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Destinations > The Menindee Lakes
The Menindee Lakes
Issue: November 2005
Words by Mathew Roberts
The Kinchega National Park, about 100km south of Broken Hill, is like an oasis in the
middle of the desert. Although located in the arid plains of NSW it is surrounded by very fertile land, thanks to the many lakes fed by the Darling River and the dam constructed in the '60s. However as the drought continues to hang over the rural sector, the lakes and rivers are beginning to feel the effect too. On our way to Kinchega National Park, the clouds closed over, and we got some rain. "Not enough", we were constantly being told, but some nonetheless.
The roads were excellent, so a little water made them sticky, but still good. We passed a two-wheeler, and for the last 50km of the trip we looked over the fish tailing trail he left. You could tell we were in cotton country from the raw cotton waste strewn all along the verges, and the salt patches occasionally rising through the road.
Pulled into Menindee in the mid-afternoon leaves enough time to whip up to Pamamaroo, and Wetherell, the two beautiful lakes to the north of Kinchega National Park. The Darling has been dammed here to provide a permanent water supply for Broken Hill and the surrounds, and Lake Wetherell is the result. An intricate system of weirs and dams feed the ephemeral lakes down stream, designed to provide water storage for the township, and the thirsty work of mining at Broken Hill. Not far from the main weir is the site of one of Burke and Wills' camps. The base camp party spent three months over the Christmas of 1860 here while Burke, Wills and the advance party went up to Cooper Creek, and then on to the Gulf and back. It's now a lovely picnic and camping area with a few information signs. The area must have held an attraction for at least some of the ill-fated team. Having returned from Cooper Creek, one of the Afghan camel drivers who had manned the camp at the 'Dig Tree', Dost Mahomet, settled in Menindee and worked at the local bakery. He was buried just to the north of the town at the site where he said his daily prayers, and the grave has been marked and renovated several times. He clearly made an impact to be so well remembered.
On the whole, the roads in Kinchega National park are very well looked after. They are all dirt, but well graded; sandy in patches. It was only occasionally that the loose surface formed the dreaded corrugations. The appropriately named River Road runs along the Darling, and is dotted with campsites. Take your time - don't just stop at the first few sites. Being the most popular area, there is almost no firewood around here but there's plenty just a few short kilometres along this beautiful drive. The sites each have a woodfire barbecue, and are nestled under the huge gums, the milky white Darling flowing by. There are eagles and scores of corellas to be seen.
Even though there was a fair flow in the Darling at the time of our visit, it was obvious that the river was well down on its normal levels. The banks looked like levees. But it makes a very pretty place to be, snaking along through the park. There are many places where the river twists so much, it almost turns back on itself.
Driving along River Road, we spied a sign in a tree showing the high water mark of the 1976 flood. Not only was it two and a half metres off the ground, it was nowhere near the river. It was very difficult to imagine so much water here.
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.
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.
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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.
The road entering Mungo National Park from the west drops you more or less right at the rangers' station and the start of the drive loop within the park. The lakes here have been dry for around 15,000 years, since the Lachlan River changed its course. The nearest watercourse is the Willandra Creek, which peters out in a swamp to the north of the park.
Mungo National Park has been populated forever, or near enough to it. Mungo Man and Mungo Woman, two of the oldest human remains found in Australia were both discovered here, and it is not uncommon to see remains of camp fires that would have burnt when there was water and food in the lakes. These are the traces of the ancestors of the Paakantji, Ngiyampaa and Mutthi Mutthi people.
The visitors centre is based at the old woolshed, and is well worth a stop. Apart from maps and route notes to accompany the circular drive through the park, there is plenty of scientific and historical information. Most people seem to take the short trip out to the Walls of China and back, so you can pretty much find yourself in quiet seclusion doing the whole loop.
Mungo National Park was previously two sheep stations, Mungo and Zanci. Both of their timber woolsheds still stand, and seeing Mungo's drop log construction, it is easy to see why there is so little of the native Cyprus pine left. The shed still houses the steam engine that was used to power the shears before the petrol motor took over. It is amusing to see how steep the chutes are, after stripping the poor thing of its wool, the sheep was dropped almost vertically into the outside pen.
