At 7am on the morning of December 28, 1969, 10 paddlers in seven canoes dug their paddles into the water below the Yarrawonga Weir to begin what was the first Murray Marathon, a 250 mile journey downstream on the Murray River all the way to Swan Hill.
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Now in its 51st year organisers of the Massive Murray Paddle, formally known as the Murray Marathon, sent over 450 paddlers and 700 crew members down the Murray River from Yarrawonga on their way to Swan Hill on Monday.
The gruelling event over 404km and takes five days has followed the same course for 51 years.
It has been one of the great long distance paddling races in the world for a very long time and continues to attract hundreds of keen paddlers mostly from Australia and many from overseas.
Local CWA team “Chicks with Attitude” are competing in their 15th marathon with the majority of the paddlers coming from the local area.
Ranging in ages from 40 through to 83 the team this year includes local paddlers Adele Church and Racheal Seccull. Adele has paddled in all 15 marathons.
This year each boat will have a small GPS tracking device which will report the boat’s location every few minutes via the PZWiFi Network for the duration of the race. Go to www.phasezero.com.au/massive-murray-paddle.aspx to track a team.
