A look at the flow required in key locations

We never know the wealth of water til the well is dry

A brief look at trends and recordings for the rivers along the Darling River, including tributaries from the Condamine River.

Basically you will want rain and high flows to tackle the river systems above Bourke, but the Darling should be OK most of the time, as long as it is flowing all the way to Wentworth.

Condamine River

The upper Condamine River rarely flows at a high enough level to comfortably paddle the gorge. You should time any attempt with rain or walk this section instead. Dangerous if done in a flood due to all of the barbed wire fences across the river and log jams.

Discharge from Chinchilla Weir averages at least 85 ML/day 33% of the time, 170 ML/day 25% of the time and 850 ML/day 10% of the time, however the average discharges in the 2010's were about half the long term averages seen. Or a more sobering way of looking at the data, from 5 rain events with flows greater than 850 ML/day every year in the first decade of records to an average of just one rain event every year recently.

Rough Height Guidelines

Flows of about 200 ML/day to 300 ML/day to Warwick were enough although 500 ML/day plus are probably best for more experienced paddlers. The gorge itself is dangerous in higher flows.

Below Warwick, anything above 500 ML/day should provide nice paddling noting the short flow window.

Some additional monthly statistics. The medium flow is more meaningful than the average or mean that is raised significantly by the rare flood events seen.

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Balonne and Culgoa Rivers

Balonne and Culgoa are probably best done after a heavy rain event too, especially if there are planned releases from the Beardmore dam.

The Balonne River only flows constantly for about half of the year and low to average flows would make this a painful outing with low water levels and log jams. Lake Kajarabie does reach a long way up towards Surat, which would come as a relief to anyone attempting this with a low flow. Any flood waters fall fairly quickly, but the dam could normalise the flow slightly below St George. On my second trip, all flow was stopped at the dam and diverted for irragation. This made for a difficult 7 km portage to get to St George.

The Culgoa River is even trickier but generally safe for experienced paddlers in high to flooded conditions. I must emphasize experienced paddlers as there is a high risk with tree canopies that act as strainers. No flow conditions are the norm on the Culgoa and these would likely prove dangerous with very slow progress expected in a very remote and hostile environment. Flood waters tend to stay around for weeks in the Culgoa floodplains. Paddling the Culgoa in flood is still one of my highlights of the inland rivers.

Rough Height Guidelines

My first trip on the upper Balonne River, I faced flows of under 200 ML/day and had a few dozen or so log jams to navigate around every day. Long difficult days were some of the more challenging that I've experienced and I wouldn't recommend this. At 3,000 ML/day, I had fun paddling the rapids and had minimal issues with log jams.

For the Culgoa, I started with a flow of 3,000 ML/day and paddled consistently over the next week to catch the main flood waters as they passed through the Culgoa Floodplains at around 10,000 ML/day. This was generally a great flow though on the few occasions where I took the wrong branch I saw how easily the log jams would have affected my progress down the system.

Travis Ewan and Daniel Suttle trip noted significant log jam portages and they were roughly tracking a small flood flow that would have ranged from no flow to 10,000 ML/day, flow window was about 5 to 7 days. Mark Kalch's first first trip was tracking a similar but narrower high flow of about 2 to 3 days. Photos and dates suggest he was under 500 ML/day at the QLD - NSW.

Some additional monthly statistics. The medium flow is more meaningful than the average or mean that is raised significantly by the rare flood events seen.

A reminder for those unfamiliar with the system, the Balonne River splits into Culgoa and Balonne Minor rivers. The Narran River is a major distributary that feeds into the endorheic (no outflow) Narran Lake. The Balonne Minor River splits into the Bokhara River and Ballandool River, the latter being effectively a smaller anabranch of the Bokhara River, joining back up after the border. The Birrie River is a major distributary that joins the Culgoa River close to the Darling. The four gauges near Hebel and Weilmoringle reflect the majority of the flow across the QLD - NSW border.