Crossing Lake Mungo towards the Walls of China, you get the feeling of what the lake must have been like. It is low and flat, there wouldn't have been much depth to the water. The bed is now covered with a stunted and scrubby saltbush. The abrupt change at the Walls of China is striking. Sand dunes rising in the middle of this salty dwarf scrub.
Pressed into semi rock, and eroded away again, it forms all sorts of weathered shapes, leaving an almost Arizona looking landscape in miniature. The western view from the top of the road snaking across the dry lakebed has to be seen. To the east, the sand dunes crash up against the mallee scrub. Leaving the less adventurous behind, the road becomes one-way, crosses the dunes, known as lunettes, and continues through the eastern end of the park across Allans Tank.
There's the remains of a hut on the plain that was dragged there on a sled from the homestead. Rabbits burrowed around the foundations so much it has collapsed. Both the corrugated iron and the rabbit holes are all that remain today. The rabbit plague at the end of the 1800s forced huge reductions in the number of sheep each station could run. It was some time later that goats became a problem. Round Tank in the northwest corner of the drive has an ingenious goat trap built around it, one that probably still works when the tank is full.
The roads are all very well maintained and easily done in a 2WD, except after rain. There are a number of picnic and camping spots on the loop but, as in most national parks, collecting wood for open fires is frowned upon, so bring your own wood or fuel stove. To get the wool to market, and transport supplies, shearers and farmhands, the Cobb and Co coaches had to cross the lunettes. There are still hard packed tracks through the sand at Vigars Well. Vigar ran the Zanci Station, and dug two wells where the teams rested before crossing the dunes. The remaining well still has water in it, and is rarely dry. Little comfort, I would have thought, to the teams about to drag a fully laden coach up and over a sand dune. It's hard enough in the 4WD.
There's little left of Zanci now, except the woolshed and the cellar in the remains of the homestead. It is a full height room built underground for food storage and surprisingly it's still cool , as if someone had left it running. As a last look, to the south of the loop, on the way out of the park is the spectacular Mungo Lake lookout.
Guarded by a lone cyprus pine, the view stretches over the whole lake, with the dunes of the Walls of China in the background. As we left, I wondered what it must have been like to muster in this harsh and unforgiving terrain. For the legacy of the explorers and early shearers has left a lasting impression on me.
Words by Mathew Roberts
The Kinchega National Park, about 100km south of Broken Hill, is like an oasis in the
middle of the desert. Although located in the arid plains of NSW it is surrounded by very fertile land, thanks to the many lakes fed by the Darling River and the dam constructed in the '60s. However as the drought continues to hang over the rural sector, the lakes and rivers are beginning to feel the effect too. On our way to Kinchega National Park, the clouds closed over, and we got some rain. "Not enough", we were constantly being told, but some nonetheless.
The roads were excellent, so a little water made them sticky, but still good. We passed a two-wheeler, and for the last 50km of the trip we looked over the fish tailing trail he left. You could tell we were in cotton country from the raw cotton waste strewn all along the verges, and the salt patches occasionally rising through the road.
Pulled into Menindee in the mid-afternoon leaves enough time to whip up to Pamamaroo, and Wetherell, the two beautiful lakes to the north of Kinchega National Park. The Darling has been dammed here to provide a permanent water supply for Broken Hill and the surrounds, and Lake Wetherell is the result. An intricate system of weirs and dams feed the ephemeral lakes down stream, designed to provide water storage for the township, and the thirsty work of mining at Broken Hill. Not far from the main weir is the site of one of Burke and Wills' camps. The base camp party spent three months over the Christmas of 1860 here while Burke, Wills and the advance party went up to Cooper Creek, and then on to the Gulf and back. It's now a lovely picnic and camping area with a few information signs. The area must have held an attraction for at least some of the ill-fated team. Having returned from Cooper Creek, one of the Afghan camel drivers who had manned the camp at the 'Dig Tree', Dost Mahomet, settled in Menindee and worked at the local bakery. He was buried just to the north of the town at the site where he said his daily prayers, and the grave has been marked and renovated several times. He clearly made an impact to be so well remembered.
On the whole, the roads in Kinchega National park are very well looked after. They are all dirt, but well graded; sandy in patches. It was only occasionally that the loose surface formed the dreaded corrugations. The appropriately named River Road runs along the Darling, and is dotted with campsites. Take your time - don't just stop at the first few sites. Being the most popular area, there is almost no firewood around here but there's plenty just a few short kilometres along this beautiful drive. The sites each have a woodfire barbecue, and are nestled under the huge gums, the milky white Darling flowing by. There are eagles and scores of corellas to be seen.
