If that cap was breached, landholders between Lake Hume and Yarrawonga had to right to take legal action.

The other significant event had been the decision to remove willow trees from the river’s banks.

“Removing the willows was the right decision because they create havoc,” Daryl said.

“Once the willows were removed it showed how much they had clogged up the river.”

Ironically, in the 1960s, Les had been given the job of cutting willow pieces for planting around Lake Mulwala.

“I was paid a shilling for each piece of willow I cut,” Les said.

The advent of higher irrigation flows had had the positive result of river authorities becoming aware of erosion problems and carrying out more restoration work.

Each member of the family has particular memories of times and events on and by the river.

“To me, the river is the river,” Daryl said.

“It is just magic.

“When I was a kid we used to catch redfin whenever we liked.

“We would go down with a tin of worms, catch 20 or 30 redfin and then come home for more worms.”

Gary recalled the best fishing, usually for trout, was when the river would flood in August and September.

As the river spilled over the grassy flats and hollows, he and his brothers would catch anything up to 20 or 30 trout.

The trout were still there but were nowhere near as plentiful.

Gary recalled that 45 years ago they used to catch tench, but had not caught or seen the species for many years.

But yellowbelly were now more plentiful.

“I remember as a kid there were experienced fishermen who would go out and catch a 50 or 60 pound cod, but we have not heard of anyone catching a cod that size for a while now.”

Les said the biggest cod he ever saw was 91 pounds and it had been caught by Wally Clarke in the early 1940s.

Les said he had lived by the river for 81 years and Shirley for 61 years.

“The river is no different now from what I first remember of it,” he said.

“It is a good friend, but a bad enemy.

“In times of flood you put up with a lot — floods are the enemy, but if you live on a river you expect these things.”

Les recalled that when the river was in flood he would row his boat down to the rail bridge, walk along the railway line and go to the pictures and when they were finished he would walk back to boat and row home.

“When I was courting Shirley I would row to the railway, walk across the bridge and into Wodonga.”

The boys recalled that when they were young they were always warned about the danger of the river and told to stay away from it, otherwise the “big lob” would get them.

“There used to be a log in the river that would rise and fall with the current and my mother would tell the kids that if they went near the river without an adult, the big lob would get them,” Shirley said.

Byron said they had always been taught to respect the river.

“I swam the river twice — once across and once back,” he said.

“You give it that respect.

“At flood time is when you see the river at full power; it is a big adrenaline rush.

“When you live on the river all your life the river flows through your veins. It is part of our livelihood, too.”

While the river is the livelihood for countless families along much of its 2530km, and a playground for fishers,

boaters and paddlers, it can also be a river of death.

The river’s power and unpredictability was rammed home in September 1991 when three men and a boy, 9, drowned while battling floodwater trying to make to their home on Brown’s Island.

A woman was the only survivor.

“They did not respect the river,” Daryl said.

“It was dark, raining and the river was in flood and the boat was overloaded.”

What is the future for the family and “Willow Bank”?

“We hope to leave behind a good legacy,” Byron said.

“In 50 to 70 years this will be a public treasure — we treat it as a treasure.”

Canoeists find friendship and fulfilment when afloat

FOR members of the Mitta Mitta Canoe Club the Murray River is all that is good in life.

It is a friend and a source of friendships; it is a retreat where the woes of life simply wash away with the water as it makes its long, arduous journey to the sea; it is a window to the wonders of Mother Nature; it is a testing ground; a proving ground.

A river of fulfilment.

James Sloan and Tony Zerbst have a special affinity with our greatest river; an affinity that has been nurtured over 35 years in Tony’s case and 28 years in James’s case.

Mr Zerbst, a teacher, calculates that he has paddled something like 70,000km on the river, including numerous Murray River canoe marathons.

Mr Sloan, a solicitor, does not know how many kilometres he has paddled, but agrees it would be thousands.

In fact, it was the mighty river that convinced Mr Sloan to call Albury home.

He first came to Albury-Wodonga in 1980 for his first job after qualifying as a solicitor.

He met Colin Joss, a builder and a keen paddler, and became hooked on the river — an association that saw him gain selection in Australia’s national team.

Mr Sloan left Albury and lived in the UK for 18 months.

“When I decided to return to Australia I had a lot of job offers but I came back to Albury because of the river,” he said.

“It inspires me.

“All paddlers have a close connection with the river; we know every bit of it.

“There are lots of places you can go; lots of anabranches.

“This is the best part of the river in my opinion.

“The thing here is that we live in a major town but I can leave work at 5.15pm and by 5.30pm I can be up the river, 100 miles from anywhere, and that is something you can’t do anywhere else.”

He returned to Albury in December 1982, the height of another drought, but the river was running full pelt, unlike now, after nine years of drought.

Mr Sloan said the river at Albury was ideal for long distance paddling.

“This river makes people tough because it has fast flowing water and you paddle upstream, and when the river is higher we paddle downstream and then paddle back up through annabranches such as Carroll’s Creek and Wodonga Creek,” he said.

“You never get tired of the river.”

Cities built on wealth from water

THE Murray River has always been the great divide between Albury and Wodonga; a physical and psychological barrier between two communities that have grown into two of Australia’s best regional cities.

But the river and its Wodonga Creek anabranch have been the single most important element in their growth.

The river has given both cities a certain and basically limitless water supply, an essential ingredient for the growth of any community.

The guarantee of unlimited, cheap water has been a crucial marketing tool for both councils to attract commercial and industrial development and the people that come with such development.

But the drought that has ravaged south-east Australia for more than a decade has hammered home the reality that the Murray River is a finite resource.

The river sustains many cities and towns on it long, winding course to the Southern Ocean at Goolwa in South Australia, but Albury is the second biggest user behind Adelaide. Wodonga uses about half as much water as Albury.

Despite Albury’s and Wodonga’s reliance on the Murray River, neither city has used the river in a commercial way to boost tourism, retail and residential development.

Apart from the chequered history of the paddlesteamer Cumberoona, all efforts to create commercial development on or near the river in Albury has floundered in the face of fierce environmental objections.

Albury Council’s group leader of water and waste water engineering Colin Johnson said the city’s annual allocation was 12,274 megalitres, but with the present regime of restrictions the city was restricted to 6127 megalitres.

Last year Albury had used 6008 megalitres.

“We are still on the same arrangements this year but we are using 10?per cent to 12?per cent more water than the same time last year,” Mr Johnson said.

“Once our rainfall situation improves I can see us going back to 90?per cent of our allocation.”

Mr Johnson said the closest Albury had come to using its full allocation was in 1997-98 when it used 12,153.2 megalitres.

Mr Johnson said the variation in restrictions between the states was an issue and NSW water authorities were pushing for a system of standardised restrictions across Australia so that stage three restrictions would be the same, regardless of where you lived.

While Albury enjoyed a high allocation of 12,274 megalitres, in times of peak irrigation flows, the city’s total allocation would flow past Albury in just 13½ hours.

“Towns are being asked to impose restrictions and cut back on their water consumption, but if you add up all the towns’ water it is probably not even 1?per cent of the water extracted from the river,” Mr Johnson said.

“It is great for people to be mindful of water use but it is not going to produce any extra water for the Barmah forest or the wetlands.”

Albury council supported Federal Government control of the Murray River.

Mr Johnson said the council was working with the various authorities to get approval to discharge treated water from the Water View treatment works into the Murray River.

Any discharge to the river would not affect Wonga Wetlands.