The area is thought to have been occupied by the Bangarang
Aborigines prior to white settlement. Charles Sturt
explored the the Murray downstream of the present townsite in 1830
and, in 1838, he led a droving party with 300 head of cattle
through the district, en route to South Australia. Cobram station
was taken up in 1845 by Octavius Phillpotts.
The Land Acts of the 1860s opened up the district to small
landowners. The first arrived in 1872 and by the 1880s most of the
land was settled by wheat-growing selectors, although
diversification had occurred by the end of the century as intensive
wheat farming was depleting the soil.
Cobram is the Victoria's stone fruit capital and the
harvest is celebrated by the Peaches and Cream Festival held
biennally on Australia Day.
Cobram, and in particular, Thompson's Bend is very
popular for picnics and water sports with access to wide sandy
beaches.
The water skiers and canoeists, however, get a run for their
money from anglers who are drawn to this section of the Murray by
the promise of catches of cod, bream and yellowbelly.
This area is also popular for it's great tasting wines such as
Tyrrell’s Heritage Farm which can be found 5kms west of town,
which boasts a 115-metre wood-carving of early Murray River scenes.
Kramner Wines lies just east of Cobram and Monichino
Wineries to the south near Katunga.
Cobram has also become even more well known throughout
Australia recently with local lass Aleisha taking out Big
Brother 07.
Thompson's Beach has also been the location for many great music
concerts over the years. I remember coming to see (don't laugh!) -
Noiseworks, Midnight Oil, Johnny Diesel & The Injectors, and
Darryl Braithwaite back in my youth.
More recently (well several years ago), I managed to volunteer
along with micaparamedic in an ambulance/first aid support role for
a concert with Silverchair as the main act. It was pretty
impressive indeed and we were able to stand at the side of the
stage whilst the boys belted out a few tunes. It was our job to try
and rescue anyone that got too excited, deafened, or crushed. It
was entertaining (and hard work) seeing the shenanigans from the
other side as the effects of alcohol, music, alcohol, limited
clothing, alcohol, and stuff that wasn't alcohol took effect. We
saw several full moons that night and they were not all in the
sky!
This cache will take you to something old and something new. No
prizes for what that will be! GZ should be pretty familiar to many
geocachers and I apologise for our limited imagination, however, it
was just one of those days we went for a drive and found a great
spot for a cache.
The cache container is a small ammo container hidden in a standard
geocaching spot.
Contents include log book, pen, and swaps if you so desire. Have
fun!