Mutawinji NP & Kinchega NP

Day 4 - Wednesday 31st March
On to…… Mutuwinji National Park,
After we drove along a dusty, red dirt road, saw a few emus, drove over a small curled up brown snake and men cutting the grass on the sides on the roads (this doesn’t happen very often due to lack of rain) we arrived in Mutuwinji National Park. This NP is only a small one and was created due to playing a huge role in indigenous spirituality and customs. This area was used by many tribes when they gathered together for weddings, birth, initiation ceremonies and seasonal celebrations.




The campsite wasn’t busy at all, except for the resident birds – pink cockatoos, galahs, noisy neighbours and budgiegahs. (they all stayed up very late and kept us up – probably due to the very bright, full moon). Unfortunately we were not able to see the famous aboriginal art in the area but we were able to walk through the bushland (passing a heard of wild goats) to a waterhole in Mutuwintji Gorge which was full and Jamie went for a swim!
The locusts are rampant at the moment because of the rain and the green surrounds so with every step you take hundreds of locusts fly into the air (or your mouth, body, eye), driving through the locusts is a challenge too, as they seem like a plague ready to clog up your radiator (unless you create a barrier, aka use fly screen, tie downs & gaffer tape) & change the car bonnet colour.
We spent the night sleeping under the clear sky with only one other tent nearby.



Day 5 - Thursday 1st April
Lake Menindee in Kinchega NP,
After packing up the tent again we left for the Menindee Lakes area/system via Broken Hill. The road was all red sand until about 50km before town. This is an area that was used in the early 1800’s for sheep farming thus a lot of the land was misused and the river system changed for human usage. Burke and Wills also travelled through this area, set up camp and then headed off after a few days towards ‘Corner Country’ – where they met their death due to lack of food and water.
Broken Hill (1hours drive away) began piping from Menindee for its water supply around (only) the 1950’s, prior to that their supply was unreliable.
Last year Granpa (aka Adrian Brown) stood in the middle of a dry Menindee Lake, however the system is currently being filled up due to the rain fall in Queensland and the flow through to the adjacent Darling River. The flow into this lake area is now controlled by government in terms of who gets what water, when and how much.
The amount of water is an amazing site to see. We were lucky enough to see the lakes being filled up through the weir but also parts of the lakes that are still bone dry. It would be great to head back into this area in about a months time to see the wildlife and the greenery that would be bequeathed onto this place. We also saw the “authorities” opening the weir to allow flow back into the Darling.



After we set up camp, we spent a lazy afternoon by one of the lakes that was filled up – see the picture below. As it was Easter Thursday, many locals were setting up camp or on their way down for the long weekend with their yahooing, motor boats, fishing rods and canoes. The sunset was beautiful.