Destinations > The Menindee Lakes

Just west of the Darling is the huge Lake Menindee. Or a lake it would be with some water in it. The sandy floor of the lake was dry, and had been so dry for so long that native grasses and scrub had sprung up to try and take the place of the water. This was the case for Cawndilla and Emu Lakes too. While it makes an impressive view to be standing on a dune, what was the shore of the lake, looking out over the plain of grass and dead trees, I couldn't help but wonder if it could ever rain enough to fill these dust bowls. The map clearly states that powerboats are not allowed on Lake Cawndilla ... we can see why. Like so many of the newly proclaimed national parks in western NSW, Kinchega was previously a sheep station. It was huge, and hugely profitable. In its heyday in 1882 it was about 400,000 hectares, and 40 shearers shore about 150,000 sheep each year. The homestead is in ruins now, but was built near a billabong, dammed so they could ensure they had a lake of water year round. Big enough, the sign says, to water-ski in!

The shearing shed, complete with full size steam engine, and several of the old wool presses gives an idea of the massive scale of the property. And only half the shed still stands, the entire western wing has been demolished and removed.

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Kinchega used paddle steamers on the Darling to get the wool to the market. The remains of one, the boiler of the "P. S. Providence" sits on the bank of the Darling, on River Road. It seems that the crew stayed on in town for a quiet pint or two, and by the time they got back to the ship the boiler was stone dry. When they stoked it up to continue on their way, the boiler exploded, blowing the 24-metre ship to pieces. The poor Chinese cook was found up into a tree. Five of the six crew were killed, and buried at the Kinchega station cemetery.

There's an unsealed major road south from Menindee to Pooncarie, but just west of the Darling there's the road less travelled, often more interesting (clearly marked on the Hema Maps Outback New South Wales1:1250000). We stayed at the Telegraph Hotel in Pooncarie, where we first noticed an interesting phenomenon. As you head further south, the obligatory boar's head over the bar disappears, and you begin to find a Murray cod's head. Pooncarie was obviously the intersection of the two regions, with one of each. The pub was pleasant enough with good food and modern, motel style rooms.


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