It’s a cool morning but we are keen to have a look around. We try the local bakery in Wentworth for a pastie and breaky roll then off to the Junction Park for breakfast at the confluence of the Murray River and Darling River. It was great to see the Darling River flowing and its muddy coloured water running parallel to the clearer water of the Murray. From the man made lookout you got a birds eye view of the river. The birdlife was prolific it was great to watch the formations of black cormorants and pelicans pass by. The red-rump parrots were busy looking for nesting hollows. What a wonderful sight.
We then drive north to the Great Darling Anabranch, a part of the Darling River system. An anabranch is a section of a river or stream that diverts from the main channel or stem of the watercourse and rejoins the main stem downstream. Local anabranches can be the result of small islands in the watercourse. In larger anabranches, the flow can diverge for a distance of several kilometers before rejoining the main channel.
Locals haven’t seen natural flows in the Anabranch for over 20 years so it’s pretty special to see.
The countryside is so green, water can be found in hollows and creeks its perhaps a once in a lifetime event to see so much of Australia so green and healthy.
The Anabranch does not disappoint, it is flowing and small fish are jumping, it’s a great sight.
We continue North to Broken Hill along the Silver City Highway. The information centre is worthwhile visting.
The Geo centre is next on our list, what a fabulous museum of the gelogy and history of Broken Hill. If you want to know more about Australia and what riches in mineral wealth and beauty it has to offer, this is a place to visit. If you have an interest in geology and mineralogy this is a must visit place, the mineral displays are great. The ingenuity of Australians is also well documented at this museum, new technology developed and applied to address the challenges. There we learn about the importance of a united community where via the union they instigated the 8 hour day and 35 hour week.
We also visit the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) facilities at the Broken Hill airport. This is a great display of an extremely valuable service. We had cause to use their service when travelling on a vessel off the Kimberley coast in Western Australia, a more remote place you could not find. The RFDS is so important to the health and wellbeing of remote communities around Australia. We enjoyed the formal tour, we got to view inside the aircraft, three early planes used were there to see. Given our collective medical and military experience the technology used was of great interest to us. The medical chest supplied to remote communities was older but similar to what we had to use in the Kimberley, the HF radio technology where one turned the handle of the generator to drive the radio set operated by another, the medical instruments had not really changed. We got to look on and into the control centre, and at that time 7 aircraft were active in their area of operations, what an amazing effort at work. The talk by the guide was informative and fun, this really is a must see facility.
Dinner was at the Musicians Club, the staff were friendly and food good. On the walk home we got to watch the Indian Pacific train service depart the Broken Hill station with a full moon rising over the train.
