Start of our Darling River Run

Our ‘against the flow’ Darling River Run started as we drove into the town of Wentworth just on the New South Wales (NSW) side of the Murray River (which forms the border between Victoria and NSW).  It is also where the Darling River meets and flows into the Murray.

Having now entered NSW we made a quick stop for fruit and veg supplies then set of on our drive from Wentworth to Pooncarie then onto our overnight stop at Kinchega National Park near Menindee.

It had been a long day of driving by the time we had arrived at our destination.  The wind had picked up and there was dust and sand blowing everywhere making it pretty dismal to be outside. We quickly parked at a camp site and settled in for some dinner and an early night.

The weather had calmed overnight and we woke up to clear skies and a gentle breeze.  Before hitting road again, we visited the and Old Kinchega Homestead from which Kinchega Station was run.  At its peak of operations, the station (ranch/farm) comprised over 800,000 hectares (1,976,000 acres)!  At the historic old Kinchega Woolshed, over 6 million sheep were shorn.

Wool bale press in the old Kinchega Wool Shed

Where the sheep are shorn is called the 'Shearing Board'

Multiple shearing units were/are attached to a common shaft drive

All of the bales of wool from the shearing of the sheep were loaded onto barges towed by Paddle Steamers downstream to Wentworth and other inland ports along the Murray River.  An interesting but sad story relating to a paddle steamer occurred here in 1872…  Apparently, some of the boat hands hitched the ‘PS Providence’ to the bank of the Darling River here and then went out on the town.  They came back quite the worse for wear and proceeded in their drunken state to stoke the boiler before falling into bed.  They had, however, missed one important step.  While they had stoked the fire box, they had not filled the boiler tank with water.  It quickly overheated and the boiler blew up, blowing the boat to pieces and throwing men and materials everywhere.  The cook, who had not gone out that night, was found alive the next day high up in a tree.  Unfortunately, he died of his injuries a few days later.

On that sombre note we returned to camp, hitched up the caravan and set off once more.  The elementary thing for us to remember from this event is to make sure the kettle is filled with water for tomorrow morning's coffee before going to bed!  Stay tuned to find out WTF – Where are The Farrows? and where they stop next.