We wake to a windy morning with occasional showers, but it doesn’t disrupt the early morning bird chorus. After a walk around town we travel along the Tailem Bend road to the Murrundi Wetlands Reserve, a natural wetland with plenty of birds and frogs, the walking track is an ideal way to explore this wetland.
The ferry crossing the Murray River is always delightful and then we explore the Pangarinda Botanical Garden. This is another community park, and includes an excellent collection of native plants, many from Western Australia many were in flower and the bushland was equal to any of the bushland we saw in Western Australia. There were some spectacular flowering species.
We continue south east along the Narrung peninsula that borders Lake Albert and Lake Alexandrina, passing through the community of Narrung and stopping at the indigenous community of Raukkan to explore the historic buildings and wetlands. We have sighted 100’s of Pelicans, Terns, Eurasian Coots and Cormorants, the lakes have sheltered reedy inlets and shorelines which were utilised by these birds during the windy conditions. This is a fascinating region wetlands, wildlife and interesting characters, such as the bush ranger John Peggotty who rode upon an Ostrich. The information on David Unaipon, indigenous man born at Raukkan, also featured on the $50 note, was enlightening but not surprising given how his people have been treated by past governments and the broader community.
Unaipon took out provisional patents for 19 inventions but was unable to afford to get any of his inventions fully patented. His most successful invention (provisional patent 15 624), was a shearing machine that converted curvilinear motion into the straight line movement which is the basis of modern mechanical shears. It was introduced without Unaipon receiving any financial return and apart from a 1910 newspaper report acknowledging him as the inventor, he received no credit. Other inventions included a centrifugal motor, a multi-radial wheel and a mechanical propulsión devico. He was also known as the Australian Leonardo da Vinci for his nechanical ideas, which included pre World War I drawings for a helicopter design based on the principle of the boomerang and his research into the polarisation of light. He spent much of his life attempting to achieve perpetual motion.
Onto Meningie for a late lunch and then to 42 Mile campground situated in the Coorong National Park for the night. The campground sits behind tall sand dunes which protect us from the winds, it is calm and peaceful and there is an abundance of birds and kangaroos.
