18/11/25 Copeton Dam & Lake Inverell

 

     Leaving Collarenerbri , we stopped at Moree for some fuel before continuing to Warialda , stopping for some lunch before going to Inverell . Inverell is a pretty town nestled into the Macintyre River valley with hill/ mountains to the south , east and west . It's a large regional hub and has lot's of sporting facilities for the locals to utilise - and they do - touch football almost every night of the week , basketball that's also 7 days a week . 

 Next day we headed up to Gilgai and Howell before making our way to the eastern side of Copeton Dam - there's a free camping area beside the lake . It's a bit steep , but all bitumen road down lakes edge . The drone went up for a look , this is some of the camping area , there were tracks everywhere and vans and tents in all different spots .

    This is an island not too far out from the edge - if you look closely , you can see rings of trees caused by the water level at the time they sprouted and came to life . The dam wall is over the far side - top middle of photo .

    We had lunch at the lake before going to Tingha to surprise Lyn's Uncle .

 

    Next day we headed out to the lookout on the western side of town . It provided us with views across to the great dividing range towards Glen Innes . Inverell is a large town with quite a large shopping precinct - 3 supermarkets , Big W , Hardly Normal and many others . There's also an industrial area ( that we've become familiar with ) .

     From the lookout we headed out to Lake Inverell - on the eastern side of town . There's a dam wall on the river that creates the lake , there's picnic facilities , toilets and lots of walking tracks going around the lake .

     There's also an elevated walkway that runs alongside the lake .

     No shortage of birdlife either , with black swans flying past , pelicans and water fowl seemed to be all over the place as well .

 

Here's the spillway & dam wall .

Here's a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1DVc17DZPB2gewzUx_d4oKOlIe9hd14o&usp=sharing

12/11/25 Bourke

    From Wilcannia , we drove to a spot we've stopped at before - Noona rest area - and set up for the night. Next morning we headed into Cobar with our brakes heating up AGAIN . We had some lunch before going around to see someone about them . They heard my dilemma , and basically said "It'll be fine , and we're booked out , and can't fit you in " , so we headed off and found another free camp for the night - the brakes were happy to have a rest and a cool down !! Another day down , and more checks on the brakes & wiring and anything else we could think of , before we headed off to Bourke . Bourke is a large town perched on the side of the Darling River . It was serviced by paddle steamers travelling up & down the river back in the day . This is the Back of Bourke tourist centre , there are sculptures outside in the grounds , here's some of them .

They are large sculptures standing over 2m tall 

Rather large metal flowers 

Something from indigenous culture 

 The biggest Willie Wagtail we've ever seen .

Some different ones on a great sandstone block

 And another 

    Down to the old jetty for a look , but unfortunately the lower decks were closed off , so this is your view of the river from on top .

Here's the dock 

     We always seem to learn something everywhere we go , today was about a high jumper that came from Bourke - Percy Hobson -an aboriginal with a small stature , but with the ability to high jump . He was good enough to win the gold medal at the 1962 Commonwealth Games . His image is recorded on the water tower in town .

 The tanks is painted right around and worth a look if you're ever here .

     We took a drive out to the weir on the river , plenty of milky brown water was flowing over .

     We stayed at Kidman's Camp - a caravan park in North Bourke - unbeknown to us , the Jandra does cruises up & down the river for paying guests . We discovered the morning cruise was already running , so we booked for the afternoon cruise . This is the Jandra paddlesteamer which has been operating on the river for a long time . 

   We came back for the afternoon cruise and found that there was only us and 2 others , which was a contrast to the earlier cruise that had a couple of small busloads of school kids on it !!

     There's a common thing along the river , the lifting bridges appear to be very similar , here's the old & the new . The last flood was just below the decking of the new bridge .

 Mud swallows like to live here as well , there were plenty of nests below the new road bridge .

Views of the river were good from the upper deck .

       The Jandra cruises up the river at the staggering speed of 6 knots and the cruise takes about an hour all up , so you don't go very far down & back up the river . It was pleasant trip which we enjoyed .

   Next day we headed off again , travelling down roads we haven't been on before . Driving through he towns of Brewarrina , Walgett and then Collarenebri , where we ended up staying for the night . There is a terrific campground that the local council has done . There's showers & toilets , it's beside the local footy / cricket ground and there's access to the river as well , and there's no charge !

