THERE would be few scenes more rustic and reminiscent of the earliest days of Australian exploration and opening up vast agricultural areas: slowly picking their way along the banks of the Murray, a small group of horsemen and women trailing a string of pack mules loaded with everything from tents to tucker (human and horse).

It could just as easily have been captured in oil by von Guerard or McCubbin, the classic pioneer scene against the bush backdrop of towering river redgums, low bush and land – stretching to the