Menindee Lakes

Geoff had always wanted to see Menindee Lakes so we decided to take the hire car there and stay the night as it was over 100km away. We should have pulled the pin on the idea when we heard the weather forecast of 37.  We arrived mid morning and did a bit of a walking tour around the now tiny town. We didn't feel very comfortable with being there when a carload of people went past and yelled out 'f*** off'  We ploughed on and went to look for these beautiful Lakes only to find most of the water had been released down to people downstream to irrigate farms in NSW and South Australia.  We did however visit Kinchega National Park which includes the old Kinchega Station including a restored wool shed. Built in 1875 of corrugated iron and river red gum, the historic Kinchega Woolshed is a vast and very well preserved classic piece of Australian pastoral heritage. Inside the woolshed, there were wool presses and tables, a machinery room and an original steam engine as well as sweating pens and the board where the sheep were held for shearing. In 97 years of operation, six million sheep were sheared here, an amazing thing to imagine as you wander through this quietly majestic building.  

 

 

 

Burke and Wills had their base camp at Menindee on the river and this is where they set out fromon their fateful journey.   

Burke and Wills base camp

 

Geoff found an old surveyors tree    

Darling River

We had taken Ashley's pack raft to float down the Darling river but it was just too hot. We ended up deciding to not stay overnight but to return to the air conditioned motel room in Broken Hill.