Loxton is a small town of around 4000 people located on the Murray River, also known as Murrundi, in the Riverland of South Australia. It is located within the traditional land of the Erawirung people. The Erawirung consisted of sub-groups, including Jeraruk, Rankbirit and Wilu. On the Map of Indigenous Australia that I have at home, the Riverland is identified as the land of the Meru, which is a larger language group which also includes the Ngawait and Ngaiawang people.

Before I go any further, I wish to acknowledge the Erawirung people as the Traditional Custodians of the skies, lands and waters of the place where I live and wrote this blog. I honour their culture and care for Country.

Known as the ‘Garden Town of the Riverland’, Loxton’s beautifully maintained gardens have been adapted to the changing climate, and the town is now recognised as a leader in the use of recycled water and creating sustainable landscapes. These gardens don’t just happen, and the person credited for the ‘greening of Loxton’ is Allen Hosking, a well-known Loxton sportsman, volunteer and community leader who was a key driver in developing the towns facilities, parks and gardens during the 1950s and 60s. Today our beautiful gardens, parks and ovals are a testament to the great work by the staff at our Council but are also testament to the proud community spirit that exists in Loxton.

This is one of the things that I love most about Loxton, its strong community spirit, driven by a ‘can do’ culture that harks back to the work ethic and values of the predominant German settlers who commenced farming sheep and wheat across the district in the 1880’s and 1890’s. Today, our community spirit is evident in the statistics, the 2021 Census reveals that a quarter of the community do voluntary work through an organisation or group.

There are many great stories of the Loxton community banding together to advocate for and deliver infrastructure or services, whether it be the development of the Loxton Hospital, the Loxton Retirement Village, Loxton Historical Village, Loxton Mens Shed, The Loxton Club, the Loxton Playground, the emphasis on town beautification, the Loxton Chamber of Commerce or providing community services such as Loxcare, Orana and LAAS. The most recent example is the new Loxton District Childcare Centre which is currently under construction. Another great achievement of the community is the annual ‘Loxton Lights Up’ Festival making Loxton a must visit for those wishing to enjoy our famous Christmas lights.

The community spirit is also evident in how we get around those who have lost loved ones or dealing with illness that may require long stays in Adelaide for treatment and recovery.

Whilst our ‘can do’ spirit is a source of great pride and love for our community, I must acknowledge that we are not exceptional in this regard, it is a human trait based on the fact we are all kind, generous and compassionate at heart. Sometimes we forget this, which is easy to do when we focus on the bad things people do in the world but there are so many other people doing good, and in Loxton, like all communities, we just need to look to each other to see just how good we really are.

When I relocated to Loxton 12 years ago I was feeling despondent with the world, I had to leave a community I had previously fallen in love with in Murray Bridge and a job at the Coorong Council that for the first few years I also loved. But along came a narcissist who used their power to not only undermine me at work but also kill any chance I had of finding a similar role elsewhere that would have enabled me to stay in Murray Bridge. With this experience I was initially not prepared to put my heart into my new community of Loxton for fear of it being broken again. Besides, I didn’t think I’d be here for more than two or three years.

But now 12 years on, I can confidently say I love my community and I am thankful to all the people that have offered us friendship and fellowship along the way. Be it all my colleagues when I worked for the local Council in particular Tom Murch and Ruth Firstbrook. Be it my fellow cricketers at the Loxton Cricket Club in particular Mark ‘Chief’ Pontt and Steve ‘Goof’ Smith when I first arrived at the club and later the likes of Ben ‘Hoffy’ Hoffmann and Brian ‘Lynchy’ Lynch who are now the lifeblood of that club. Be it the people at the Loxton Club on a Friday night, too many to mention here but you all know who you are, but I must make mention of Tony ‘Swog’ Altschwager who was one of the first to encourage me to get involved in the community and I am now proud to be a fellow board member with Swog at the Loxton Club. Whilst Swog was unsuccessful in getting me involved in Rotary (well not yet anyway), I have enjoyed helping them out occasionally at the Loxton Show which is another great community event held each October long weekend.

The cover photo for this blog is the ‘Loxton’ sign that is located at the top of East Terrace, seeing this sign always fills me with pride. When I was working at the Council the original plan for East Terrace included several water features including one at the top of East Terrace. This didn’t make a lot of sense to me given the need for water conservation in our semi-arid climate. I was inspired by the ‘I amsterdam’ signs in Amsterdam and thought that we could do something similar in Loxton and thankfully the Council agreed. It always warms my heart when I see people taking photos of the sign or when kids are climbing on it, I guess I regard it as my little mark on the town.

I try to take a walk every morning and I enjoy seeing familiar faces during that walk. I walk the entire length of the Loxton Community Conservation and Heritage Park which is another great asset of the town and I also pass by the ‘Loxton’ Sign mentioned above and also pay my respects at the War Memorial. This always invokes thoughts of my grandfather, James ‘Jim’ McHardy. He served during World War Two but unfortunately his service resulted in ill health causing his death in 1951. It also invokes thoughts of my Opa, who spent World War Two in a German labour camp, leaving Oma to look after my three uncles (Dad didn’t arrive until after the war). I think of all the soldiers who have served our country as well as Palestinians, Ukrainians, Sudanese and any other people currently impacted by war, and it reinforces my belief that we should do all in our power to avoid war.

