Day 5 Saturday 29th (Jasmine’s Birthday…Absent parents again!) Balranald, From Riverbend and Rivergardens to Rivers!

 With most of the south of Australia caught up in a cold front with heavy rain, we were hopeful that we might avoid it but it was not to be. We left Gol Gol around 10 am heading the short distance to Balranald. We called into the small town of Robinvale to stretch our legs and a coffee break. This town would be one of the most multi-cultural, we had visited. Approximately 8,000 people live here and the majority of the population would be from Vietnam, Tonga, Indonesia with the older population being of Italian descent or Aboriginal decent. It makes for a very interesting main street. The town’s only hotel burnt down in 2015 and has never been rebuilt, so the town does not have a pub. Many Thai, Chinese and Vietnamese restaurants and cafes lined the street. We opted for coffee at a Vietnamese bakery and the coffee was good and the sausage roll passed the test too. We bought a vanilla slice to have later with lunch as I had read that the vanilla slices here are pretty good and there is an annual “Vanilla Slice” competition for this area! The journey to Balranald was uneventful and we checked into the caravan park, set up and had lunch. Balranald is located on the Murrumbidgee River and our caravan park is also on the river. Following lunch we drove out to the nearby, Yanga National Park. We had decided to do a self-guided audio tour of the old Yanga Homestead located on Yanga Lake. The early part of the homestead was built in 1850’s and added onto and reconstructed in 1866. We were the only people there and thoroughly enjoyed the tour. The lake on which the homestead was located is huge so big in fact, it has its own sailing club!  The last muster and shearing at Yanga was in 2005 and the station was then purchased by the state government. From here we drove out to the large Yanga Woolshed well over 100 years old, and once could accommodate over 3,000 sheep under cover. The shed was located on the banks on the Murrumbidgee as originally the bales of wool were taken to Echuca by paddle steamers. We also saw the “Blade Tree” located behind the wool shed. This tree was used by shearers in the pre-mechanical shears days. At the end of shearing and when the blades from the cutting shears were no longer able to be used, the blades were thrown into the trunk of the tree. A competition was held to see how high up the tree they could throw their blades. There are still blades embedded in the tree, probably well over 100 years old!