I lived on that property up on the hill back in the late 1970s. You couldn't drive up onto the island and camp there like that back then, as there was a 20 ft high sand embankment, straight of the bridge. We had our motocross track all along the steep river bank further down stream, and could ride our bikes across the river just above the bridge. And we'd ride the horse's across about 30 meters below the bridge. It's changed a lot since I was a kid, there are 4 wheel drive tracks everywhere now. Ernie would have a fit if he saw it now days. The old track across the top of Yates Flat through Alice to the Deadman dip yards, was always fun in the mud and rain on the bikes. 😊 And you could usually catch a few catfish upstream of the island, if you knew where to look.
There have been people camping down on the river bank at the crossing for 100 years. I lived in the old house up on the hill, in the late 1970s and we often counted well over 100 campers down at the river during the holidays.
