Welcome to Australia....

Over the last couple of days we have moved up to Albury, still on the Murray river, still within the navigable area.

As we travelled we came across a man made lake that had been flooded in 1919, but leaving all the trees in the valley standing. All died of course, but the red gum trees are still standing, as I said yesterday, they are virtually indestructible. A fisherman's heaven is the result as the fish breed and live among the dead trunks.
At one point we had to divert some 80kms around a flooded town, Nathalia has had problems for the last two weeks, it is virtually suurounded by flood water.

Further along we crossed a weird bridge, the Murray being the boundary between Victoria and New South Wales, before federation the two states had totally different governments, different taxes, and rarely talked together. Two bridges were started- from each side of the river, at different heights and on different lines, and it wasn't till they were half built that it was decided that they should meet midstream. So frantic redesigning took place, resulting in a bridge that rises and curves in the middle.

A museum in Albury features the migrants who came here in the thirty years after the second world war, who were initially housed in Barrack blocks near the city. We found this so interesting that we spent the afternoon at Block 19, in some of the original buildings that were used.

The earlier occupants were refugees after the war, mostly from the Balkans, Greece, Italy and the Soviet countries, they were encouraged to learn English as without it they could not be employed. They had spent six weeks on the ocean to reach Melbourne, to be immediately put on a train for the six hour journey to Bonegilla, where they disembarked into a field and walked up to three miles to their huts, carrying the one suitcase that they could bring with them.

Conditions at that time were rather bleak, the men were housed in seperate 20 bed dormitories from the women and children, all were fed cafeteria style with army type rations, and some became disillusioned with the life even though they spent only a short time there before they were sent off to labour in Steel works, or civil construction and the like.

Many had been back since the centre reopened as a hertige museum, and we read a  visitors book with many remarks that showed the mixed feelings that the residents had about the camp.

Later residents were a little more fortunate, the barracks were converted into seperate rooms about 4mtrs by 3 mtrs, meant to take a family, or perhaps two rooms for a large family. Many rooms could only take two single beds and a wardrobe, and the one suitcase that most had brought with them from their home countries.

It was impossible not to be moved by the stories we read, the many children who died from diseases like measles and tuberculosis despite the best efforts of the doctors here.

It seemed the "Ten Pound Poms" who came here had much better treatment in camps nearer Melbourne, invariably their trade qualifications would be accepted, which was not the case with the Europeans who came to this area. 

Later we drove to the Hume dam, it took 17 years to build between 1919 and 1936, and now generates sufficient electricity for 85,000 homes, as well as irrigating much of the upper Murray valley, and providing drinking water for the area. However all of this is controversial, as less than 4% of the river reaches the sea, and there is a danger that the river can become salinated in it's lower reaches, so the federal Governemt has stepped in to resolve the problem by limiting the amount that can be taken out. Consequently we see notices throughout the area exhorting us to save water- all this despite the floods we had to divert round yesterday! 

Time for Rotary- we attended Albury North club where we heard a young ex youth exchange boy tell us about a charity he has started which will build a village for the disposessed of The Phillipines. He is just 22 years old, and has already raised a large amount of money towards his aim, and we have no doubt he will succeed in building a village of 100 homes in the next few years.

The club itself raises $80,000 a year from a weekly market they hold- rather puts our club's fundraising in the shade!