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Mungo-Menindee-Willandra [part
two]
24 September to 6 October 2005
Saturday 1 October
Although we could have easily spent another day at Mungo, we packed up and
headed west again to join the Darling River. We got our first glimpse of this
iconic outback lifeline at the town of Pooncarrie, roughly half way between
Mildura and Menindee. We hadn’t really known what to expect but there was
water in the river although it was well below the top of the bank.
As it happened, it was race day in Pooncarrie and the town was being
inundated by visitors from near and far for the afternoon’s festivities. The
local campground, in amongst the trees along the river, was quite crowded. We
stopped for lunch in the park and then watched the first race from outside the
track before heading up the Darling toward Menindee. The red ribbon of the road
follows the river quite closely for most of the way although it is mostly out of
sight behind the line of large trees that cling to its banks.
We arrived in Menindee mid afternoon to find the visitor centre and nearly
everything else shut (was everyone at the races?). In search of a place to camp,
we first headed out to Kinchega National Park. River Drive snakes along the
western bank of the Darling below Menindee Lake and offers numerous lovely
campsites amongst the trees. Unfortunately, the toilets are few and far between
and this prompted us to check out the local caravan parks – just as well,
since we were almost out of fresh water in the camper.
Lake Menindee caravan park was depressingly dry and dusty perched on the
“shore” of a very dry lake. We almost headed straight back to the river but
instead drove further out to Copi Hollow, part of the man made Menindee Lakes
water storage system and home of the local boat association that runs the
caravan park. This was like an oasis – we had a perfect grassy campsite right
at the water’s edge and with a perfect view of the sun setting over the lake.
Sunday 2 October
Another beautiful day for us to explore the area. Menindee lakes consists of
a number of natural and man made lakes fed by the Darling River. A system of
weirs was built in the early 1960’s to trap the flow down the Darling to
provide water primarily for Broken Hill and the surrounding areas. Apparently,
estimates of the flow of water were more than optimistic (or the water has been
diverted for irrigation up stream) and there is not enough water to fill all of
the storage created by the project. Consequently, flow into the two lower (and
larger) lakes – Cawndilla and Menindee – has been shut off for sometime.
These lakes would more than double the storage capacity of the system but
apparently, seepage through the soil is such that it requires 2.5 times the
actual volume of water to keep them full. In contrast, the upper lakes, Copi
Hollow and Parmaroo, have plenty of water, are home to a variety of bird life
and are popular boating, fishing water skiing spots.
We spent the morning exploring the southern shore of these lakes with rows of
dead trees standing somewhat forlornly just off shore. There are numerous free
campsites along this stretch although they probably suffer from dust from
traffic on the road. We visited the campsite of the 1860 Burke and Wills
expedition and the system of weirs built to control the flow of the Darling
(more camping areas around here) and meandered along a series of rough sandy
tracks by the river before heading back to Copi Hollow for lunch.
After lunch, we headed back out for more sightseeing. Sunset Strip is a small
community of perhaps 100-150 houses built on the shore of Lake Menindee. When
there was water in the lake, it would have been a boating mecca. Sadly, it now
looks out over a large dry grassy plain punctuated by dead trees standing in the
sand around the shore line. The concrete boat ramp leads nowhere and jetties and
pontoons lie stranded.
We then headed out to Kinchega National Park. The Lake Drive skirts around
the opposite shore of Lake Menindee, down past the equally-dry Cawndilla Lake
and link onto Emu Lake Drive (also parched) before delivering us to the visitor
centre at Kinchega Homestead and Woolshed. Here there are showers, bunk room
accommodation and more interesting displays in the woolshed and surrounding
buildings. We headed back to Copi Hollow to enjoy happy hour while we watched a
spectacular sunset over the water. Then we went back to town for dinner at the
historic Menindee Hotel. The pub retains all the charm of an old outback pub
although the interior has been modernized after fire almost destroyed the
building several years ago.
  
Monday 3 October
On the way out of Menindee we stopped at the Survey Tree that marks the sport
where the initial survey team camped in December 1882. For about 200 kms the
road to Ivanhoe traverses more of the classic outback countryside – flat red
plains now covered with green grasses and carpets of white, yellow and sometimes
purple wildflowers with occasional stands of larger trees around watercourses.
We had lunch and refueled at Ivanhoe before heading south down the Cobb Highway/
Kidman Way and turning east at Mossgiel toward Hillston.
Our next stop was at Willandra National Park, a 20km detour off the Hillston
road. The National Park is part of the original Willandra Station, one of the
iconic outback stations of the early days of European settlement. It was
immortalised in the anonymous poem, Flash Jack From Gundagai:
I've
shore at Burrabogie and I've shore at Toganmain,
I've
shore at Big Willandra and out on the Coleraine,
But
before the shearing was over I wished I was back again
Shearin'
for old Tom Patterson on the One-Tree Plain.
A lot of work has been done restoring the homestead and surrounding
buildings: shearers quarters, foremans cottages, a thatch-roofed ramshed and
other areas. In fact, the woolshed is still used by surrounding properties in
the peak spring shearing season. It’s interesting to wander through the
restored homestead and imagine the contrast between the life of the station
owners and that of the workers and farm hands. Its easy to sit on the fly
screened verandah and imagine high tea being taken while watching tennis on the
lawn or paddlers from the pontoon on Willandra Creek.
The park offers accommodation in the homestead, cottage and men’s quarters
plus campsites in secluded bush clearings near the creek. We found a great spot
to set up and the kids got a campfire going to get coals for our last camp oven
dessert.
Tuesday 4 October
The next morning we took the 20 km drive around the property using the
information sheet to provide a description of the landscape and points of
interest. Again, we could have spent another day here to better appreciate the
location but instead retraced our tracks to the main road and headed to Parkes
via Lake Cargelligo (lunch stop) and Condoblin.
Wednesday 5 October
Today we visited the Parkes Radio Telescope and were lucky to be on hand to see
it moved into a new position. The visitor centre offers interesting displays and
informative movies.
Another 20+kms on we stopped at Peake Hill for lunch and a walking tour of
the open cut goldmine – series of huge excavations which are now mainly
dormant. At the entrance to the mine is the remains of a kitchen hearth that is
all that’s left of earth-floored corrugated iron shack which was home to one
of the mine workers, his wife and children as recently as the early 1960’s.
Thursday 6 October
For the first time since we drove into Mungo National Park, we encountered
some light rain on the trip home to Sydney.
Despite
the inclement weather at the start, we had a great trip reacquainting ourselves
with the flavour of the outback and seeing some fascinating sights. In
particular, Mungo National Park is a truly amazing place and it was great to see
a different side of the outback after recent spring rains brought parts of the
desert to life.
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