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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

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