Tag Archives: The Riverland

An ode to my grandfather – Soldier Settler Vineyard

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I posted recently about my natural mother and her struggle with dementia. I mentioned in that post that I was privileged to have wonderful adoptive parents; however, in that post, I did not mention my grandparents, who on my father’s side were truly the kindest and most generous people you could ever wish to meet. As grandparents ourselves, their example is one we can only hope to match as to surpass them would be impossible.

My grandfather, who to this day remains the person I most admire,  was a World War 1 veteran, who took the opportunity to be part of the soldier settler scheme in the Riverland of South Australia. It was a vexed scheme with stories of true hardship and few of success. I am pleased to say my grandfather’s was one of moderate success. In part, I am sure, his pre-war education at Wagga Agricultural School was the major reason for this. Continue reading →

The Diary of a Slow Traveller – A roadtrip to Renmark

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The Riverland in South Australia brings back wonderful childhood memories for me. As my father was brought up on the River (The River Murray), it was a regular location for short family holidays in my childhood. So when the opportunity came to combine some data collection for my PhD research with a visit to Renmark, it was too good an opportunity to pass up.

Renmark is about 250kms or 3 hours from Adelaide. It’s a straight forward drive but on a road that has been notorious for crashes, no doubt because it’s a long and straight piece of road.

We left mid Sunday morning so we could visit a winery or two in the afternoon before having a dinner at the Renmark Hotel.

As we drove up My Favourite Person and I reminisced about the numerous road trips we’d done as kids. My Favorite Person has a very different view of road trips – I love them and she doesn’t!

Her reasons are sound, regular trips to Brisbane where her father made a beeline, stopping for nothing. For me it was quite different, I loved our trips.

A trip through Australia even if you don’t go into the outback is something quite special. The terrain changes quickly and the distances are large. On this trip we opted for the Sturt Highway rather than up the South Eastern Freeway and through Murray Bridge, the bumpy but quiet Karoonda Road through to Loxton and then the Sturt Highway to Renmark. The Sturt Highway is joined from Port Wakefield Road and is pretty much a straight trip, skirting the Barossa Valley and then hitting The River at Blanchtown and then over the Kingston Bridge, either taking the Sturt Highway bypass onto Renmark or going on the old road through Cobby (Cobdogla) and Berri where my father lived as a child, the son of a soldier settler and onto Renmark.

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