Whirlpool Terror (The Robinvale Cut)

As a nephew of Frank and Reg Dean, I remember as a 10 year old, once going out in one of their motorized fishing pole boats with uncle Frank and his son Robert and my brother Ian. We were excitedly off to check the fishing nets around the nine-mile bend, as it was known. This area was the Dean’s professional fishing claim and was a stretch of the river where no-one else was supposed to set fish nets. To get there, we had to pass the treacherous “cut”. This was where the nine-mile bend came back into the Murray main stream after breaking off and forming an island. 

The re-joining of the river at the mouth caused a large, permanent whirlpool. It was about 10 feet in diameter and Frank would pass right over a third of the hole in the narrow pole boat. 

You could see down the spooling whirlpool about 30 feet and it was horribly frightening. They would all rock the boat and laugh as we passed over it. I had nightmares for ages of being sucked down and never to be seen again. Over the years, several people have drowned at the “cut”.

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