Our spring tour this year is a six day all-inclusive coach tour to Leeton and the Riverina, with 5 nights accommodation at the Motel Riverina in Leeton, and all meals provided. Departing Monday 4^th October 2010, and travelling in luxury (toilet equipped) coach we can look forward to being shown the miracle of irrigation in Australia’s ‘oasis in the desert’. Assemble at 7.30 am outside Epping RSL Club. Brochures with full itinerary of the tour are available, and a brief summary follows.

After leaving Epping to travel south, we stop for morning tea at Bowral and lunch near Gundagai, then proceed via Wagga Wagga and Narrandera to be welcomed by our hosts Jan & Gary Eagles at the Motel Riverina in Leeton.

Tuesday 5^th two will be spent around Leeton, a town designed by Walter Burley Griffin and with an Art Deco style of the period. A visit to the SunRice Centre, the fascinating Roxy Theatre and the nearby Lillypilly Estate Winery complete the day.

Wednesday 6^th we visit Griffith, another Burley Griffin design but now a modern cosmopolitan city surrounded by farms of all types of horticulture and viticulture. Our local guide will tell us about the development of the area since 1913 when irrigation dramatically changed a barren landscape into a fertile oasis. The day includes visits to two of the farms.

Thursday 7^th is a visit to Narrandera and the Murrumbidgee, where we learn about the heritage of the area dating back to the river steamers which traded as far east as Wagga. As well as a tour of the town the day includes a country style lunch at Buckingbong Station, and a visit to the Narrandera Fisheries Centre where research is carried out on freshwater species of the Murray-Darling river system.

Friday 8^th will give us an insight into farming life and the effect of the drought and dwindling water availability. As well as rice the area grows wheat, oats, canola, soy beans and barley and most farms stock some sheep or beef cattle. The day includes a visit to De Bortoli Wineries and the Pioneer Park Museum in Griffith.

The cost of the tour is $747.50 per person twin share (single supplement $35 per night). Deposits of $100 pp were required at the July meeting and payment in full is required by the September meeting.