done. The would come out and find that the sheep had been crutched, the fences repaired or their wood had been cut... but none of their staff had done it. Sometimes he'd be spotted up a tree in search of bush tucker and so the name Possum stuck. Over the years, Possum came to know the River Murray better than anyone.

Our next stop was to see an exhibition of wooden artifacts made from “sweat boxes”, which are a standard box used to transport dried fruit from the vineyard drying ground to the packing shed for processing. Just a few of the categories include Sculpture, Furniture and Toys.