Up Swifts Creek...

Our adventures continue with a return trip to the magnificent Murray Valley National Park. This time, we crossed the border into NSW and camped at a National Park campsite called Swifts Creek. It was a peaceful and private campsite, surrounded by towering river red gums and perched on the banks of a deep and cool creek system. The well-maintained boat ramp doubled as a launching pad for swimming in the cool running water. A most welcome activity on a hot day.

With this as our base, we confined our travels to the northern and southern regions of the park, from Edwards River near Mathoura down to Moira Lake at Barmah. Most of the time was spent in the campsite, watching local fishermen enjoying the creek, admiring the prolific and varied bird life, walking through the forest and relaxing by the sun-dappled creek.

Up Swifts Creek with a camper trailer

After travelling around 30km north of the bustling township of Moama on the border of Victoria and NSW, our trusty Offline Domino camper trailer turned off the highway and took us deep into the forest to reach the creek campsite.

Whilst the surrounding forest was dry, the creek was flowing deeply. Lots of birds and animals were sighted living close to the creek and in the quieter parts of the forest. We set up camp in a lovely location overlooking the creek and settled in for a relaxing few days.

It's always a great thrill to take the camper trailer into remote parts of Australia. The ease of set-up, off-grid technology and facilities at our finger-tips makes camping so easy and enjoyable.

The first day was overcast, showery and reasonably cool, so we managed to get some lovely shots of our first sunset by the creek.

On arrival at camp, we were greeted by a large flock of nankeen night herons flying upstream. It was a surprise to see so many of these secretive birds in the open and in such large numbers. They roosted in the trees across from our campsite for the rest of the day. It was great to see the fishermen out on the water vying for the elusive Murray Cod and camping overnight to share stories of the one that got away.

Some of the birds around the campsite offered entertainment. A couple of superb fairywrens spent most of their day fluttering around the car's side mirrors in a frenzy of territorial activity. The Triton will need a good wash!

The sacred kingfisher was calling loudly throughout the day and Jim managed to get some amazing shots of a bird as it darted in and out of a tree hollow right next to our campsite. Their movements are so quick, so getting a tiny bird like this, travelling at speed, in focus, is quite a feat!

We saw lots of different birds on this adventure as well as some swamp wallabies and eastern grey kangaroos. The Murray Valley is home to over 60 threatened native animal species and 40 threatened plant species. It also contains part of the largest contiguous river red gum forest in the southern hemisphere. It's an absolute treasure-trove for nature lovers.

Edward River

We visited the Edward River and surrounding region, travelling north through the Murray Valley National Park. The Edward River is an anabranch of the Murray River. It rises just east of Mathoura and travels north to Deniliquin. At the Edward Bridge campsite, a local artist has created the Sculpture in the Red Gums which describes the history of the river red gum forest.

Along the way, we stopped in at the Reed Beds Bird Hide. This is a thoughtfully designed and well constructed bird hide that sits in a permanent wetland area of the park. A boardwalk into the wetland offers educational material about the birds that occupy and visit the wetland. Most of the land was fairly dry, so there weren't a lot of water birds present during our visit. However, it was a good place to watch some acrobatic swamp harriers diving and soaring in the distance over a bright green field of swamp, reeds and grasses.

Moira Lake - Barmah Forest

Heading south, we crossed the border into Victoria to visit the great floodplain of the Barmah Forest and to view the massive lake system, called Moira Lake.

The 60,000 hectares Barmah-Millewa Forest, consisting of the Barmah Forest (Victoria) and the Millewa group of forests (New South Wales), forms the largest river red gum forest in the world. The Barmah Forest Ramsar site is an internationally recognised wetland and home to many native and migratory bird species. It's now a popular spot for camping, boating, swimming and fishing. We enjoyed a dip in the cool, shallow waters of the lake on a beautiful, sunny day and managed to find some waterbirds, including a pair of black-winged stilts wading in the shallows.

Next stop, travelling south to the Otways in Victoria.