Merging of the Culgoa and Barwon to form the Darling river

Barwon and Macintyre River Blog

Blog from my 2023 Goondiwindi paddle. How far will I get?

You can read about the Walgett and Bourke section from my Darling Source-to-Sea trip completed back in 2021.

Latest Entries

Macintyre River

  • 2023-04-07

    The Waiting Game

    After planning and watching the rains on the Coopers and Warrego I finally decided that these weren't going to happen this year. So instead I shifted my focus towards the Darling again for a low flow paddle on around 1,000 ML/day. Just days before leaving we had a late season autumn rain event and it seemed like it would make the Barwon possible too. The waiting game begun again and I watched the water guages slowly turn from red (no flow) to green (good flow). Another smaller rain event gave the waters more time to slowly make their way down the system and by Easter I knew it should be fessible.

    Watching the decreasing flow at Goondiwindi I decided I could push it out until Tuesday after school holidays. Hopefully it'll still be around 1,000 ML/day.

Update from Walgett

I've been following the flow down, pushing hard just to stay with the tail-end of the small peak that I started chasing 12 days ago. The flow has been hovering around 700 to 800 ML/day, falling down to around 450 for a short period of time beside Boomi Anabranch.

The first couple days were mainly in a narrow river that was thick with river paperbarks and snaggy from fallen trees. This gave me flashbacks from my trip down the Bokhara, bordering on PTSD with butterflies in my stomach as I went around every bend waiting to see what was around the corner. However, a fairly aggressive approach bumping logs and piercing the canopies at speed resulted in fairly good progress with minimal portages. I was relieved when it started to open up though. In the end, I averaged just under two log portages per day on the way to Walgett or about 1 portage every 25 km.

After a beautiful beach on every corner, these slowly disappeared. The thick paperbarks thinned slowly and the river slowly widened. This has become much more characteristic of the lower system with a wide bed and high banks. There are some small rapids above the Weir Junction and around Collarenebri that added some spice to the trip.

The weather has been nearly perfect with the exception of today where it rained all day. Meet heaps of locals that are interested it the trip and seeing lots of cool wildlife. Lots of feral pigs, a few goats, plenty of wallabies and roos, multiple mobs emus, monitors, turtles and at least one or two rakali around every bend. And plenty of yellow bellies jumping all the way down.

I think the highlight would be an encounter with a curious swimming tree snake with the most vivid green and yellow colouring but other notable encounters such as a fully golden rakali, long-neck turtles, duelling whistling kite and sea eagle, just to name a couple.

Update from Bourke

Successfully through the cockatoo transfer zone, where the sulphur-crested cockatoos give way to the red-tailed black cockatoos.

From a paddling perspective, it's been fairly easy going with minimal flow assist at 1,000 to 1,500 ML/day. No portages other than the weirs. It feels like you are paddling down a massively long waterhole, fenced in by the river red gums perched on the high sandy banks. Stony Pt being the main exception to this trend with low banks, rocky outcrops and plenty of emus to be seen rooming about. There are enough sandy beaches to be found for campsites most nights.

There has been a significant drop off in the numbers of land animals, with a 50% reduction in echidna sightings. Goats are starting to replace pigs, but both are very common. More cattle compared to previous trips. There are still plenty of rakali swimming around or munching on yabbies on the shore.

The cockatoos were definitely the main highlight of the leg. At the Macquarie confluence, a flock of 6 sulphur-crested and 6 red-tailed black cockatoos formed a small flock and it was an amazing contrast to see them flying together against the perfectly clear blue midday sky. Near the Cato Ck offtake, there was a massive flock of 200 to 300 red-tails. About half were on the ground feeding and took off together in a triangular formation that looked like a stealth bomber rising from the trees. And the Pink Cockatoos decided to make a fashionably late entrance with two large flocks visiting me at Stony Pt and Nth Bourke. This is the furthest north that I've seen them. What a trip not to have a decent camera with me...

Update from Wentworth

I have finished the Baaka and currently camping on the banks of the Murray. This marks the three-quarter mark of the trip after I've decided to push on down to the ocean.

The paddling was very consistent along the entire length of the Darling with around 1,500 ML/day. This provides minimal flow assist so it's quite a workout. There were lots of trees down below Menindee compared to upstream but only one caused any difficulties. The river hasn't changed much due to the flooding, albeit it's now 3km shorter where the cutting in the heart shaped bend above Pooncarie now taking all of the flow.

I paddled long days from Tilpa and was rewarded with some great sunrises and sunsets on the water.

Map of Key Locations

  • Source
  • Inverell
  • Yetman
  • Boggabilla
  • Goondiwindi
  • Mungindi
  • Collarenebri
  • Walgett
  • Brewarrina
  • North Bourke
  • Bourke
  • Louth
  • Tilpa
  • Wilcannia
  • Menindee
  • Pooncarie
  • Ellerslie / Palinyewah
  • Wentworth
  • Renmark (Lock 5)
  • Berri
  • Moorook
  • Waikerie
  • Morgan
  • Mannum
  • Murray Bridge
  • Tailem Bend
  • Murray River Mouth
  • Goolwa
  • Campsites
  • Water Features
  • Weir or Low Head Dams