Last year a group of us from a Newcastle 4WD club took a trip down the Darling River – from Bourke to Wentworth, with a diversion to the amazing Mungo NP. This is true outback, with corrugated dirt roads that turn treacherous and are often impassable with rain, and miles of flat scrub between destinations. We had a wonderful time and were blessed with perfect weather.

As camping on the river is not always easily accessible, we decided to include a couple of farm stays in our itinerary, and were pleased with the relaxed nature of them. We stayed at Trilby Station south west of Bourke, and Bindara, which is south of Menindee.

Our rendezvous was the camping ground behind the Mulga Creek Hotel at Byrock, which is a stopover worth patronising. For $5 per person per night, there were hot showers and flush toilets, and a stroll to the pub with its crafted woodwork fittings and good meals at great prices. An easy walk in the opposite direction brings you to the rock holes – eroded granite outcrops that collect water into pools. We went there just on sunset and saw superb reflections. There is also a short nature walk, with information boards about the history of the area – both pioneer and Aboriginal.

Next morning we headed for Bourke and stopped at the visitors’ centre for maps and morning tea. This is an architectural delight, with large white sails over the top to maximise coolness. There was a small billabong under the walkways and a plethora of butterfl ies in the gardens. We had an uneventful night at Gundabooka NP, and made for our first farm stay at Trilby Station, south west of Bourke, via Louth.

A feature of this tiny village (apart from the beautiful roses in front of the park) is the seven-metre Celtic Cross in the cemetery. The cross serves as a monument to Mary, the first wife of TA Mathews an energetic, self-made man from Ireland who developed the village of Louth as a place to service the river trade and the Cobb & Co coaches of the 19th Century. The column and cross are made of polished granite, and the cross reflects the setting  sun. On the day of Mary’s death (or birth, depending on your sources) the light from the cross is said to shine on the site of the house they shared. The splendour of this monument contrasts strongly with the rest of the cemetery with its wiry grass and scattered headstones.

Silhouette, Sturt NP. By John Spencer

TRILBY STATION

At Trilby we were warmly welcomed by Liz Murray, who runs the hospitality side of things while her husband Gary runs the farm. Trilby Station is a member of the Outback Beds Association, and judging by the two farms we stayed at, its members are dedicated to making the outback experience an enjoyable one. As well as the riverside camping chosen by our group, the Murrays offer immaculate accommodation in a shearers-style bunkhouse and cottages. There are also powered sites near the homestead, and a pool. The riverside campsites follow the twists and turns of the river, with some suiting larger groups such as ours and other more secluded ones suiting smaller groups, couples or individuals. Campfires are encouraged and fireplaces provided, and there is plenty of firewood.

Self-contained camping is most convenient, as no facilities are available at the river, but campers are able to drive back a few kilometres to the bunkhouse amenities, and you are permitted to dig your own toilet an appropriate distance from the river. A significant feature of the stay is the book Liz lends to visitors for the duration of their visit. It introduces the reader to their family, outlines life on the station, and provides a comprehensive history of the station and the local area.

Out among the saltbush

Laminated mud map books are also available, enabling selfdrive tours of the station. We chose a longer drive, and were able  to get a taste for the size and history of the property, passing antique car wrecks, an old double-decker bus that once served as home and transport to a couple of fencers, and a now empty homestead, Newchum, which was abandoned in 1965. Trilby is a huge property – more than 300,000 acres – and as well as running sheep, they round up feral goats which represent an important source of income.

The river was low when we were there and the water was the pale clay colour of the sadly eroded banks, but there are huge gum trees, and the whole area is very peaceful. Fishing and yabbying are supposed to be good, but our group had no luck. We spent two relaxing nights there, and considered it a positive introduction to the farm-stay experience.

We travelled on through Tilpa, where we were intrigued to be served cappuccinos and biscuits by the Irish barmaids at the  pub. They were enthusiastic and ready to chat, and one happily took group photos of us behind the bar. Several of our party took the chance to donate to the Royal Flying Doctor Service by signing their names in texta on the densely covered walls.

We passed through Wilcannia, taking the opportunity to shop for groceries and to fuel up, and also admire the restoration of some of the heritage buildings. The post office in particular is a very attractive building, and has been restored not only to its former glory, but also to its postal function.

About three kilometres on the southern side of Wilcannia there is a new camping complex called Warrawong, which caters  very well for motorhomes and caravans, but also for riverside camping. The water here was a better colour than further up, but had some evidence of algae. There was room for all of us down by the river, and it was an easy walk up to the super-deluxe amenities block. The powered campsites are on lush lawns with a view of the lagoon, but we were happy down on the river – once again with a spectacular campfire kept going by the keen stokers in our group. Dropped branches from the river red gums were a boon for campfires.