Sometimes I also walk around the Loxton Oval. There have been two notable cricket games played there. The first was following the 1956 flood when Victoria (captained by Sam Loxton) played against South Australia (captained by Phil Ridings) to raise funds to fix damaged cricket facilities across the Riverland due to the flood. The match was played over two days in October 1956 and was the game when several players such as Bill Lawry, Ian Meckiff and Lindsay Kline debuted for Victoria before becoming successful Australia Test Cricketers, Bill becoming an Australia Test Captain. The South Australian Team included the likes of Les Favell, Graham Hole and Gil Langley who also went on to play for Australia.

The second is the only international match played at Loxton when the West Indies, captained by Gary Sobers, played against a SA Country side in January 1969. The West Indies thrilled a big crowd with their exciting brand of cricket with locals remembering a huge six hit by Gary Sobers that landed in the adjacent swimming pool. The SA Country side included two Loxton players, Bill Basket who was the wicketkeeper and all-rounder Leo Higgins who top scored for the SA country side. I digress, but I love cricket and the thought that I get to play on the same oval as some of these legends fills me with pride.

Anyway, in Loxton, as well as across the Riverland, we are renowned for the quality of our sporting facilities, be it our ovals for football with turf wickets for cricket, our immaculate grass tennis courts, our excellent golf courses and bowls facilities, or our basketball stadiums. The richness of our sporting facilities encourages our traditionally high levels of participation in sport, and we are very proud of the array of people who have succeeded at the top levels of their respective sports, including Loxton born Australian representatives Emily Beaton in netball, Alex Carey in cricket, Sophie Edington in swimming, Grant Schubert in Hockey and Alexander Hill in rowing.

The lure of playing cricket on turf is what keeps me playing cricket (albeit I am just a fill in these days) and I have only just learned that we have social ‘hit and giggle’ tennis on Tuesday nights once the weather warms up so the lure of playing on grass (which I have probably done twice in my life) means I am keen to dust off the racket and have a hit this summer with my fellow Loxtonites (or should that be Loxtonians, hmmm…). I used to be involved in a tennis group that played every Tuesday and Thursday mornings at 6am. During winter we played on the courts at the Loxton North Oval and in summer on the courts at the Loxton High School. Unfortunately, that group has petered out but who knows, maybe we can get enough hardy souls willing to kick the frost off the court and play again.

When I am feeling really active I will wander down to the Loxton Riverfront, the jewel in Loxton’s crown. I have been lucky to see the riverfront transform when the river is in flood, which has happened twice since we moved here, it is a magnificent sight. I love our riverfront and would rate it as the best in the Riverland .. yes, I know I am biased. I also have a love for the Renmark Riverfront and am proud to have contributed a very small part to it when I worked for that community.

I was inspired to write this blog over the last few weeks when I witnessed our strong community spirit in action at a fundraiser for a friend of ours Gary Sichler at the Loxton Bowling Club as well as after a conversation with another friend of ours Bill Wright, following the passing of his wife Carly.

I also wanted to focus on things that I am grateful for as there are things happening in the world that are currently breaking my heart.

Actually, before I finish this blog, I need to give a shout out to Bill, he has provided us with some heirloom tomatoes and bullhorn capsicums for our vegie patch, and we saved some seeds to grow them again each year. Who would have thought that I’d get into gardening, I had never experienced that satisfying feeling you get from growing your own food until I moved to Loxton, it has given me renewed respect for our farmers, albeit we grow at a much smaller scale in our little vegie patch, but I love it and the flavour is so much better than the produce we buy in the supermarket. I also love that we swap vegies with our neighbours over the fence.

So that’s it, I love where I live because of the people who together exemplify the fabric of humanity. For me, the fabric of humanity is love, compassion, cooperation and community, and here in Loxton we have that in spades. Not only that, it’s also a beautiful part of the world.

And just one last thing, the world is a better place because you are in it, I warmheartedly wish you all the very best.

Thank you for reading this blog.

I was involved in a History Blog project in conjunction with the Council and Writers SA in 2022. Here is a link to the blog I wrote about the Loxton Community Club …

The Loxton Club | Riverland, South Australia

I also wrote a blog about the Loxton Cricket Club but it is yet to be included with all the others that were written at the time. So I have added it to my website, here is a link …

A Brief History of the Loxton Cricket Club

There are also a bunch of other history blogs about Loxton and Waikerie, written by my fellow history bloggers Peter Magarey, Carla Magarey, Rose Mawby, Sonia Fowler, Vicki Williams, Maureen Phillips, Carolyn Wood, Lori Fielke, Gillian Curtis and Gwen Webber, here is a link to them …

Loxton and Waikerie – History Blogs | Riverland, South Australia