SOUTHERN HIGHLANDS ROAD TRIP:DENILIQUIN

Beverley

From an island sanctuary!

Deniliquin is an easy drive from Echuca, once again via Mathoura. It has a population of about eight thousand, about half the size of Echuca. It's also at the junction of the Riverina, so lots of local produce, and agriculture (especially a great merino heritage).

We parked near the Deniliquin Tourist Bureau and walked down a ramp to a path on the side of the Edward river and walked to an area of river red gum called Island Sanctuary. This is 400 hectares of bushland with pathways around and through it, and a covered picnic area for lunch. The walk was spectacular both alongside the waterways, the river as well as a part of Tarangle Creek which joins the Edward River. We could normally have extended out walk through the Murray Valley Regional Park but there had been controlled burns so we could not walk to Willoughby’s beach as planned. 

The most interesting bird -- if not the prettiest -- was the noisy friar bird which true to its name, announced itself loudly from the treetops. It is such a fascinating looking bird reminding us that birds are living remnants of the dinosaurs.

Some days it seems we get to focus on one particular bird in the photography department. Even though yellow rosellas were prolific, they were very elusive. They called and wheeled and posed (briefly) in the branches of the trees.

But today was the day for the pink and grey galahs, as usual noisy and argumentative.

 We also saw many small birds, including this one - a grey shrike-thrush.

As we returned across the bridge and headed for home, we both thought out loud about how great it would be to see a kingfisher ...  sure enough, as if on cue, an azure kingfisher materialised with its catch of the day. ​ It's such a tiny bird, and moves so quickly, there are very difficult to catch. We didn't even notice the other little yellow bird in the shot!

The other interesting thing about Island Sanctuary is that Google maps makes it look like it's underwater in something called Park Lagoon. We learnt that the area gets flooded to substantial depth at times and this explained to us the discrepancy with the tourist information map. ​

There are other walks in town along parks and waterways close to the shopping area and suburban parts of town making us think we have plenty of reasons for another visit here. But tomorrow's another day - and lucky for us, ours is in Deniliquin!