About 15Km North of Deniliquin NSW the home of the Ute Muster, is the township (read pub) of Pretty Pine. From here if you take the Moulamein
Dawhilly Road to the Old Morago Road then proceed to the Edward River you will find the Old Morago station.
As a kid I camped here with my family in the late 60's and over 40 years later I went back. Back then I can remember getting over 60 Red Fin from one hole and carving a deep sign with a tommahawk into a gum tree that read "Fish" and an arrow pointing down.
I remembered the Old Morago Station, situated on the Edward River and how we went through a gate here and drove past the 'mission' before proceeding on into Morago State Forest. Moonacullah Mission is parcel of land set aside for Aboriginal use under the jurisdiction of the NSW Aboriginal Welfare Board, Moonacullah Mission housed some 12 to 14 families.
The Edward River is an
anabranch of the Murray River. The river starts at Picnic Point near
Mathoura and runs to
Deniliquin and
Moulamain before joining the Wakool River at
Kyalite and re enters the Murray River upstream of
Boundary Bend.
These days you enter the gate, proceed past sheds and a grove of fruit trees where part of the mission used to be, to a second gate. That gate has a sign warning that its private property and you can't do 'anything' here. Fair enough you've got to respect the owners rights but you can use the road to get into the Morago State Forest. Along this track you go over a cattle grid and then a third gate and after that you are in the state forest. As far as I can tell its the only way into the forest on this side of the Edward River.
I traversed the track along the river till it ends at Mutton Gut Lagoon then back to the campsite
*Track Logged Here*. I also think I found and stayed at our original camp site
*here*. The river and general area matched my memory and I even found an old tree with scarring right at the campsite and where I expected it to be, that 'may' have been from my original carving? Who knows? I caught 1 pan sized
Silver Perch, which are protected in NSW so released it and several
Carp which I permanently relocated to Hell.
Nikon D300, Nikkor 50mm f1.4D @ ISO 200, 50mm f16, 1/160 sec
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Nikon D300, Nikkor 50mm f1.4D @ ISO 200, 50mm f16, 1/160 sec
Click on photo for larger image view
Nikon D300, Nikkor 50mm f1.4D @ ISO 200, 50mm f16, 1/100 sec
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Nikon D300, Nikkor 50mm f1.4D @ ISO 200, 50mm f16, 1/160 sec
Click on photo for larger image view
Nikon D300, Nikkor 50mm f1.4D @ ISO 200, 50mm f16, 1/180 sec
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Nikon D300, Nikkor 50mm f1.4D @ ISO 200, 50mm f16, 1/100 sec
Click on photo for larger image view
Nikon D300, Nikkor 50mm f1.4D @ ISO 200, 50mm f16, 1/80 sec
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I even got 8 litres to 100 Km out of the ute with my new 3" Tiapan mandrel bent exhaust on this trip. A nice touch.
Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2D @ ISO 500, 35mm f2.8, 1/80 sec
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