Riding the Scorpions Tail

 I'm cheating a little, because I'm including my original long trip on the river in 2011. A big black snake was lying close to the water on an old gum tree trunk. It did not move as I paddled past. This and a collection of rainbow tree eaters are two of the memorable moments from my first long canoe trip on the Marrambidya (Murrumbidge).  I was living in Leeton at the time, working as the area’s inaugural Regional Arts Development Officer, and in the afternoons I would often go out to the river and go for a paddle. I had an inflatable canoe which though slow was very portable. I would paddle for an hour upstream against the strong current, and then turn and be back at the car in ten minutes. Eventually I grew weary with the job and I applied for a residency in St Louis, Senegal. Before I left the Riverina, however, there was something I wanted to do. Perhaps a macabre thing though. On the Murrumbidgee upstream of Narrandera there is an island, called either Murdering Island ...

  January 2024 Organising a calendar to allow   6 days remote paddling is a difficult thing, but in mid-January 2024 I was mostly able to do that and get back on the river at Narrandera and head down stream with the intention of heading for Hay. Just out of town I see a black snake lying on the sand, half of his body in the water, as if to regulate its temperature. It does not register my slippery passing. The first destination was Yanco Weir which is roughly 16km down the river. The weather hot but paddling was pleasant. The portage at Yanco in the heat of the day not so much, and I had to make several trips carrying all my gear and then put the canoe on wheels to bypass the gates and weir infrastructure. It took about an hour and then I was back on the river with the intention of finding a campsite before dark, within paddling distance of Middle Beach near Leeton, which I figured was a good place to get reception to receive a call from Create NSW about a funding reject...

  Jugiong to Gundagai – 15 th November to 16 November 2023 544km   I have been keen to get back of the river to resume my Riding the Scorpion’s Tail project after a year of work and a year where a lot of the river was in flood, which I assumed would be above my boat’s capability and my skill level. I logged on to Gumtree one day and saw a sit in kayak was for sale in Tumblong, only 90km away so I arranged to buy it. Having the possibility of a couple of days between commitments I chose a relatively close section that was easy to access. The River Heights website https://www.waterwaysguide.org.au/river-levels said the river height was 2.33 metres on Thurday 7 th November which was close to the ‘good’ level. Almost not close enough unfortunately. And when I check again, it has been updated on the 17 th November, today and is 1.35 metres and below the minimum required and just above ‘stay home’. Peita drove me to Jugiong and dropped me off. I camped in the area opposite...

    Mid March 2022   The Shadow of Birds I drive down to Deniliquin via Leeton to see a friend’s exhibition. At Deni I meet with the Executive officer of the art board for that area, Southwest Arts. Kerry-Anne Jones who has very kindly agreed to paddle the last leg of the Murrumbidgee with me and then take me back to my car in Balranald. I am hoping to have a zoom call about another project so check in to a local Caravan Park. In the morning I get up at dawn and drive to Balranald, to a very nice Caravan Park right on the river. They agree to let me leave my car there for the four days. I pack and am on the water at noon. The first marker is Balranald Weir which I am told is 12 km downstream. It is a beautiful day and the river in carpeted with blossoms (acacia -?), bark and leaves.  They swirl and twirl and move slowly along with the current. The whole way to the Murray there are thousands of white Egrets, White Faced Herons, White-necked Herons, Nankeen Nig...

  February 2022   In January 2020 I attempted to walk to the source on the river, and I know now that I fell 500 metres short. It was a wet day, and I was in cloud and there was thunder rolling around me, a little worrisome when you are in amongst tall trees. I gave up when the stream was in thick bush and headed away, thinking I was close enough. But it has nagged at me. This February, I had the opportunity to try again, with the knowledge of what it entailed and where to go. It had been clear and warm for weeks and the day I drive up to mountain the forecast was for rain for the next week. It turns out that this is the bottom edge of the catastrophic floods in Northern NSW and Queensland. I’d had a hectic week trying to raise money for other projects, and my plan to go back to Natimuk was put on hold when another gig changed its date. So I thought I’d go up to the mountains. I drove up to Wantabadgery and across the low-level bridge that I had paddled under less th...

  When I drive to Canberra from Wagga, I usually take the Nangus Road, though it takes about the same time. It’s a nicer drive, following the Marrambidya, and just as you get to Gundagai you can see the river and it always looks so beautiful. There is a spot just before you go under the bridge and Hume Highway that there is an impromptu boat ramp and I occasionally stop for a swim on a hot day. ​ On Sunday 6th February I launched from here. The first section follows the flood plain on the south bank, which is mostly cow paddocks. Much of the trip to Oura was either sheep paddocks or cattle, each with their own distinctive stench. There was not as much of the treed low sections like west of Wagga. And the banks were eroded where the animals access the water. Perhaps explaining much of the flood mud further west. There was not as many poison drums, and only one fridge. There were river gums and river oaks, and willows, but not as many of the other European species as I saw downstre...

  October 2020   Some days it seems like the world was made just for you. My visit to Burrinjuck power-station seemed one such day. Though I have driven past the sign to Burrinjuck west of Yass many times, in my peregrinations I had only once driven in once, and balked at the entrance fee. So all I got was a sense of how winding and thin the road in is, and a view of a lake on which powerboats cut noisy swathes through the water. It takes about half-an-hour to wind down into the dam. The last section takes a deep U bend and buildings appear along the side of the narrow road. There are a number of buildings that hang on the steep walls of the valley. I drove through until I came to a locked gate in a two-metre chain link fence. There were many ‘No admittance’ signs, but one said that if you wanted admission you needed to drop into the office about 500m back up the road. ‘Why not’ I thought. They can only say no. There was a man on a phone outside the office, trying ...

  January 2021   The forest, when I reached it and left the open plain, was glorious. It had not been burnt last year and brought back to me how much we have lost. There were tall mountain ash trees. I could see someone had driven up the trail recently. Just a few places where the tread was in the mud, or the moisture was gone from the grass. I wondered what someone else would be doing up here. The path climbed up for a while and then swung right down to a bend. There was a clearing here and I could see out onto the plain, and see the course of the creek back to my left. Another small stream ran out onto the plain at this point, and I could hear it burbling in the gullies. I was in cloud, and it was damp, but not wet, but a couple of times it started raining, more noticeable by the sound on the leaves than the droplets. The trail led up a gully. It was overgrown and rocky. I could hear the incipient Murrumbidgee rabbling in amongst the rocks. The track climbed up the...

  "In 2020, I decided that I would try to travel the entire length of the Murrumbidgee River ( Marrambidya Bila  in the Wiradjuri language of Aboriginal people from Wagga Wagga) - where I am living. It is one of the longest rivers in Australia, running 1,485 km from it’s source near Peppercorn Hill in the Kosciuszko National Park to Boundary Bend where it meets the Murray River. As I am a practicing regional artist I decided that this would be an art project and that I would document the journey. This site will be part of that documentation. I have called it Riding the Scorpion's Tail because the way the river curls from deep in Kosciusko National Park, passing close to Canberra, and curling again to flow down to Gundagai, before flowing west to meet the Murray at Boundary Bend near Balranald. “I would like to acknowledge that the river was of vital importance to Aboriginal people for many thousands of years before the Colonists arrived. It runs through the lands of the Ng...