    Storms have been occurring in the northern areas of NSW and we found one on our way to Walgett . It certainly dumped some rain .

This is the Barwon River near Walgett

    Here's a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1I1QuhbZtsU0lk2DJk87uHdO1_462dUw&usp=sharing

 

9/11/25 Wilcannia

     Finally we drive away from Broken Hill , stopping to check the brakes again , with one wheel overheating - a quick adjust and away we go again , all good for several hours driving , happy days .

   We stopped at Wilcannia for lunch , and checked out the Darling River and the old lifting bridge .

    There's some great buildings in Wilcannia .

    The Police Station

     The Courthouse .

      The Post Office

     We carry on toward Cobar and find a free camp for the night . Thousands of goats inhabit all the areas we've driven through - some are actually being farmed , but there's lots that are feral as well .

 

8/11/25 Broken Hill Racecourse

 

      A short one for you .

             Here's a photo of an interesting building / old pub probably - one of the many .

This mural adorns a wall in the shopping centre , and has many features found in Broken Hill.

Here's the racecourse where we were camping , and two old grandstands .

There's a functions building that has a great rose garden .

There we are in the background .

     Beautiful scented roses as well . That's it short & sweet .

7/11/25 Silverton

     Our destination today was Silverton , the weather was trying its hardest to deter us , but we continued on . The road out is one of the worst roads around here , lots of dips in the road and certainly not the smoothest piece of tarmac we've driven on . We arrived , driving around the caravan park to check it out - it was empty - one camper trailer only , and they were packing to go . I think we must have beaten everyone else to get here as it was quiet everywhere - not even a car at the pub .

     We proceeded to drive around the old ruins of houses near town , storm clouds threatening .

    There's plenty to look at and marvel at what people used to live in , most were miners at the nearby mines .

     The house walls were generally well built and still standing , roofs however .

     Interesting the way bricks were used at the base of the walls - lack of bricks ???? certainly plenty of rocks , and well constructed .

     We headed down the road and spotted a track going off to the left and turned off , following this track up toward the tip - nothing like going to the best bits 😃 . There was another track , so we continued on , it turned out to be the old railway line , and led us down to one of the old silver mines . There was plenty of old bits& pieces lying around the place - steel cables laying on the ground running over to the old poppet head .

    Always on the lookout for, I spotted another track leading up the ridge on the other side of the gully , so that's where we went - the top of the range was calling us .

The track ended with a short very steep section that we couldn't see over , so time for a walk . It was steep and rough , but up the top was a very small flattish area that we would have had to do a 10 point turn to turn around , so just as well we didn't go up there .

    Views from up the top were out to the west over Mundi Mundi Plains and went forever . 

  

      The wind blew me back down to the ute and we made our way back into town , time for some lunch at the hotel . Everybody had the same idea and whilst we were out driving , they all arrived and ordered lunch before us , so we had to wait a little , but it was worth it . 

    And that's another day done , Cheers 

4/11/25 Lake Pamamaroo & Lake Minindee

      The ute's been serviced , so we headed out to Menindee for a couple of days . We stopped several times on the way out to check brake temperatures , finding that a couple were heating up again . Arriving in Menindee , we had some lunch before driving around a bit , then out to Lake Pamamaroo , where we will stay the night . The lake was a murky light brown colour , typical of inland lakes & rivers . There are thousands of tree stumps in the lake , which shows how the levels fluctuate so much .

     As you would expect , there's plenty of birdlife with so much water about . Pelicans , ducks , darters , we even had a fox wander past . There were also plenty of other campers tucked into positions beside the lake , some with boats and going fishing, others just camping like us .

    Sunset was pretty cool .

    Next morning , I decided to remove the wheel and check the bearings in the wheel that was heating up , finding it did need to have some more grease added to it . After putting it all back together again we headed around to Lake Menindee . We found the canal between Copi Hollow and Lake Menindee , the railway line to Broken Hill also passes beside the lake . 

     Leaving here , we headed around to Sunset Strip - a small community built beside Lake Menindee - then we headed back toward Broken Hill . We stopped for the night at the site of an old roadhouse , and were treated to another fine sunset . The wheels didn't overheat - another bonus !!

     We ordered a fan for the fridge in the van as the old one was getting rather noisy , it hadn't arrived , so we headed back out to the racecourse for a few more days .