After some enjoyable days exploring Broken Hill we decided to have a look at the Menindee Lakes, we have had conflicting reports about water levels, conservation, polution etc so out we went.
Lake Menindee its self is dry but Lake Pamamaroo and others are low but have water. The huge problem out here is Cotton Growing, Tandou had a 72 Gigalitre, yes, Gigalitre licence and they are only one farm. The NSW Gov bought that one back for environmental purposes for $78 million. Not a bad little earner.
There are thousands of hectares absolutely flat and as bare as concrete all the way out and east of here, the sides of the road are white with cotton blown from the transport for hundreds of kilometres, you can see water turbidity from tailwater silt all along the Darling River, rising salinity levels from run off has killed a lot of farms and businesses, the vineyard at Menindee it self has closed as the vines couldn't survive the salt, they had 400 hectares of vines. Blue green algae is thriving in the fertiliser run off.
Needless to say tensions are very high around here between locals and the 'blow in' cotton growers.
After all that we camped at Main Weir free bee and did an evening river cruise down the river, a very pleasant afternoon with excellent hosts and fellow tourists. Fantastic sun rises and sunsets here for the shutter bugs, thought of you Jim. We went to the old Cobb & Co bridge made from river red gum, it was a staging post on the Adelaide to Bourke route.
Feed of camp oven stew, cold beer and zip to do except enjoy the vista. Happy wife got a night off cooking. Well worth while if you ever down this way.
Took a few hours out and visited the old Kinchega Shearing shed, the largest in the Southern Hemisphere with a 64 stand board, average of 75,000 sheep per year and a total of over 6 million before closing down, all the wool was taken by bullock dray to the Darling river for transport to Adelaide. Some thought provoking memorabilia there with the old steam traction engines, hand shears, the timber tinkers with red gum wheels and wheel wool presses etc. It is a pity there is practically nothing left of the original home stead, just a few brick borders of the veggie gardens and a fire place. The aboriginal heritage takes precedent and not open to us as visitors.
After a couple of days we decided to go to another lake camp site, right on the water edge, thousands of dead trees between us and the sun set, over night the weather gods got cranky, strong wind warning with gusts to 45 knots with scattered showers so we woke this morning to an overcast sky, howling winds and scuds of rain, the Bundatop is rock solid, no leaks and wind proof - bonus, just enough rain to be annoying and not enough to be of benefit to the land, just cold and miserable, up side is we are being serenaded by some butcher birds while we have breakfast, we will shift camp later to a more sheltered spot from the wind.
The river red gums here are absolutely magnificent, huge trunks and just starting to flower, small yellow bunches with a delicate perfume, there was a 27megalitre flow recently for environmental purposes so the water level rose about a metre, the little honeyeaters and bees are busy so just being able to watch this out weighs any discomfort.
A couple of days here and back through Broken Hill on Sunday to re-provision and then up towards Tibaburrough Monday, hope the wind improves, it is still blowing 30+ knots so we are hiding behind some trees and the fire is going.
Stay safe
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