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Daily ramblings from the Edward River

The Edwards is one of the longest anabranches on the Murray. The river starts at Picnic Pt and runs down past Deniliquin and Moulamein before joining the Wakool River a few kilometres above Kyalite. It rejoins the Murray about 55 km upstream from Boundary Bend. The combined length is 435 km, a 71 km shortcut if my maths is correct. Without knowing of a way to access Picnic Pt by public transport, I done the trip paddling from Tocumwal to Boundary Bend. The entire trip was a tad under 600 km from start to finish.

I left my yak beside my camp on the VIC crown reserve downstream of Tocumwal and my car parked at the Boundary Bend camping ground ($3 per night). V/Line buses connect the two towns, slightly painful 9 hrs journey with breaks, just 3.5 hrs driving. NSW options from Euston to Tocumwal were even worse and had an extra 100 km of paddling between Boundary Bend and Euston / Robinvale.

The regulator into Edwards was fully open as I past by with 2,500 ML/day heading down into the system. There was a small portage here and another at Stevens Weir, the only two of the trip. Stevens Weir was a fairly simple portage, up onto the leeve on the left, maybe about 100 m walk on even ground.

As you leave the Murray, the river is best described as a small forested creek with low banks. Within a few kilometres it turns into a flooded forest with water as far as you see through the trees before finally forming into a river around Edwards Bridge. At this point the river had grown significantly in size. Further floodplains are seen downstream before the confluence of Gulpa Creek. This is the point where you start getting high banks that constricts all of the water escaping the Barmah Choke back together.

I had a combined flow of 15,000 ML/day at this point. At this level it was a very fast flowing river in moderate flood and care was required not to wrap my boat around a tree or worse.

The river slows as you reach the ute capital of Australia, Deniliquin. There is a IGA and Coles here for supplies, a water tap beside the exercise equipment 500 m downstream of the bridge. It's 70 km downstream of Picnic Pt and 165 km from Tocumwal.

Leaving Deniliquin I had a 2 to 3 kph flow assist that felt like still water compared to the flow upstream. This flow assist lasted all the way down to the Wakool. The banks start to recede leaving Deniliquin and by the time I reached the Werai Forest they had disappeared completely. There is an old low bridge around here to duck under, the only intact low bridge on the river to watch out for. There is another low farm bridge upstream but one section has been removed allowing easy passage.

Leaving the forest the banks begin again. From here it is fairly straightforward paddling through mostly farmland down to the Wakool and out onto the Murray itself.

Towards the end I was well ahead of the main flow but I was still on a fairly high flow with 7,000 ML/day at Moulamein and over 14,000 ML/day on the Wakool.

Moulamein is 200 km downstream of Deniliquin and has a large general store, an IGA Express but I didn't see any taps / fountains for water when I past through. From here it's about 200 km to Boundary Bend.

Kyalite has a camping ground and pub that may be able to provide some supplies. Access via the boat ramp.

Map of Key Locations

• Toocumwal
• Picnic Point
• Deniliquin
• Stevens Weir
• Moulamein
• Kyalite
• Boundary Bend
• Campsites
• Water Features