Gone are the big, sweeping bends and sandbanks that characterise the river below Yarrawonga-Mulwala.

Instead the banks rise barely a metre, the bends are much closer together and much sharper.

And, on each side, is the largest river red gum forest in Australia – 66,000ha of flood plain stretching from Tocum­wal to Echuca.

The forest, which becomes a vast inland sea when floods flow down the river, is home to emus, brumbies, snakes, goannas and countless species of birds.

This stretch of river is also famous for the Barmah Choke, narrow section that extends for several kilometres between Picnic Point and the bottom end of Barmah Lakes.

According to the Murray-Darling Basin Commission, the Barmah Choke was formed about 25,000 years ago when an earth movement caused a slight uplift of land and created the Cadell tilt block.

It eventually changed the course, pattern and character of the river for about 500km.

The commission website says the uplift dammed the Murray and Goulburn rivers and created a shallow lake.

The Murray found a new course around the northern side of the block, now known as the Wakool channel.

The river bed it created is the Edwards River today.

The Goulburn River continued to feed the lake, but it eventually broke out and about 8000 years ago the Murray turned south, breaking through the section between Picnic Point and Barmah.

The section where the Murray cut through is the Barmah Choke because of its limited capacity to carry flows.

The Choke creates problems getting irrigation water downstream of Echuca in times of high demand.

These problems are compounded when Menindee Lakes storage is low and South Australia requires most of its water from Lake Hume and Lake Dartmouth and Lake Victoria.

The commission has started a study to investigate current and potential water supply and environmental risks associated with the Barmah Choke, while recognising that the choke performs an important function in flooding the Barmah-Millewa Forest.

The commission said the study would identify options that were technical favourable, with a more detailed assessment of social, economic and environmental impacts to follow.

A broad range of options had been identified for assessment, from large infrastructure concepts through to altered operational rules or policy changes.

The “large infrastructure” concepts are believed to include a major channel around the choke.

Should such a channel be a preferred option the choke and the iconic red gum forests it sustains will become an environmental battlefield.

Travel far and wide led pair to their ‘paradise’

RAY and Margaret Jeffries cannot believe their luck.

Their home, when they are not on the road, is Tarragon Holiday Park, slap bang on the Murray River at Picnic Point.

To them, this is paradise.

Retirement at the end of September meant they had to find a new home so they headed off in their motorhome and spent weeks touring around Victoria looking, in vain, for the spot they wanted.

So they returned to where they had worked for the past decade, the Four Post youth camp on the Edwards River at Deniliquin and found themselves chatting with a woman who happened to live at Tarragon.

“She said we would love it here so we came for a look, loved what we saw, found a two-bedroom holiday cottage for sale and bought it,” Margaret said.

“We drove right around Victoria and this was under our nose.”

The idyllic holiday park stretches for hundreds of metres along the NSW bank of the river.

It is a combination of iconic river red gums, lush lawns and villas of various sizes, many with private jetties.

Ducks, kangaroos and various other wildlife abound.

Ray and Margaret love their fishing.

But when Margaret is not fishing she walks the river’s bank and surrounds and has just started kayaking.

Ray spends hours

photographing the river and then re-creating

the scenes via various

media.

“After 10 years on the Edwards River we got to love the lifestyle and just could not bear the thought of going back to live in town,” Margaret said.

“We love it here. It is just the tranquillity of the place.

“There are lots of birds and every morning we get a visit from some kangaroos.”

Ray and Margaret happily describe themselves as grey nomads who happen to live in a delightful spot right beside the mighty Murray River.

Barmah’s trees part of family

KELVIN Trickey is the fourth generation of his family to graze cattle in the Barmah Forest.

His son, Stuart, is the fifth and his grand-daughter Zoe Morris is the sixth with her first muster under her belt at the tender age of 12.

But Mr Trickey fears his family’s links with this iconic red gum forest will end if it is declared a national park.

His role as president of the Barmah Forest Cattle­men’s Association has seen him become a leader in the fight to stop the forest becoming a national park.

He said he had been with cattle in the forest since he was a “little fellow”.

He said the forest had suffered because of a lack of funding from a succession of state governments, which meant there had not been sufficient thinning of trees or proper maintenance of bridges.

“The people coming in now (Parks Victoria and Department of Sustainability and Environment) do not understand the forest,” Mr Trickey said.

“Also, we have a Government opposed to logging, grazing and timber cutting and wants to lock it up and let it burn to the ground, and the forest is suffering because of that.

“It is also suffering because of the drought.”

Mr Trickey said when he first started riding horses in the forest he could see another rider 800m away.

“Now we carry walkie-talkies because you can’t see someone 100m away because there is nowhere near as much thinning of the forest.”

Mr Trickey said cattle kept the forest floor clear.

Reduced cattle grazing had led to a build-up of undergrowth and debris and he feared the debris would create natural weirs when the forest flooded and force water into places it should not be.

Cattle also controlled introduced grasses such as wild oats, rye grass, white clovers and paspallum, as well as weeds such as Paterson’s curse.

Mr Trickey said cattle did do some damage to the forest, mainly where they were forced to cross in a particular spot because of the way the river was being managed.

But he strongly rejects claims that cattle and logging are permanently damaging the forest.

Mr Trickey said Barmah Island, which had not been grazed for two years, was a catastrophe waiting to happen.

He said he loved the forest.

“It gets in your blood,” he said.

“You work your guts out there for a week at a time but it is a lifestyle, your culture.

“It is magic to me – riding your horse through the reeds and the creeks and seeing all the little marsupials and snakes.

“It is a place we love and the last thing we are going to do is damage it; of course you love the place. You get to love it; you can’t do without it.

“Going through the big reed beds and then you come to a creek and you cross it; it is just bloody magic.

“But if they lock it up it is going to burn.”

Forest a burning issue

THE Barmah Forest is officially designated as one of the Murray River’s icon sites.

And little wonder.

It is a beautiful, intriguing part of the Murray River.

For years the forest has been logged for its timber while cattle have long grazed there.

But it’s the centre of a tug of war.

The environmentalists want the forest declared a national park and an end to logging and cattle grazing.

On the other side the timber cutters and cattlemen say to end logging and grazing and to effectively lock up the forest would be an environmental disaster.

For Peter Mortimer, of Nathalia, the Barmah Forest has been part of his life for almost 40 years.

He first started work in the forest at age 14, helping cut and snig logs for his grandfather’s sawmills.

Mr Mortimer said the Victorian Government and the Victorian Environmental Assessment Commission appeared to have an agenda.

“I think it (the timber and wood cutting industry) would eventually be shut down, but I hope not because it will be to the detriment of the forest.

“That coupled with a grazing ban will mean the fuel will keep building and building and if we get a fire it will destroy everything.

“The do-gooders want to lock the joint up, but the red gum forest needs thinning.”

Mr Mortimer said the forest was different today than when he first started working in it.

“There are probably more trees,” he said.

“If the bush is locked up, I would hold grave concern for it because it would only be a matter of time before it burns.”