This is a whole new world I was woken by kookaburras and got up for an early morning walk along the Murray River the mist on the river was spectacular and their were birds everywhere the butcher birds were particularly vocal with a beautiful warbling song . The morning started with a tour of the Old Mildura Homestead then the Alfred Deakin visitors’ centre where we had a Civic reception with the mayor and a past 2006 GSE student who had 
visited the USA. Tom made a presentation of one of our banners and thanked the mayor for his hospitality. Then onto the RSL fro lunch similar to our British Legion but this had an excellent restaurant a big Poky machine section a multifunction hall and a permanent museum. A quick car tour of some of the highlights of Meldura and then down to the river to join the paddle steamer Melbourne to take a trip down through lock 11. The Murray has very little fall to the sea so left to its own devices would not be navigable for most of the year and places like Mildura would not exist as a dried fruit growing 
area, or much else, without the series of weirs and locks that effectively turn the river into a number of huge pools. In the evening we all joined PP Leon and PP Kay Wagner for a club fellowship meeting at their house. We all sat round the television in high expectation as the civic reception had been covered by the local TV station and there we were TV stars (I am going to add it to the blog but that may be beyond me. Leon is a Riverboat captain and we exchanged many yarns Tom was looking into kite surfing on the Murray. Cheryl went off to join the “Boy 
Scouts” we shall enjoy hearing about that! Meanwhile Andy was deep in conversation with Richard when his chair collapsed it certainly brought an abrupt end to the conversation the clever thing was he didn’t spill his drink - got his priorities right. Ray
visited the USA. Tom made a presentation of one of our banners and thanked the mayor for his hospitality. Then onto the RSL fro lunch similar to our British Legion but this had an excellent restaurant a big Poky machine section a multifunction hall and a permanent museum. A quick car tour of some of the highlights of Meldura and then down to the river to join the paddle steamer Melbourne to take a trip down through lock 11. The Murray has very little fall to the sea so left to its own devices would not be navigable for most of the year and places like Mildura would not exist as a dried fruit growing 
area, or much else, without the series of weirs and locks that effectively turn the river into a number of huge pools. In the evening we all joined PP Leon and PP Kay Wagner for a club fellowship meeting at their house. We all sat round the television in high expectation as the civic reception had been covered by the local TV station and there we were TV stars (I am going to add it to the blog but that may be beyond me. Leon is a Riverboat captain and we exchanged many yarns Tom was looking into kite surfing on the Murray. Cheryl went off to join the “Boy 
Scouts” we shall enjoy hearing about that! Meanwhile Andy was deep in conversation with Richard when his chair collapsed it certainly brought an abrupt end to the conversation the clever thing was he didn’t spill his drink - got his priorities right. Ray
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