Soaking in the wetlands

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This was published 12 years ago

Soaking in the wetlands

Bird's eye ... Leeton's wetlands attract rare and endangered bird species.

Bird's eye ... Leeton's wetlands attract rare and endangered bird species.

Henry Lawson came to dry out; John Huxley seeks Leeton's world-class swamps.

Of the thousands of parched travellers who have been drawn to the Riverina town of Leeton in the past century, probably none has been more insightful, more warmly embraced or, indeed, more thirsty than the poet Henry Lawson.

In January 1916, Lawson and his friend, Mrs Byers, moved into a modest two-room cottage at Farm 418, Daalbatta Road, a short walk from town. Only later did the writer discover he had been given his job as publicist for the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area because his friends had told the state premier, W. A. Holman, they were worried about his heavy drinking and bouts of depression.

Surely here, they thought, in a designated "dry" area far from the flesh-pots of the city, he would find the freedom and inspiration to write again. And so, despite the presence of a thriving sly-grog trade in Leeton, it proved. During a two-year stay, he produced more than 30 poems and 10 prose sketches that captured the essence of a place of promise, a land of "barren desolation" transformed by irrigation.

"The hateful, lurid drought sunset has gone from the skyline, and the night is cool, and there is a grateful breeze fanning," he wrote from his verandah, shortly after arriving.

"The water is creeping, creeping (I can feel it and smell it), creeping along the channels and gutters, bringing life and prosperity to an old, dead land."

A century on, the poet - or, at least, a life-size likeness taken from an early photograph - stands outside Henry Lawson House, looking out across a red-dirt land written off by early explorers as one of "barren desolation".

Ahead of him are farms that now use the precious waters of the MIA (currently so plentiful that dams in the region are almost full to overflowing) to grow rice, grapes, wheat and citrus.

Behind him lies a gem of a place, a traveller's delight, an archetypal Australian small town of 8000 people, named after a state minister of public works and laid out by the American architect Walter Burley Griffin, the creator of Canberra and nearby Griffith.

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Leeton has seen tough times, especially during the recent 10-year drought, which sucked dry a network of waterways that locals claim is more extensive than Venice's. But it has lost little of its charm, man-made or natural.

Sadly, Lawson's house is not yet open to the public. Neighbours helpfully explain that though it has been bought for the town, it is used to accommodate young doctors prised from the city and pressed into country practice.

A "heritage walk" reveals a town centre - once a dusty collection of tents and corrugated-iron huts known for its proximity to a quarry as Crusher Camp - that still reflects the original vision of Burley Griffin. Roads are wide, parks numerous and, despite the addition of some modern "carbuncles" (view, for instance, the Madonna Place facade next to the Catholic Church), much of the architecture is still reassuringly art deco. The court house, The Irrigator building (the home of Leeton's estimable newspaper), two big, post-prohibition pubs and many shops and homes have art deco features.

The Historic Hydro Motor Inn might be more Mediterranean-style but the town's loftiest monuments to the art deco movement stand nearby: Burley Griffin's decorative, neo-Gothic, crowned water towers; and the Roxy Theatre. Built in "modified Spanish-style" with wonderfully garish, red, neon signs, the theatre is one of the few in NSW still operating in the way for which it was intended. A Roxy movie is the great indoors on a rare, wet afternoon.

Of course, it is for the great outdoors that travellers primarily come to the Riverina - for the birdwatching, fishing, kayaking, walking, boating, swimming, water-skiing, cycling and camping. Remarkably, only a few minutes' drive from the Roxy lie some of the world's most celebrated wetlands: Fivebough Swamp and the adjacent, less accessible, Tuckerbil Swamp.

As respected local birdwatcher and counter Keith Hutton explains, the 400-hectare Fivebough Swamp attracts tens of thousands of migratory birds annually. "Late afternoon and evening, it fills with pelicans, glossy ibis and whiskered tern," he says.

The international Ramsar-listed swamp, which has special meaning for the local Wiradjuri people, is visited by several rare and endangered species, including brolga, Australian bittern and painted snipe. It is also inhabited, as locals point out, by red-bellied black and potentially lethal brown snakes. "Walk single file and they'll slither off the track. Walk side by side and they'll have no escape," Hutton says, leading the way.

Fortunately, the only "browns" spotted are those found dead on the road. In all, more than 270 species - more than a quarter of the Australian bird-list - have been recorded in the wetlands, woodlands, grasslands and riverine forests of the lower Murrumbidgee region.

Each November Leeton stages an annual Birdfair, which features barbecues, seminars and trips to iconic birding sites. For the casual or independent visitor, the local information centre provides free maps and brochures detailing bird trails around Leeton, Griffith and other Riverina centres, on and off sealed roads.

Fishing in Leeton, as town kids show, can be as easy as dangling a worm in a channel, while sitting in the shade of a bottlebrush in your own backyard. For bigger, tastier fish, such as redfin, a short walk to the creek may be required. For those who want to go further to fish, swim, kayak or canoe on the mighty Murrumbidgee, the information centre has maps of the drives, sandy beaches and swimming holes in the MIA red-gum forest.

What else? Well, from downtown Leeton it is only a short stroll to the Mark Taylor Oval to pay respects to the former Australian cricket captain and current commentator, just one of several sports stars the town has produced.

No visit to a town that promotes itself as Australia's Rice Capital would be complete without a visit to the modest SunRice Visitors Centre, where the story of the industry is told from "paddy field to plate". Truth to tell it is a brisk, video trip, far from the paddy fields, though embellished for group visitors by cooking demonstrations and talks by growers. Fact: up to 40 million people across the globe eat Australian rice every day.

For local diners there are restaurants such as the highly recommended Pages on Pine, which features not best-selling books but menus devised by a French-born, award-winning chef, Eric Pages.

There are also wineries, such as Lillypilly Estate, where Robert Fiumara offers tastings of his "affordable boutique" wines and recalls how his late father, Pasquale, arrived penniless in Leeton from southern Italy in the 1950s.

His is a typical immigrant-boy-made-good story that, half a century earlier, prompted Lawson to write of a "cosmopolitan place ... naturally intellectual and democratic ... extremely kind and cheerful".

Further afield, the towns of Yanco, which claims to be the "birthplace of the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area", and the historic township of Whitton, born of the late 19th-century railway-building boom, are worth a few hours' visit.

A personal favourite is the automated car wash on Kurrajong Avenue, a must-visit for anyone wishing to remove the coating of red mud/dust that clings to every vehicle that spends a day or two in and around Leeton. An extended wash and brush-up costs $12, including psychedelic lashings of green, white and purple foam. Red mist might impress the four-wheel-drivers of Mosman but, as the exit sign says, "a clean car is a happy car".

Lawson stayed for two years; certainly today's time-poor traveller can be fed, watered and well entertained for a week or more. Not bad for a place whose appearance in 1817 prompted surveyor general John Oxley to dismiss it as beyond redemption.

"This country", he wrote, "wearies one more than I am able to express. I am the first white man to see it and I think I will undoubtedly be the last."

FAST FACTS

Getting there

Leeton is about a six-hour drive from Sydney via the Hume Highway and Burley Griffin Way. CountryLink runs a daily coach linked to the XPT train in Wagga. Greyhound Australia operates a daily coach service from Sydney. Rex has daily flights between Sydney and Leeton/Narrandera airport.

Touring there

The locations mentioned are walkable or within a 30-minute drive of Leeton. Most local roads are sealed, but forest tracks and out-of-the-way bird routes may be gravel or dirt and may require a four-wheel-drive, especially after rain. Summer temperatures can top 40 degrees, but late spring and summer are when birding is at its best. The information centre has excellent maps, guides and suggestions. See leetontourism.com.au.

Staying there

The Historic Hydro Motor Inn has double rooms from $120; see hydromotorinn.com.au. The author stayed at the friendly, comfortable Almond Cottage, which cost $500 for five nights; see almondcottage.com.au.

More information

Destination NSW.

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