Beauty of the back country

We’re sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. We’re working to restore it. Please try again later.

Advertisement

This was published 14 years ago

Beauty of the back country

Stop and go ... Kinchega National Park.

Stop and go ... Kinchega National Park.Credit: Lee Atkinson

The straight line of bitumen between Mildura and Broken Hill, the Silver City Highway, is not what you'd call a busy road. And while it does travel through some classic outback countryside - think endless red-dust plains studded with saltbush and mulga, mobs of kangaroos, emus and cackling galahs - it can be a monotonous, 300-kilometre haul.

Take instead the Darling River Road, which follows the course of the state's longest river. It might be 50 kilometres longer, red dirt and dusty, but it will lead you to some of the most impressive landscapes in outback NSW.

From Mildura cross the Murray River border and head north to Wentworth, where you'll find your first real taste of the outback on the edge of town at the Perry Sandhills, a vast expanse of continuously shifting dunes that appear mysteriously out of nowhere, in sharp contrast to surrounding farmlands. The sandhills were used as a bombing range during World War II. Now they are a popular film location and it's easy to see why - climb to the top of the first dune and all you can see is red, rippling dunes that could be any desert, anywhere.

Check out the Old Wentworth Gaol while you're here. Built in 1879, it was the first Australian-designed jail and is now a museum where you can wander through the old cells. Also worth a wander is the very pretty Junction Park, where two of our greatest rivers, the Darling and the Murray, converge - there's a lookout tower in the park that offers great views.

From Wentworth head towards Pooncarie and turn off when you see the signs to Mungo National Park, Australia's first World Heritage-listed national park.

It was once a rich and verdant place, where large groups of Aboriginal people would gather to hunt wombats, Tasmanian devils, Tasmanian tigers and massive kangaroos - three times the size they are today - and to feast on the fish and shellfish that flourished in the lake, which dried up about 15,000 years ago. Today it's a vast, flat, saltbush-studded plain that shimmers in the heat. Along what would have been the eastern shore is a great, crescent-shaped dune, a huge 22-kilometre-long wall of sand and clay eroded into weird and fantastic formations by the weather. Technically, it's called a lunette (because of its shape) but the Chinese men who worked here when it was Mungo Station back in the 19th century nicknamed it the Walls of China and the name has stuck. It is particularly beautiful in the evening when the white sand glows a deep red in the light of the setting sun.

The prevailing south-westerly winds, which sweep across the lake bed, have not only created the surreal shapes and spires of the Great Walls, but have also blown away the sands to reveal ancient fireplaces and middens, as well as fossilised plant matter, artefacts, stone tools and animal bones of creatures long extinct.

But the real finds are human; the oldest known skeletons of modern humans to be found anywhere outside Africa, as well as the world's oldest cremated human remains, somewhere between 45,000 and 60,000 years old: the experts are still quibbling.

Advertisement

When the skeletal remains were discovered in 1968, the estimated date for human occupation in Australia was about 20,000 years. Mungo Woman, as she became known, and another find in 1974 (known as Mungo Man) redefined world prehistory.

Since then, more skeletal and fossil remains, both human and marsupial, have been found, including, most recently, a set of 20,000-year-old human footprints.

Leaving Mungo behind it will take about two hours to reach Menindee. In a good year, Menindee, which proudly proclaims that it is the first town on the Darling (they mean oldest), is a veritable oasis.

It is here that the Darling River flows into the Menindee lakes, forming three huge bodies of water, two of which are part of Kinchega National Park and which also form the main drinking water supply for Broken Hill, 110 kilometres to the west.

Extended drought over the past few years has meant that all but a small section of one of the lakes are dry, including those in the national park. Even so, it's a beautiful spot to visit and there are two great driving tours you can take of the park, one beside the Darling (campers take note: some of the best campsites in the state are strung out along the riverbank) and another around the lake beds. When the lakes are full, birdlife is prolific and the sunsets over the lakes are spectacular, although beware of kangaroos if driving after dark.

Much of the park was originally Kinchega Station and you can visit the original 62-stand woolshed, built in 1875, where more than six million sheep were shorn before the station became a national park in 1967.

Back in Menindee, have a drink at Maidens Hotel. In 1860, Burke and Wills stayed at the hotel before the start of their ill-fated trip. William Wright, the man who has been blamed for a large part of the tragedy, was a station manager at Kinchega before he joined their party.

From here, it's an easy run on a sealed road to Broken Hill. The Silver City, as Broken Hill is known, made its fortune on the wealth of minerals buried beneath the surface but today it is also an important regional centre serving outlying areas.

There is so much to see and do here that it is worth planning to spend a few days, particularly if it is your first visit, exploring the dozens of art galleries, outback attractions and mining heritage.

TRIP NOTES

WHEN TO GO

Summer can be very hot and the flies are extremely friendly. Winter (although nights can be cold) is the most pleasant time to travel.

NEED TO KNOW

There is no fuel available at Pooncarie. Rain in this region is rare but when it does fall, the unsealed roads quickly become rivers of thick, glue-like mud that can be impassable for days, so always check road conditions before setting out on your journey. And although you don't need a four-wheel-drive for this trip, a vehicle with high clearance is essential.

WHERE TO STAY

Mungo Lodge offers upmarket accommodation with stylish en suite rooms, air conditioning and two verandas. The Lodge also has a licensed restaurant. Main courses are $23-$36, rooms $250 (a couple). Phone (03) 5029 7297, see mungolodge.com.au.

One of Broken Hill's best-kept secrets is its miners' cottages. These historic houses are available to guests on a per-night or weekly basis and cost about the same as a unit in a three-star motel.

FURTHER INFORMATION

See visitbrokenhill.com.au, visitnsw.com.

Sign up for the Traveller Deals newsletter

Get exclusive travel deals delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up now.

Most viewed on Traveller

Loading