The small town of Strathmerton is located on the Murray
Valley Highway about 15 km west of Cobram and 229 km north of
Melbourne. The surrounding land was taken up by Benjamin
Boyd in 1841 and he initially named his property
'Ulupna' but later changed it to Strathmerton from
'Merton', the name of his family home in England, and 'strath'
meaning 'valley'.
Today, Strathmerton's main claim to fame is the large
Kraft cheese factory which employs
a large number of local people. Here are a few statistics that you
might find interesting:
* The Strathmerton site is 23,000 square metres in size and the
whole Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) could fit under the
roofline.
* If all the Kraft Singles produced at Strathmerton last year
were arranged side by side the distance would span the world 1.2
times
* There was enough Philadelphia cream cheese produced at the
Strathmerton site last year to make eight million cheesecakes
* There is enough Cream Cheese Spread produced at Strathmerton
each year to fill at least 14 Olympic size swimming pools.
* You could build 680 houses a year from Blue packet Cheddar
cheese
* If each Kraft Cheese Stick was arranged end to end they would
stretch from Perth to Wellington (5,200 km)
* If you stacked all the canned cheese produced last year end to
end they would span from Melbourne to Townsville.
Now where's the cheese Grommet?
Ulupna Island is a 2833 ha reserve located to the north of
Strathmerton where you will find some pleasant natural sandy
beaches and plenty of Aussie flora and fauna.
Ulupna Island includes part of the Barmah State
Forest and Barmah State Park and is best described as an
open River Red Gum forest as it has seen very little grazing, timer
cutting, and less frequent flooding than the Barmah-Millewa
forests.
The area is an oasis for wildlife and includes driving and
walking tracks. See if you can spot some of the 180 native plant
species and 120 birds including the rare Peregrine falcon,
the Superb Parrot, the White-bellied sea-eagle and
the Bush Thick-knee.
One of the most popular sites are the koalas that can be
seen high, and sometimes low, in the Red Gums. The koalas
became extinct from this area in 1902 and were successfully
reintroduced in 1976. You will be surprised in the numbers of
koalas that you will find if you go for a bit of the
'stretch of the legs'. You may also be able to spot some Eastern
Grey Kangaroos and we saw a large number of them close to
GZ.
There is also a 'historic' section of the Murray River (called
Dead River where in the early 1900's the Murray 'jumped' and
left its former course behind to dry up.
Below is a picture of GeoJnr providing an example of how
to look for the koalas.
The cache container is a small ammo container hidden in a standard
geocaching spot. GPS was a little shakey at GZ but should bring you
pretty close.
Contents include log book, pen, and swaps if you so desire.
CAUTION!!!
Although we did not see any when we placed the cache we have
been warned about the existence of Drop Bears.
The Drop Bear is a tree dwelling, carnivorous mammal that
can grow to around 4 feet in height. It is believed to have evolved
from a similar line to koalas but are extremely strong. They
are covered in a dense fur, which can range from almost black to
the Alpine Drop Bear's snowy white coat. They have broad
shoulders and razor sharp claws on all four limbs. They are able to
walk for short distances on two legs, but are much faster on all
four, being capable of bursts of speed approaching 60 km/h at full
gallop. Their heads are similar to those of koalas, but with
enlarged canine teeth, not unlike those of bears or other
carnivorous animals. There are no reported photographs of them, and
only a select and very lucky few have laid eyes on them and lived
to tell the tale. You have been warned!