Day 5 - Where the wind blows, Lake Menindee.

Day 5 - Where the wind blows, Lake Menindee.

Menindee Lake. Research & find out how much water there is in the lake?

The train line from menindee to Broken Hill.

A westerly wind travels thousands of kilometres across this wide brown land before it reaches Broken Hill. Today it reached the Hill with it's icy fingers with the intention to remove our recently hung clothes on the line.

Lake Menindee is the seaside resort for the citizens of Broken Hill,  'a day at the beach' as well as the source of water, still essential in outback Australia. About an hour by car across undulating hills south east of Broken Hill appears a huge body of water. Observing the dam we stopped to cross an unbroken rail line to receive a icy slap in the face by the wind, but an impressive view across one of the lakes. Dave explained that there is more water here than Sydney Harbour.

Bird life on the lake.

 At Menindee Beach Lake we had a picnic sheltering from the wind in the Broken Hill motorboat club shed. We then traveled to the place, which was the staging place for the fateful Bourke & Wills expedition. While William Wright waited there for almost a year near the future Menindee Lake for the expedition members to return, who perished the inland from here, an Aboriginal mission was the fate for a number of local Aboriginal groups some 50 year later. Dave camped near this mission site explaining that a number of times he heard the cries of small children in the wind who are souls of the past Aboriginal mission. 

Ramp into Kinchega shearing shed. Why do you think it is built on tree poles?

One of the largest shearing sheds was Kinchega, now part of Kinchega National park. Here while thousands of bales of wool were packed sent off, however the land could not support the large sheep population & now is a reminder of what is possible or not possible in this landscape.

What was a mangle used for?

‣    Watch the rather terrifying 'Shearing Psycho'.

We shared our meal & a national pastime, watching the 'State of Origin' at the Muso's club, to finish another Australian day.