Even though there was a fair flow in the Darling at the time of our visit, it was obvious that the river was well down on its normal levels. The banks looked like levees. But it makes a very pretty place to be, snaking along through the park. There are many places where the river twists so much, it almost turns back on itself.
Driving along River Road, we spied a sign in a tree showing the high water mark of the 1976 flood. Not only was it two and a half metres off the ground, it was nowhere near the river. It was very difficult to imagine so much water here.
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.
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.
read on below advertisement
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.
The road entering Mungo National Park from the west drops you more or less right at the rangers' station and the start of the drive loop within the park. The lakes here have been dry for around 15,000 years, since the Lachlan River changed its course. The nearest watercourse is the Willandra Creek, which peters out in a swamp to the north of the park.
Mungo National Park has been populated forever, or near enough to it. Mungo Man and Mungo Woman, two of the oldest human remains found in Australia were both discovered here, and it is not uncommon to see remains of camp fires that would have burnt when there was water and food in the lakes. These are the traces of the ancestors of the Paakantji, Ngiyampaa and Mutthi Mutthi people.
The visitors centre is based at the old woolshed, and is well worth a stop. Apart from maps and route notes to accompany the circular drive through the park, there is plenty of scientific and historical information. Most people seem to take the short trip out to the Walls of China and back, so you can pretty much find yourself in quiet seclusion doing the whole loop.
Mungo National Park was previously two sheep stations, Mungo and Zanci. Both of their timber woolsheds still stand, and seeing Mungo's drop log construction, it is easy to see why there is so little of the native Cyprus pine left. The shed still houses the steam engine that was used to power the shears before the petrol motor took over. It is amusing to see how steep the chutes are, after stripping the poor thing of its wool, the sheep was dropped almost vertically into the outside pen.
Crossing Lake Mungo towards the Walls of China, you get the feeling of what the lake must have been like. It is low and flat, there wouldn't have been much depth to the water. The bed is now covered with a stunted and scrubby saltbush. The abrupt change at the Walls of China is striking. Sand dunes rising in the middle of this salty dwarf scrub.
Pressed into semi rock, and eroded away again, it forms all sorts of weathered shapes, leaving an almost Arizona looking landscape in miniature. The western view from the top of the road snaking across the dry lakebed has to be seen. To the east, the sand dunes crash up against the mallee scrub. Leaving the less adventurous behind, the road becomes one-way, crosses the dunes, known as lunettes, and continues through the eastern end of the park across Allans Tank.
There's the remains of a hut on the plain that was dragged there on a sled from the homestead. Rabbits burrowed around the foundations so much it has collapsed. Both the corrugated iron and the rabbit holes are all that remain today. The rabbit plague at the end of the 1800s forced huge reductions in the number of sheep each station could run. It was some time later that goats became a problem. Round Tank in the northwest corner of the drive has an ingenious goat trap built around it, one that probably still works when the tank is full.
The roads are all very well maintained and easily done in a 2WD, except after rain. There are a number of picnic and camping spots on the loop but, as in most national parks, collecting wood for open fires is frowned upon, so bring your own wood or fuel stove. To get the wool to market, and transport supplies, shearers and farmhands, the Cobb and Co coaches had to cross the lunettes. There are still hard packed tracks through the sand at Vigars Well. Vigar ran the Zanci Station, and dug two wells where the teams rested before crossing the dunes. The remaining well still has water in it, and is rarely dry. Little comfort, I would have thought, to the teams about to drag a fully laden coach up and over a sand dune. It's hard enough in the 4WD.
There's little left of Zanci now, except the woolshed and the cellar in the remains of the homestead. It is a full height room built underground for food storage and surprisingly it's still cool , as if someone had left it running. As a last look, to the south of the loop, on the way out of the park is the spectacular Mungo Lake lookout.
Guarded by a lone cyprus pine, the view stretches over the whole lake, with the dunes of the Walls of China in the background. As we left, I wondered what it must have been like to muster in this harsh and unforgiving terrain. For the legacy of the explorers and early shearers has left a lasting impression on me.
