History of the Berri
Bridge
If you're new to the Riverland you
probably won't remember the days when ferries were the only way of
crossing the River Murray at Berri, but this all changed in July
1997 when the Berri Bridge was opened by the then Premier of South
Australia, Mr. John Olsen. Over 13,000 people attended the opening
creating the biggest crowd ever brought together in the
town.
The 300 metre long bridge was designed and
built within 13 months, it has 130 concrete filled steel tube piles
with 10 piers resting on top. The bridge has won five major awards
and is valued at approximately 17.5 million dollars.
Usually the ferries took about 20 minutes
to get across, but at very busy times of the day, it could take us
up to an hour - sometimes even longer. Every now and then a ferry
would break down and when that happened, there was only one ferry
instead of two, it might then have taken you several hours to get
to across the river on the one working ferry.
There were some initial doubts and
concerns about building the bridge, however everybody is now
delighted with the bridge. It's worked well for the Loxton
community, who now feel part of the Riverland, instead of being cut
off at the other side of the river.
Garry Duncan
As coordinator of the project, Garry
Duncan designed and created the mural (located at
S34 17.322 E140
35.962) with a team of four local indigenous
artists, Gladys Elsie Sumner, Shaun Karpany, Jason Karpany,
and Ikey Lindsay. The project design, a mural on a 16m x 4m
slab of jarrah bolted to the underpass of the bridge and a
circle of totem poles, is based on the Ngurunderi Dreaming
story of the origins of the River Murray.
The Ngurunderi Dreaming Story as told by
Albert Karloan (1939)
In the dreaming, Ngurunderi travelled down
the Murray River in a bark canoe, in search of his two wives who
had run away from him. At that time the river was only a small
stream below the junction with the Darling River.
A giant cod fish (Ponde) swam ahead of
Ngurunderi, widening the river with sweeps of its tail (Ponde's
tail also made swamps and cliffs along the way). Ngurunderi chased
the fish, trying to spear it from his canoe. Near Murray Bridge he
threw a spear, but it missed and was changed into Long Island
(Lenteilin). At Tailem Bend (Tagalang) he threw another spear; the
giant fish surged ahead and created a long straight stretch in the
river.
At last, with the help of Nepele (the
brother of Ngurunderi's wives), Ponde was speared after it had left
the Murray River and had swum into Lake Alexanderia.
Ngurunderi divided the fish with his stone
knife and created a new species of fish from each piece.
Meanwhile, Ngurunderi's two wives had made
camp. On their campfire they were cooking bony bream, a fish
forbidden to Ngarrindjeri women. Ngurunderi smelt the fish cooking
and knew his wives were close.
He abandoned his camp, and came after
them. His huts became two hills and his bark canoe became the Milky
Way.
Hearing Ngurunderi coming, his wives just
had time to build a raft of reeds and grass-trees and to escape
across Lake Albert. On the other side their raft turned back into
the reeds and grass-trees. The women hurried south.
Ngurunderi followed his wives as far south
as Kingston. Here he met a great sorcerer, Parampari. The two men
fought, using weapons and magic powers, until eventually Ngurunderi
won. He burnt Parampari's body in a huge fire, symbolised by
granite boulders today, and turned north along the Coorong beach.
Here he camped several times, digging soaks in the sand for fresh
water, and fishing in the Coorong lagoon.
Ngurunderi made his way across the Murray
Mouth and along the Encounter Bay coast towards Victor Harbour. He
made a fishing ground at Middleton by throwing a huge tree into the
sea to make a seaweed bed. Here he hunted and killed a seal: its
dying gasps can still be heard among the rocks. At Port Elliot he
camped and fished again, without seeing a sign of his wives. He
became angry and threw his spears into the sea at Victor Harbour,
creating the islands there.
Finally, after resting in a giant granite
shade-shelter on Granite Island (Kaike), Ngurunderi heard his wives
laughing and playing in the water near King's Beach. He hurled his
club to the ground, creating the Bluff (Longkuwar), and strode
after them.
His wives fled along the beach in terror
until they reached Cape Jervis. At this time Kangaroo Island (Karta
- the land of the dead) was still connected to the mainland (18,000
years ago), and the two women began to hurry across to it.
Ngurunderi had arrived at Cape Jervis though, and seeing his wives
still fleeing from him, he called out in a voice of thunder for the
waters to rise. The women were swept from their path by huge waves
and were soon drowned. They became the rocky Pages
Islands.
Ngurunderi knew it was time for him to
enter the spirit world. He crossed to Kangaroo Island and travelled
to its western end. After first throwing his spears into the sea,
he dived in, before rising to become a star in the Milky Way.
(Before Ngurunderi left the earth to live in the Milky Way he told
the people 'I am going first, you will come after me.')
Resource
Used: Ngurunderi -
An Aboriginal Dreaming, The Culture of the Ngarrindjeri People, The
South Australian Museum Catalogue, 1989
The Cache
You are looking for a small container.
There is only room for the log book and a pencil for you to record
your find. If you carry a pencil sharpener, you might like to
sharpen the pencil for the next logger. Please do not leave swaps
as they will make extracting and replacing the log book
difficult.