Photography and Camping in Australia's National Parks and State Forests
National Parks New South Wales Kosciuszko Camping - Headwaters of Murray River - Tom GrogginLogin Form
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Read more...Camping - Headwaters of Murray River - Tom Groggin
Well, first night out on our national parks trip of 2012 we camped at Tom Groggin in Kosciuszko National Park, part of the New South Wales Snowy Mountains and not too far from the Victorian border and the Victorian Alps.
In fact we camped about 50 metres from the headwaters of the Murray River, the border between New South Wales and Victoria. Somehow, New South Wales came to own the Murray River following the initial carve-up of the land, so I suppose you'd have to say that when I went down to the swiftly flowing, pristine, mountain stream for a bucket of water, I didn't quite go interstate for it.
I've camped in many spots along quite a length of the Murray River. In my late teens and early twenties we camped at Christmas and Easter as a family on a sandbank near Horseshoe Lagoon, not far out of Cobram on the Victorian side of the river and a couple of hundred kilometres down stream from the still pristine waters of Tom Groggin and Kosciuszko National Park.
There would be quite a tribe of us. Mum came from a family of nine children and they were all there with their spouses and my cousins. Even old Grandpa came one time.
The Murray at Cobram was such a delight. Clear water to swim and play in and Mum would send me down to the river for a bucket of water a couple of times a day. No need to boil it for drinking! That was around the mid to late 1960s.
But then came the European Carp, an introduced fish that feeds on the weed beds and muddies the water, gradually invading all the rivers of the mighty Murray-Darling system.
But camping at Tom Groggin, the water was as clear as any I've ever seen. As I looked into the bucket there was no trace of turbidity and not silt settled out overnight. Pure, mountain water!
A mountain stream rushing along over the rocks, crystal clear! The sound of the water carrying through the night air into our camp! The moody feel of the landscape in the early morning fog of the Snowy Mountains!
Just a word of caution that may be unwarranted:
I've heard that many on the pristine looking streams of the Kosciuszko National Park are infested by parasites such a gaudia, so get good advice before you drink the water without boiling or treating with chlorine.