By the river ....

On Saturday we strolled along the Murray River in Goolwa. We started at the point just before the river flows under the Hindmarsh Bridge, does a left turn past the Coorong Peninsula and then into the Southern Ocean.

The area at the start of the walk was once home to a flourishing shipbuilding industry. All that is left of the vast activity that saw 58 paddle steamers and barges built between 1853 and 1913 is this 1864 building which is known as the Goolwa Foundry and Chart Room.

However, there are quite a few slipyards, boat repair facilities and moorings close by.

Our walk took us up-river, past marine workshops, picnic areas, wetlands and moored boats. It was idyllic and brought to my mind images of 'Wind in the Willows' and 'Swallows and Amazons'.

We saw lots of bird life. I was trying out my new Panasonic Lumix camera so had fun with the amazing zoom lens.  I waited for several minutes, hoping this pelican would stopped preening itself so I could see his beak!

Finally, it did.

The late afternoon sun was striking the paperbarks as we walked by.

I especially like this peeling bark shot. 

On the way back home we stopped at Middleton to check out the 1855 flour mill, now restored as a family home.

I am not sure what this building, built in front of the mill, was originally. Shall need to do a bit more research. At first I thought it was the old railway station, but then I read that the station 'was moved from its present site near the mill to west of the town in the 1920s'.