Pooncarie to Menindee

Dawn broke on the 24th & we packed & left behind Pooncarie. Two roads lead north, the main Pooncarie-Menindee Road on the eastern side of the Darling is dirt, but being slowly sealed, with stretches of bitumen yet to be joined, or the ‘Old Pooncarie Road – which is all dirt & still providing a road connecting the various stations along it’s path. Deciding to take the latter seemed like a good idea & it was until later in the day. Mostly we saw nothing of the river as we drove, but took a punt on a side track to stop for lunch & found the river no more than 100 metres from the road, hidden by it’s own steep banks. The larger trees gave away it’s proximity though. A section of an old fallen river redgum provided a perfect sitting spot in the shade, a couple of young goats made easy work of the steep river banks to get their lunchtime drink.

Back on the road we were met by an unexpected sight. A small fluffy white dog appeared out of the scrub, followed by a clearly out of breath & flustered chap, followed by the lady who turned out to be his wife. We pulled up, I got out & knelt down, the dog ran straight to me, happy for me to hold onto it whilst it’s owners caught up. “Don’t wanna dog do ya” said hubby almost under his breath so that his following wife wouldn’t hear, before they turned around to return to their caravan hidden in scrub.

Gibber plains, low scrub, salt plains & treed areas alternated, always changing. Every so often MrsTea opened & closed gates as we passed from station to station rarely seeing any buildings, just tracks.

We took another punt on a 4wd track marked on our map, a shortcut into the Kinchega NP. It followed the river, but after around 15kms we came to a gate with a sign saying no access, and a permanently mounted camera with infrared. We wondered if we had inadvertently stumbled upon a secretive government facility. The only identifying feature on the sign was a logo with the word ‘Tandou’. Later we discovered that this is a large organic farming enterprise, clearly with a lot of water rights, something we suspect is potentially controversial. Back on the Old Pooncarie Road, we passed through flood plains, where it appeared levy banks had been built to hold water for longer, looked like it might be to harvest salt. Suddenly a large expanse of water appeared & we stopped for a break on the bridge at Packers Crossing to soak up the vista. Dead trees & lots of birdlife. The ‘bridge’ itself housed large manually operated sluice gates. We were looking at the outer reaches of what are the highly managed, & enormous Menindee Lakes. These are the lakes that in recent decades I believe have fed a large thirsty cotton growing industry at the expense of the towns like Broken Hill’s drinking water supplies. The days of the Darling River, like it’s sister the Murray River, having a natural flow are long gone. It is in the hands of water managers, many say water ‘barons’.

At the end of the Old Pooncarie Road, we swung right onto the Tandou Road, passing extensive buildings with the logo not long after. The roads were built up, lots of sluice gates everywhere. This took us into the Kinchega NP. It was just as I remembered it from almost 30 years ago. Flat, barren, dusty saltbush covered land around uninspiring huge man made lakes which stretch to the horizon. There are few places we’ve been to in Australia that I have disliked, but Kinchega National Park’s one of them. It didn’t help that the roads through the park were in the most appalling condition, the worst I’ve driven on since the last time I was there. A national park which appears (to me) to exist to primarily meet the needs of the NSW water board & it’s lucrative customers. There were large numbers of red & grey kangaroos, as well as a mob of wild pigs we saw feeding on a kangaroo carcass, but as the driver it was mainly the dreadful road surface which had my attention. We were pleased to reach the northern boundary of the park, & the small town of Menindee, where we found some pleasant free camps on the treed, & sandy shores of yet another lake, Lake Pamamaroo. Hugely different to the treeless & exposed lakesides in the NP where payment was required. Perhaps we have missed the point of Kinchega NP. Feel free to tell me if so!

The next morning we awoke to very chilly temperatures, evidenced by the difficulty experienced in squeezing toothpaste out of it’s tube. This has become our ‘morning barometer’. Of greater concern it seems that my camera, a Canon ’superzoom’ is struggling – the fixed lens’ ability to zoom is compromised, sometimes working, sometimes giving an error message & making unpleasant graunchy sounds. A new camera is on the cards – a belated birthday present, but that won’t be possible until we’re back home, so for now we hope the Canon remains useable, with the back up of a tiny Sony T9 ‘point & shoot’.