Our first stop which is just the other side of Silverton is the Mundi Mundi Lookout. Even on wide-screen the camera can not capture the immenseness and the flatness of the landscape. For as far as the eye can see for 180 degrees it is flat to the horizon.
From Mundi Mundi we drive a little further to see the dam that was the main source of water for Broken Hill before the Menindee pipeline was built in 1956.
Back to Silverton township. Just a few families (mostly artist's) populate this town. Silverton predates Broken Hill. Once a large thriving town of thousands Silverton serviced the first few silver mines in the district before the "Broken Hill" was found.
The pub in Silverton was used in the Mad Max movies. Hence the Mad Max car which is permanently parked outside.
The "Roman" ruins of Silverton....
On to Menindee. On the day we visited a small, dusty, lifeless town. Enough said.
Tourist go for the lakes not the nightlife I guess. On the outskirts of town there is man made (enhanced) channel that carries water diverted from the Darling River into the Menindee Lake system. The entire Darling River flow is directed by a weir up stream down this channel into the Menindee Lakes.
The amount of water flowing into the lakes is colossal.
Menindee Lake and all the other lakes in the system form an inland sea. The lake system is natural but has been enhanced by damming the Darling to push extra water into lake. Under natural conditions the Menindee lakes would fill only once in a hundred years.
This explains all the dead trees standing around the edge of the lake. These trees were originally above the natural high water mark of the lake.
The water level creeps ever higher like a slow rising tide..
With all the water you can imaging the bird life that must abound here but we seen very little ourselves. It may be a sun up and sun down phenomenon.
The forest of dead trees in some places extends kilometers into the lake.
The entire Darling River flow is directed by this weir up stream of the Lakes along the channel we saw earlier into the Menindee Lakes. Any wonder there is no water in the Murray when NSW redirects all the Darling's flow to fill this vast inland sea. As you can see there is barely a trickle of water past the weir even though the river is in full flood.
This is the spot where Burke and Wills camped at Menindee on the Darling September 1860. Here they left their back up crew under the command of William Wright. On October 19th 1860 Burke,Wills, Brahe, King Gray, McDonough, Patton and a camel driver called Dost Mohamet left here to explore the unknown interior of Australia.
Dost Mohanet, was a member of the party left at the Dig Tree as back up while Burke and Wills continued on. Dost eventually return to Menindee with the rest of the Dig Tree party. He lost an arm in a camel accident at the main camp. After the Burke and Wills Expedition was over he worked for the local baker for many years. He is buried on the outskirts of Menindee on the sport where he prayed each day.
By the way for those of you who are interested, the new fuel filter did not solve our car problems. The trip back from Menindee was very rough. Plan B....there is no plan B.
