An Old River Course #2 - Thorburns Road Wetlands
Welcome to another Blacklegend cache... My 101st hide.
Welcome to my short series of 8 caches called "An Old River Course". I have selected 8 spots where what I believe is an old Murray River course, crosses or runs along roads for a stretch of around 10 kms. I became curious about the system of winding billabongs and water courses after our last bout of rain, and while driving around, noticed quite a few locations where there appeared to be a continuous system of new wetlands. A bit of research, and satellite image views, and a stretch what looks like "Old River" runs between Tocumwal, heads inland north, then back to the Murray River between Tocumwal and Barooga. So what better to do than go out and drop a stack of caches at the sites where the water course, crosses or runs along roads.
This is a location just down the road from my house, about 450m away. Looks like the creation of a nice new wetlands. It has attracted a lot of wildlife, birdlife, frogs, etc.
About 3 weeks before the hide date, we had 180mm of rain in 3 days. This filled up, so did the front 1/3 of my property due to "expletive deleted" council road works and them not knowing what a road-side drain is for. Be that as it may, it got me researching, why all this water has pooled up here, and all the way along a low point, watercourse, if you will, that gets pumped out at the northern side of the Tocumwal golf course and into the Murray River....??? It also runs about 40m from my house, from the back fence line. It looks great at the time of placing the caches.
This water course is visible from the side of many roads, stretching for a total of 10's of kilometers, refer to the nearmap screenshot below. You can see what I mean. It looks very much like how the Murray River runs. Except, it is no longer the course the river runs on. So, did the river used to run along this course at some time in the past....? Very possibly yes. At both ends, if you trace the depression back to the Murray River, it does indeed, meet with the river. WHAT DO YOU THINK...? Put your theory in the logs if you like. Or if you have local knowledge, or some geological knowledge, please put that in your logs as well (if you want to, it is not a requirement). Below is a screengrab from Nearmaps. It is labeled with all 8 caches.
Can you see the old water / river course....??? It's pretty apparent to me in the images.
The hide itself is not a difficult one, it is a 200ml Sistema container in a standard tree hide. Nice and easy. This one is about the location. Check out the wiki link below for some Murray River information. It is quite good.
Murray River Wiki Link
Once again, have fun and be careful with the kiddies in the Australian bush. This area, will be a "snake heaven" with the water, bush, etc. Keep and eye on the little dears...... This is a high muggle location due to this being a very busy road. Good luck and importantly, have fun.
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