Darling River Run vs The North Again

JB,

Water is still slowly flowing over the weir here in Chinchilla so I would imagine the DR is still flowing abiet slowly. Water has been flowing over the weir here since December last year.

I am on a count down of 11 weeks till I do the return trip home from Silverton after the National Gathering via the DDR and beyond into QLD.

Cheers Kev

Hi John

We did the DDR last week between Wilcannia and Bourke. The road on the east side of the river as far as Tilpa is closed due to flooding, the western side road is fine apart from a very small section of water which is quite shallow and does not present a problem.

The river is flowing very slowly, we really enjoyed this part of our trip, there are several good camp sites and stations to stay at along the way. We crossed the river at Louth and continued on the eastern track up to Bourke.

Regards Jon

Yeah as the others have stated, the river has dropped right down now, I haven't looked at exact figures but it would be just over 4.5m at Bourke. Its still flowing over the weir but not by too much. As the water has cooled down the yabbies has slowed up a lot as well. Yesterday I pulled 2 traps out that had been in for about 18 hours and I only had 8 in total. In saying that, it could be like fishing, plenty around but just cant mange to catch them.
Tim

Hi John, the DRR is a great drive, start off at Mungo NP, stay at Turlee station nearby, make sure you catch sunset on China Walls, allow at least 2 days to see everything, then follow the road to Pooncarie and cross the river here and go up to Bindara Stn, another top camp, then continue north to Kinchega NP, camp on the river, beautiful, spend a couple of days here too, watch sunset on Lake Menindee which is full, check out Menindee and its famous Maiden hotel, there is camping just outside of town on Lake Pamamaroo (Burke and Wills camp), its worth then going into Broken Hill to see all the artists plus don't miss Silverton, the Mad Max hotel (Silverton Pub) and the fantastic Horizon Gallery, then drive up to Mootwintjie NP, allow say 3 days to do all the walks, this spot is incredible. Go over to White Cliffs for an underground stop, a real experience, than visit Lake Peery and follow the road in a loop through the Paroo Overflow to Tongo and then south again to Tilpa on the Darling. Stay on the north side of the river and stop off at Trilby Stn, another day here will help you see the station properly, then up to Louth and cross back over the river and continue on the southern side but divert into Gundabooka NP before reaching Bourke - a great trip!
Vic Widman

Hubby, the kids and I have just spent a week doing part of the DRR during the kids school holidays. We began in Bourke - a very enjoyable stopover. Kidman's Camp caravan park on the river is very busy but a beaut spot. We really enjoyed the Back O Bourke Exhibition Centre, the Jandra Paddleboat, the mud map drives and Mt Oxley.

From Bourke we travelled to Louth ( on fairly decent roads) through the Gundabooka National Park... great walking trails and aboriginal art here. We had one of the best counter lunches I've had in a long time at Shindy's Inn in Louth and then travelled about 25km downstream, on the western side of the river, to Trilby Station.

We had been recommended Trilby by several of our friends and aquaintenances and were definitely not disappointed. In fact we stayed 5 nights instead of the planned 3. This place is awesome, the kids loved the wide open spaces, the canoes on the huge billabong (which filled during the flood earlier this year, when the folks at Trilby were isolated by road for 3 months.) and the huge yabbies. We're talking two beer cans long, and plenty of them. The billabong has been dry for 10 years, hence the yabbies have been buried in mud.

Liz and Gary, the owners, have stocked plenty of dams on their property with yabbies and you pass these as you follow the trip notes Liz will give you for one of two 'mud map drives' around the station. It appears the yabbies run all year round here and if you don't want to drive for them there is a yabby pond right near the powered sites too. Liz will give you a net if you need one, and also meat to go in it.

We can't recommend Trilby highly enough. The campers ammenities are newly refurbished and are kept spotlessly clean, bins are emptied regularly, firewood is plentiful and hospitality second to none. There were quite a lot of other visitors on the property, but the river campsites are spread out amongst the gum trees and you don't even see another camp from yours.

From here we travelled down to Tilpa, camping a night on the opposite bank to the pub and then on down to Wilcannia before heading across to Broken Hill.

A really nice trip. Distance wise, not too far from home ( Bathurst) and plenty to see and do for all of us.

Did the DDR between Wilcannia and Bourke last week. The river is low with plenty of water in the weir pools. Yabbies are still being caought in the Warrego, near Bourke they have left the Tallywalker and the in Darling proper they can be found around Pooncarrie.

Regards

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