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A newborn in a spring cart, a flood-swollen river, and a punt that won’t run on Sundays—our 1852 trek along the Murray is a study in grit, chance, and consequence.  We read the original diaries aloud and sit with what they reveal: Regent parrots blazing over saltbush, lost stockmen saved by First Nations know-how, and the stark reality of cattle drowning as they “ring the water” mid-crossing.  Every scene is anchored in place—Frenchman’s Creek, Bagot’s Billabong, the Great Darling Anabranch—so you can feel how the landscape sets the agenda.

We trace the web of stations claimed by Ned Bagot and unpack squatting in plain terms: land taken, lines drawn, and law arriving after the fact through Commissioners of Crown Lands.  From McLeod’s rough inn to a government-proclaimed ferry, the junction that becomes Wentworth shows how a track hardens into a town.  Along the way, river science meets story: the Darling’s brown current sliding beside the Murray’s clearer flow, a two-toned seam that Sturt and Hawdon both recorded.  Those split waters echo the cultural currents that meet without blending—overlanders relying on local canoe crews while the diaries stay quiet on payment and credit.

There’s tension and tenderness in the details: Mary Emmett nursing two small children while the drays inch through bog and scrub, horses swimming clean while bullocks panic, tolls posted while floodwater erases the “original road.”  We follow the rise of policing and lockups on the riverbank and the later heritage that preserves bricks while we argue over meaning.  By the time the convoy reaches Gol Gol, the Murray has the last word, forcing a pause and a plan for another day.  If you care about Australian history, river systems, First Nations labour, overlanding, and how towns like Wentworth came to be, this story gives you the map and the mud.

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