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Darling River

NSW Water has stated that in previous years if there was any flow at all, even a mere trickle of 10 - 20 ML/day a day, the river would be navigable its full length because of the weirs.

While the Darling River once flowed freely, it now has a more of a boom and bust characteristic over the last couple of decades. This was particularly noticeable in 2018 and 2019 where it mostly ran dry. Without a prolonged rain, the flow will pass through quickly, leaving a small window of pleasant paddling before low waters.

In general, most of the Darling Rivers waters will come from the border rivers, particularly from the upper NSW catchments and not from the Culgoa River.

Higher flows are usually seen about a month after the QLD wet season, from February through April, but winter rains often assist OK flows if there isn't a drought. It takes about 50 days for the flood to make its way from Bourke to Menindee.

Depending on storage levels in the lakes, the MDBA may or may not release the water downstream straightaway. Pooncarie should see water that is released from Menindee after approx. 15 days and Wentworth approx. 10 days after Pooncarie.

The MDBA suggested the river would be paddleable with a marginal flow of 20 ML/day. Personally I was waiting on a flow above 1,000 ML/day before attempting the river and by sheer luck I got a minor to moderate flood with a flow of ~40,000 ML/day making for a very enjoyable and fast trip down the system.

Based only on my own limited experience and a few reports, a flow under 100 ML/day to 200 ML/day is not recommended and it is probably best to aim for at least 400 ML/day. My personal minimum would be 1,000 ML/day.

A flood at Bourke will have a flow greater than 30,300 ML/day. This starts to spill out onto the floodplains in localised areas but this shouldn't be too concerning on a minor to moderate flood. The main risk will come from attempting shortcuts that could result in a detour into a filling billabong or even a distibrary. Be prepared to turn around!

Rough Height Guidelines

Flows above 250 ML/day down the upper section seem to have had adequate water to paddle down to the lakes. Multiple trips in the sub 400 ML/day in the lower section appear to have had minor issues with weeds and shallows, albeit no horror stories.

Cristo Norman traveled the river in 2008 on the tail end of a decent flow of 700 ML/day but slowly dropped off the back of the high flows and noted some portages / rapids above Menindee. Difficult conditions below Menindee with a marginal release of 50 ML/day. Some key dates and flows noted below.

Bourke (2 April)

700 ML/day. Noted getting caught in a sandbar above Bourke, otherwise good paddling

Tilpa (15 April)

300 ML/day, rapids noted in the next section

Wilcannia (28 April)

110 ML/day

Bindara (11 May)

80 km south of Menindee. Lots of dragging noted.

Pooncarie (15 May)

50 ML/day. Most difficult section with low flow and weeds choking the river.

Bill, et al, did this leg in sea kayaks in 2017. High flows flushed the system, and they paddled the system with 380 ML/day to Menindee and 220 ML/day below. A couple snags were mentioned in the lower section. They took 58 days from Brewarrina to Wentworth. There was a consistent flow of 400 ML/day plus at Bourke during July reported by WaterNSW, and Pooncarie was reading closer to 300 ML/day in August, so the actual flow may have been high than they reported.

I've paddled the river in low (1,000 ML/day upper, 500 ML/day lower), and found it an enjoyable slow journey, and also in minor flood where I found it to be an enthralling and fast journey down. Two completely different journeys and I loved them both.

Some additional monthly statistics. The medium flow is more meaningful than the average or mean that is raised significantly by the rare flood events seen.

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Flow Unpredictability

While looking at long term averages and tends to help to indicate the best times to plan your trip, this river system is very unpredictable. The following table looks at the median flows over the last two decades.

Key

Low flow (< 1 Cumecs)

Any flow under 1 Cumecs is considered to be low. The MDBA consider 20 ML/day to be enough water to ensure all weirs are fill.

OK flow (1 to 10 Cumecs)

Any flow between 1 Cumecs and 10 Cumecs should ensure the weirs are filled and minimal portages required.

Good flow (10 to 250 Cumecs)

Flows above 10 Cumecs should assist your journey with a decent current.

