{"id":7247,"date":"2023-06-05T05:08:25","date_gmt":"2023-06-05T05:08:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/malleeroutes.com\/wp\/?p=7247"},"modified":"2024-09-17T00:13:53","modified_gmt":"2024-09-17T00:13:53","slug":"the-marne-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/malleeroutes.com\/wp\/the-marne-river\/","title":{"rendered":"Historical traces and the Marne River"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I’ve spent some time tracing the old Sedan railway line<\/a> in South Australia for the Absent History<\/a> section of the Mallee Routes project. The railway lines in the mallee country were once a significant part of the infrastructure in the 20th century as access to this transport meant the farms were viable since the railways provided a way for the farmers to get their grain to the market. The railways were built by the state governmental to encourage the process of the settlement of the Murray Mallee with a yeomanry of white English settlers on their too small blocks. The dominant settler narrative was of a harsh climate and vegetation, isolation and the hardship of clearing the land. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The railways are now absent. The Sedan line was pulled up around 2000, but the traces are clearly seen in the still standing railway bridges. The ordinary concept of trace is that of a mark left by an entity or event of which it is but a fragile reflection. Its meaning or value lies elsewhere — eg., the erasure of the First Nation’s people in the mallee lands. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

One of most visible of these traces is the railway bridge over the Marne River<\/a> near Cambria. I had been at this bridge in 2019<\/a> when I was scoping the South Australian Mallee, and I recently returned with a large format camera. The picture below was made with a 5×4 Linhof Technika IV:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The  source of the Marne River <\/a> rises near Eden Valley<\/a> in the eastern Mount Lofty Ranges. It flows eastward down onto the Murray Plains near Cambrai, then across the plains via Black Hill before eventually reaching the River Murray at Wongulla. There is a lack of surface streams and limited rainfall in the Murray Mallee. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Marne was dry even though I was there in the winter months. Would this have anything to do with the construction of large dams for the irrigation of vineyards in the head water of Eden Valley reducing streamflow? This reduction in streamflow consequently reduces recharge to the limestone aquifers developed on the plains, and may also adversely affect wetlands in the lower reaches. The dry river bed was a trace of a significant river. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another significant trace of the absent history of the railway line’s in the Mallee are the water tower. In 2019 I photographed the water tower at the end of the railway line at Sedan with the 8×10 SuperCambo:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I’ve looked but I cannot find the 8×10 negatives. I don’t even remember developing them. What happened to them? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These two kinds of traces offer a way into the early history of the Mallee that has been forgotten and is invisible in the present. They are marks of the absence of a presence — this yeomanry past is no longer and the future is not yet. These historical traces in the present are what remains to record the passage of time from settler settlement with its narrative of a war on nature and the relentless land clearing. The water tower or bridge is already imbued or inscribed with a trace of something that isn’t there — the railway line that underpinned mallee farming with its narrative of the useless scrub, white manly independence and a prosperous agricultural society. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

These traces in being exposed to the elements gain something by being weathered whilst losing something of its original status through the additional supplement of sedimentation of the elements over time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Could the traces be more than a reminder of an absent history of the overly optimistic agricultural expansion of the 1920s, soldier settlement, drought, soil drift, duststorms, salinity, environmental degradation, rabbits etc? Could they — a bridge, a dry river or a water tower — have a status or value of their own that exceeds their materiality? Could the traces be more primary than the absent yeomanry and its war on nature to conquer the desert?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve spent some time tracing the old Sedan railway line in South Australia for the Absent History section of the Mallee Routes project. The railway lines in the mallee country were once a significant part of the infrastructure in the … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7250,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"kt_blocks_editor_width":"","_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[89,23,98,67],"tags":[45,85,68],"class_list":["post-7247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","category-mallee-blog","category-railway","category-water","tag-history","tag-railway","tag-water"],"yoast_head":"\nHistorical traces and the Marne River - Mallee Routes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I recently spent some time tracing the old railway line from Sedan to Eudunda for the Absent History section of the Mallee Routes project.\" \/>\n<meta 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