Sunday, 5th May ~ Morgan, SA

We had to stay in Morgan because it's a name in my ancestry ~ my Grandmother's maiden name (on my Father's side of the family).

What a lovely little place it is. The caravan park is located on the banks of the Murray River. A little disconcerting though, when you look across and see what is obviously the high bank of the river behind the caravans.

Intrigued with history as I am, I did a bit of delving and found out that in the late 1800's, Morgan was one of the busiest ports on the Murray. At its peak, Morgan was the second busiest port in South Australia (behind Port Adelaide), with six trains a day carrying freight from the Murray to the sea at Port Adelaide. As road transport improved through the early part of the 20th century, river transport declined. The railway to Morgan finally closed in 1969.

 

 

Morgan is also well known for its number of houseboats (in the distance) and car ferry to cross the river (in the foreground).

Many of the old buildings remain in the town. A number of the buildings have signs showing their former use and appearance making a walk around the town an enjoyable learning experience. We visited the museum to learn more.

 

 

And in amongst the relics, found an old switchboard that I used to operate 'in the ol' days' at Bank of NSW in Townsville.

Our bird count for Morgan is 33. We picked up a few that we should have seen while at Gluepot (Apostlebird and Regent Parrott), but there you go - I could calculate a mathematical ratio birds/time comparison, but I'm on holidays !