High flow (> 250 Cumecs)

Flows above 250 Cumecs are considered to be fairly high. A minor flood starts at 30,300 ML/day.

Year	Monthly Median Flow at Bourke (MLD)
	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
2000	1,430	450	15,034	4,942	7,614	2,705	2,454	2,092	1,746	1,198	2,907	59,893
2001	1,731	11,639	5,007	4,358	1,125	1,046	859	1,690	684	471	376	653
2002	300	46	665	419	194	160	98	70	30	57	0	0
2003	0	0	1,958	801	949	274	124	135	98	16	212	62
2004	1,591	14,827	1,464	1,895	330	253	121	68	27	344	84	712
2005	3,558	556	38	26	17	27	5,276	1,109	321	312	168	278
2006	358	280	771	363	82	93	87	81	9	0	0	0
2007	0	0	0	42	21	27	193	404	506	215	36	1,690
2008	16,696	7,709	1,303	121	32	27	69	26	12	130	36	17
2009	981	4,018	1,251	219	93	1,245	645	242	47	0	0	0
2010	39,758	2,772	8,415	26,370	524	129	160	4,127	9,408	14,960	22,000	27,727
2011	70,329	75,148	6,508	6,895	4,247	1,141	1,205	990	788	1,350	2,028	24,063
2012	63,134	28,181	95,146	9,382	2,850	2,351	2,617	9,111	2,996	648	548	448
2013	228	3,286	17,419	16,251	1,217	642	883	1,006	470	181	26	45
2014	8	17	301	1,386	265	129	90	43	53	0	21	0
2015	0	438	231	0	503	497	623	535	439	251	335	11
2016	0	509	102	0	0	0	4,151	6,564	9,538	34,679	15,152	881
2017	352	201	181	558	664	760	450	432	194	176	275	375
2018	1	0	0	152	29	161	95	1	0	0	0	0
2019	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	5	0
2020	0	0	10,908	5,282	1,363	186	129	41	777	1,114	154	0
2021	1,010	660	1,675	27,180	12,443	2,111	8,179	19,180	11,884	4,201	4,790	25,330
2022	58,494	9,350	8,514	21,261	25,436	39,085	25,160	23,402	36,470	67,394	158,677	100,033
2023	8,493	1,393	1,166	1,286	1,483	1,164	679	903	384	503	656	1,451
Days Navigable	67.5%	74.4%	79.5%	77.9%	75.2%	79.2%	82.5%	75.5%	67.2%	67.9%	59.0%	59.8%
Good Flows	44.3%	44.0%	56.9%	51.5%	48.1%	34.9%	35.5%	41.5%	30.8%	26.3%	26.3%	32.9%

The above table monthly tallies per type.

Flow Type	Monthly Flow Tally for Bourke (2000-2020)
	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Low Flow	8	6	4	5	7	5	3	7	8	7	10	10
OK Flow	4	7	6	7	7	11	11	5	8	9	6	5
Good Flow	9	7	11	9	7	5	6	8	4	4	4	5

A look at the last 50 years shows a concerning decline in the flow reported in the river. This includes the 1982–83 drought, but it is the Millennium drought (2001-2009) and the current dry spell (2016-) that have really affected the river flow in the last two decades.

Percentiles	Flow Analysis for Bourke by Decade (MLD)
	1970s	1980s	1990s	2000s	2010s
Min	66	0	0	0	0
10%	867	292	11	0	0
20%	1,434	424	183	26	0
30%	2,348	608	344	70	78
40%	3,439	889	490	127	212
Median	4,478	1,321	681	252	432
60%	6,218	2,885	1,138	471	678
70%	9,271	5,936	2,580	819	1,346
80%	14,733	12,961	6,907	1,357	4,760
90%	25,667	25,850	22,971	4,352	20,776
Max	497,944	160,765	231,248	76,217	179,762
Average	15,047	8,988	7,981	2,107	6,176

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