Skip to main content

The Darling



Darling River, Wilcannia

For those who travelled west with us on our River Run early this year you might remember Pooncarie where we met up with the Darling River and Wentworth where we saw it join the Murray.  On this trip we meet the Darling again but further north. 

Last time I was at Wilcannia (some 12 years ago) the Darling was way up those high banks in flood.  Today it far from that but nice to see flowing as I'm told it was just a chain of ponds a year or so ago.

It’s hard to believe based on the state of the river today that this was once a busy inland port for the paddle steamers plying the length of the river.  This bridge built in 1896 has a span in the middle that could be lifted to allow laden barges to pass through.

Comments

  1. freefallingAugust 27, 2010 at 1:43 PM

    Doesn't that tree look like it's going to lift up its petticoats and go scuttling sideways?

    ReplyDelete
  2. ABAugust 27, 2010 at 7:02 PM

    You can see from the exposed tree roots how high the river gets. We have nothing comparable here. In fact, we have a whole series of sluices etc to control the rivers.

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownAugust 27, 2010 at 11:07 PM

    The pillars are fantastic! And so are the tree roots on the other bank. Wonderful composition and colours!

    ReplyDelete
  4. JulieAugust 29, 2010 at 7:30 AM

    Love the petticoat concept. This is a whole sluice of hour history that I would like to read more about. I guess the water flow was more because little was being siphoned off - or we received more rain. Or both ...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Joan ElizabethAugust 29, 2010 at 8:04 PM

    Letty, 'petticoats' I love it.

    AB, there is not enough water most of the time for us to play sluice games, other than for irrigation.

    JM, thanks

    Julie, remember there was a lot of rain up in Queensland in 2009 (water reached Lake Eyre last year too but via different rivers than this year). Those rains topped up the Darling. And of course local rain has an effect ... and there has been quite a lot of rain out that way this winter.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Larras Lee

We passed through Bakers Swamp without noticing anything.  Then reached our last dot on the map for this trip - Larras Lee and saw this.  The roadside monument says: In Memory of  WILLIAM LEE  (1794 - 1870)  of "Larras Lake"  a pioneer of the sheep  and cattle industry  and first member for  Roxburgh under responsible  government (1856 - 1859).  This stone was erected  by his descendants.  --- 1938 --- This is a repost from a few days ago. Thinking I would use this for this week’s Taphophile Tragics post I dug a little further into William Lee’s story, it’s a very colonial Australian one. William was born of convict parents, living his childhood years around the Sydney region. In his early 20s he was issued with some government cattle, recommended as a suitable settler and granted 134 acres at Kelso near Bathurst. He was one of the first in the area and did well. A few years later he was granted a ram and an inc...
9 comments
Read more

The end

I retire from the workforce this week and to celebrate have decided to retire my current blogs and start afresh with a single consolidated blog -  My Bright Field  - to record the delights of my new life adventure. If you are interested follow me over there.  I will still be Sweet Wayfaring and collecting Royal Hotels.  The delights I discover along the way will appear together with my gardens and towns where I live.
Post a Comment
Read more

Yetholme

Our last stop on this trip was to see if there was anything left of an old town once called Frying Pan which was later renamed Yetholme.  I knew Yetholme to be a roadhouse on the highway near the pine forests and didn't expect to find anything but again I was wrong.  There was a lovely little settlement  with homes, a neat community hall and a church still in use.  The perfect spot for the creatively inspired. Apparently it was a tourist town back in the early 1900s and in more recent years was bypassed by the Great Western Highway leaving it to settle into its pleasant tranquil existence, hidden from the travellers speeding by. I remembered it is Tuesday so have added a supplementary photo to participate in Taphophile Tragics  this week.  This is St Paul's Anglican Church in Yetholme.  The burials in the church yard date from the 1873 to the present day. You can see a little more of  Yetholme  over at 100 Towns.
9 comments
Read more