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New South Wales (Western NSW) |
| Kinchega National Park | |
| Flat
Kinchega National Park is situated among the Menindee lakes,
near the township of MENINDEE, southeast of Broken Hill. There’s
a sealed road for the 110km to Menindee and the park entrance, and gravel
roads thereafter; before you go, visit the Broken Hill NPWS to get
information about road conditions, or ask at the Menindee Tourist
Information Centre (Mon–Fri 9am–5pm, Sat & Sun 10am–1pm),
where a detailed, hand-drawn “Mud Map” of the lakes area, showing
areas of interest, is available free of charge.
The Menindee lakes are an extensive, natural oasis, feeding the Darling and Murray rivers and, most importantly, supplying water to Broken Hill; they’re also a big recreation area, with facilities for camping, powerboating, water-skiing, sailing, swimming and fishing. The waters protected by the Kinchega National Park, Menindee Lake and Cawndilla Lake, are a haven for waterbirds; a common sight are little black cormorants (commonly known as shags), floating in feeding flocks alongside pelicans, with whom they hunt co-operatively. |
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an information shelter 5km into the park and a normally unmanned
visitor information centre about 10km further on near the Kinchega
Woolshed. Kinchega Station was one of the first pastoral settlements
in the area in 1850 and was worked until 1967; you can explore it by
following the signposted woolshed walk.
Accommodation is available in the shearers’ sheds here (up to $18; book at Broken Hill NPWS), or at the thirty river campsites ($5 payable on site) scattered through the river-red-gum woodland along the river – including the site of Burke and Wills’s base camp from late October 1860 until late January 1861 (a tree marks the spot). The main camping area, with toilets, is on the shores of Cawndilla Lake, with its sandy beaches and good swimming. Burke and Wills stayed in Menindee at the Maidens Hotel, Yartla Street, on their ill-fated trip north in 1860. Unfortunately the room in which they stayed is now full of poker machines, but there is some interpretive material in the hotel (the room’s fittings are now in the Railway Museum in Broken Hill), and the green courtyard’s a good place for a drink or a counter meal. Otherwise, you can stay at the Burke & Wills Motel opposite, or camp in relative comfort at the Menindee Lakes Caravan Park on Lakes Shore Road, 5km northwest of town, which has a kiosk and grocery store. If you don’t have transport, you can take a day-tour out here from Broken Hill; the best is with Goanna Safari. |
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