Goulburn River

It was still a cracker spot for what it was.

Literally, it was a road width and then a hill down to the Goulburn River.

Oh, so it was a hard walk to get there to go for a fish.

And I'd like to break your heart.

Yep.

Um-

The Goulburn River's fairly clean flowing water too-

Yeah

Yeah, James, and there's a place for it all.

I mean, you know, the river that I grew up on here is the Goulburn River, named after Frederick Goulburn, who was a colonial administrator in New South Wales.

It's Yorta Yorta name is the Kaila.

And we often discuss this river in terms of both names.

I just listened to the latest Midweek podcast about wild or odd things that have happened on tour.

I thought I would share about one night camped on the bank of the Goulburn River between Yea and Seymour in Victoria, Australia.

I'd just spent a few days exploring around the Mansfield, Yea area and was now making my way towards the Grampians.

I'd noticed a free camp on an app and decided to have a leisurely day, so I turned off the road and followed the access track for a few kilometers, and I ended up at a lovely, clear, and unpopulated picnic and camping area.

But, you know, over the years, and we're talking, you know, over, you know, let's just say 30, 40, 50 years, any development that has been undertaken that has probably been close to the river has effectively had commercial development turn its back, uh, on the river.

So we've got an unbelievable asset, the Goulburn River, that runs right through the middle of Shepparton and Mooroopna and effectively Greater Shepparton.

And what we've probably seen is that over a period of time, that any investment that's taken place, commercial or anything that, um, you know, i- is about attracting people to our region and, and connecting them to the wonderful things that we've got, uh, we've turned our back on it.

Uh, so what we wanna do with this particular strategy that's gonna be underway now, and we've endorsed this step, is how do we connect our CBD, Vic Park Lake, and the Goulburn River better? How do, how do we connect people? So whether that's people living and, and calling Greater Shepparton home or, or tourism offerings, how do we make sure that when they come to our region, they can connect, uh, to these particular landmarks in, in a way that pal- possibly hasn't been done in the past? And, and can we entice, uh, other forms of investment along the Goulburn River or in and around Vi- Vic Park Lake and the CBD? So this is a really key component of council's plan that, uh, council's endorsed, uh, last year to obviously undertake and, and determine a future of, you know, effectively, you know, starting to turn our face towards the river and, and also, uh, Vic Park Lake and the CBD.

So that'll be exciting, and we look forward to more information coming through about that next year.

Yeah.