Lunettes, Mungo NP

 A modern way to see the river

BINDARA

The following day we continued south towards Menindee, and through, via Kinchega NP and the old woolshed, to Bindara. This was a somewhat challenging navigational feat, but with directions picked up at the information centre at Bourke, we managed to find it. You travel about 17km from the south of Kinchega, with Lake Cawndilla on the right, until you hit Old Pooncarie Rd, and turn left. You continue straight on for quite a distance until you come to Bindara. Once again we received a warm welcome from the woman of the house, Barb Arnold. We drove past an avenue of fruit trees and continued to the river bank, where we found the peace we had come to expect from the Darling.

Bill Arnold’s ingenuity was seen in the nifty bathrooms he had built down on the river. For each one a corrugated iron tank, lined with ripple iron, had been placed on a cement slab  (presumably the lid of a septic tank) and in each bathroom there was a flush toilet, hot shower, and a hand basin. The water was pumped from the river and heated by gas, and there was solar lighting for the open-air buildings. Very neat and quite luxurious for ‘rough’ camping. 

This would have been a good place for a few nights, but by this stage we were all keen to reach Mungo NP. On our way out the next morning, Barb was happy to talk about the history of the station and show an album of photos of its past glory while we taste-tested and bought some of her citrus fruit.

Pooncarie was a pleasant stop on the way to Mungo NP – it was an exquisitely neat little town with an excellent café and general store. There is information at the river about the Rodney, a paddlesteamer burnt by the shearers in the big strike during 1894 when it tried to come upriver with strike breakers. The wreck is now on private property.

At Pooncarie our group started to break up, as the caravanners had been to Mungo before, and were pleased to be back on the tar. They took off for Wentworth, while the rest of us drove into Mungo NP, where we camped in Main Camp.

This was a well-laid out and spacious area that featured white cypress pines and saltbush scrub, and enough grass to keep the resident black kangaroos happily grazing. It was very quiet at this time of the year, with only the odd grey nomad apart from our group of five vehicles. On our first day at Mungo we did the self-drive loop that takes you to the Walls of China and around the park in general, where we saw Vigar’s Well, a natural water source where the Cobb & Co coaches used to stop, and a derelict homestead where the inhabitants had dug an underground shelter to keep themselves and their provisions cool. The erosion in the lake area has been radical – the result of pastoralisation, rabbits, climate change and time.

The displays in the information centre were excellent, and there was a very informative video on Mungo Woman and Mungo Man, who have been dated at over 40,000 years. Mungo Woman was the first-known ritual cremation, and Mungo Man was buried in a relaxed posture, and coated with ochre. They have also discovered ice age footprints in the lake bed, which have been reproduced as they are too fragile to be on display. Luckily, on our last afternoon there, a tour was available, and most of our group took advantage of. It was excellent, run by a young Aboriginal man of the Barkindji people, who was very relaxed and informative. He told us that other human remains have been found, but the elders have decided to let them rest, and not have any more testing done.

He took us out onto the lake bed and through the Walls of China – pyramid shaped pinnacles of different sizes created by differential erosion of the varying types of soil. Apart from the erosion it’s an untouched landscape. They don’t try to protect fireplaces and special sites as it can cause more erosion in its turn, but they do make unobtrusive efforts where the conditions are right. He showed us a wombat skeleton which has been exposed by erosion of its burrow. If they don’t do anything it will be covered again by windblown sand. It was fascinating. He also showed us the earbones of different fish at some fireplace sites, and the broken shells of emu eggs – who knows how old.

He managed to catch (and release) a shingleback lizard as we went through, and told us how as kids they used to get them to latch on to the dogs’ tails as a joke. His tour was supposed to go for an hour and a half, but he was in no hurry to finish, and enjoyed talking about his family and culture, and natural lore. For example he gave us different berries to taste and called one bush the babysitting bush – the mothers used to put their very young children around a bush full of fruit and the kids would be kept busy picking and eating the tiny berries while the mothers  got on with their work. He also told us about different ways of cooking emu eggs, and how to get water from a mallee tree – along with how to make a didgeridoo and a digging stick; deal with kangaroo ticks and make a fire that will last for days.

I had high expectations of Mungo, and they were certainly fulfilled.

The next morning our group parted ways, with us and another couple going separately down to Wentworth, where the Darling joins the Murray, and the rest heading east to Willandra – thus ending our outback travel convoy.

Before heading north east towards home we camped in the caravan park at Wentworth, about 40 metres from Sturt’s tree – the tree he anchored across from in 1830 in his whale boat, when he discovered the confluence of the two rivers. This is a pleasant campground right on the Murray, with an excellent camp kitchen and laundry, but we missed the silence of the inland camping, and the spectacularly starry nights. And, of course, the campfires.

Farm stays were new to us, and we were encouraged by the easy hospitality of the hosts we encountered. Farm stays cater to a wide range of travellers, from the most basic campers to bus tourists requiring meals. Self-contained campers have an advantage in terms of having their own facilities, which makes for the possibility of real secluded comfort at a reasonable price.

Category: Destinations
Written: Sun 01 Nov 2015
Printed: November, 2015
Published By: