Planning
Water

There are three major storage systems on the river. Wyangala Dam is the most important dam with 1,220 GL storage. The two smaller Lake Cargelligo (36 GL) and Carcoar Dam (36 GL) also play a role in irrigation. Environmental flows will be released in Spring if there is water available, but this may not be enough to make the lower river paddlable.
Flow
Flow is one of the most important considerations for any trip.
Aiming for a higher flow at Cowra would be preferred as these decrease as you pass Forbes. Flows are rarely above 2,500 ML/day below Willandra Weir and 500 ML/day downstream of Booligal and towards the Great Cumbung Swamp.
MDBA listed four potential constraints to flow along the system that would affect delivering water to the Great Cumbung Swamp. Flows above these will likely cause some level of flooding:
- 6,600 ML/day
- Wyangala Dam
- 2,600 ML/day
- between Jemalong and Willandra Weirs
- 2,400 ML/day
- between Willandra Weir and Merrowie Creek
- 310 ML/day
- downstream of Booligal
Only high floods are likely to reach the Murrumbidgee River. Logistics of bridging this gap are a bit of an unknown at the time of writing this. Planned extensions to the Wyangala Dam will likely moderate future flows down the Lachlan River after 2024 and flood events that could reach the Murrumbidgee River will become very rare.
The following box and whisker charts show the lowest value observed using the bottom whisker; the box is constructed with the 25%, 50% and 75% quartiles; and the top whisker marks the 90% percentile. The top 10% of records (floods) are excluded as these stretch the chart and make it unreadable.
Blue-orange box plot represents observations between Jan 1 1980 and Dec 31 1999, while the brown-yellow box-plots represent observations between Jan 1 2000 and Dec 31 2019.
Forbes has a slightly larger population than Cowra. Heading downstream from Jemalong Weir to Willandra Weir (just above Hillston), flow will likely be slowed along this stretch.

It is difficult to suggest average times that the water takes to flow downstream due to the large number of weirs and agricultural diversions in place. A recent flow event took 30 days from Cowra to Corrang, (1,150 km), representing a flow rate of around 38 km per day. It would be difficult to say if this was purely the natural flow. The steepest section is the leg from Cowra to Gooloogong, and even this only drops 35cm per km (0.35‰) or about 1 in 3,000 gradient.
Temperature
Water temperature is the secondary consideration. This can be near freezing in the tablelands and frozen near the source in winter. Even on the lower section, it is unlikely to be much above 10°C in winter. In summer, temperatures can climb close to 30°C in places, warm enough to no longer be refreshing.
The following charts show the temperature at three stations along the river.
Weather
Recent Climate Observations / Trends
Where possible, weather statistics are based on the 30 years between 1990 and 2020. Canberra observations started in 2008. Deciles are 1 to 9, meaning these figures exclude the lowest and highest 10% of observations. i.e. they are normalised to exclude the extreme values.
Temperature
The higher altitudes are 4° to 6°C cooler than the lower sections. Snow is possible in the Tablelands in winter.
Temperature (°C) | Tablelands | Riverina | |||||||
Summer | Autumn | Winter | Spring | Summer | Autumn | Winter | Spring | ||
Min | Mean | 10.8 | 2.5 | 0.3 | 3.0 | 16.6 | 6.8 | 3.6 | 6.9 |
Deciles | 5.1 — 17.1 | -3.3 — 14.9 | -5.4 — 6.9 | -2.1 — 13.8 | 11.0 — 24.2 | 2.0 — 20.4 | -1.0 — 10.0 | 2.0 — 20.0 | |
Extremes | -1.2 — 25.2 | -8.1 — 18.3 | -10.9 — 11.6 | -7.4 — 20.4 | 7.2 — 32.5 | -43.2 — 26.9 | -4.6 — 15.5 | -1.8 — 30.0 | |
Max | Mean | 26.1 | 15.9 | 11.8 | 16.6 | 31.7 | 19.3 | 15 | 20.9 |
Deciles | 19.2 — 35.3 | 12.2 — 29.6 | 8.8 — 17.8 | 12.1 — 30.2 | 25.0 — 40.0 | 15.0 — 35.2 | 12.0 — 22.0 | 15.7 — 36.0 | |
Extremes | 11.5 — 42.8 | 5.1 — 35.9 | 4.2 — 24.1 | 8.0 — 39.9 | 16.0 — 47.2 | 10.0 — 42.0 | 7.0 — 30.7 | 8.9 — 43.5 |
Rainfall
In the Tablelands, rainfall is more common in late spring / early summer months. The rainfall is more sporadic on the Riverina.
Maps
The full sized quality images (A4 300 dpi or A3 150 dpi) can be downloaded here.
The maps were created by manually stitching together the NSW Topo Maps map tiles. The distances were generated by manually digitizing the river path from Bing aerial images in QGIS, then using the QChainage plugin to create points at 1 km spans along the line. These were overlaid manually onto the maps.
Distance table
Distance (KM) | Source | Narrawa | Wyangala Dam | Boowora R | Cowra | Belubula R | Gooloogong | Mandagery Ck | Forbes | Jemalong Weir | Island Ck | Bumbuggan Ck | Island Ck | Condobolin | Micabil Weir | Kiacatoo Weir | Booberoi Weir | Euabalong | Lake Cargelligo Weir | Lake Ck | Murrin Bridge | Brewster Weir | Willandra Weir | Gonowlia Weir | Hillston | Torriganny Weir | Booligal | Thelangerin Rd | Oxley | Murrumbidgee | Distance (KM) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Source | 0 | 100 | 206 | 223 | 253 | 307 | 313 | 351 | 416 | 466 | 552 | 561 | 582 | 631 | 667 | 697 | 724 | 763 | 787 | 800 | 810 | 915 | 935 | 998 | 1,038 | 1,216 | 1,240 | 1,402 | 1,494 | 1,547 | Source |
Narrawa | 100 | 0 | 106 | 124 | 154 | 207 | 214 | 251 | 316 | 366 | 452 | 461 | 482 | 532 | 568 | 597 | 625 | 663 | 688 | 700 | 710 | 815 | 836 | 899 | 939 | 1,117 | 1,141 | 1,303 | 1,394 | 1,448 | Narrawa |
Wyangala Dam | 206 | 106 | 0 | 18 | 48 | 101 | 108 | 145 | 210 | 260 | 346 | 355 | 376 | 425 | 462 | 491 | 518 | 557 | 582 | 594 | 604 | 709 | 729 | 793 | 833 | 1,011 | 1,035 | 1,197 | 1,288 | 1,342 | Wyangala Dam |
Boowora R | 223 | 124 | 18 | 0 | 30 | 84 | 90 | 128 | 192 | 243 | 328 | 337 | 359 | 408 | 444 | 474 | 501 | 540 | 564 | 577 | 587 | 691 | 712 | 775 | 815 | 993 | 1,017 | 1,179 | 1,271 | 1,324 | Boowora R |
Cowra | 253 | 154 | 48 | 30 | 0 | 53 | 60 | 97 | 162 | 212 | 298 | 307 | 329 | 378 | 414 | 443 | 471 | 509 | 534 | 547 | 557 | 661 | 682 | 745 | 785 | 963 | 987 | 1,149 | 1,240 | 1,294 | Cowra |
Belubula R | 307 | 207 | 101 | 84 | 53 | 0 | 6 | 44 | 109 | 159 | 245 | 254 | 275 | 324 | 361 | 390 | 417 | 456 | 481 | 493 | 503 | 608 | 628 | 692 | 731 | 910 | 933 | 1,096 | 1,187 | 1,240 | Belubula R |
Gooloogong | 313 | 214 | 108 | 90 | 60 | 6 | 0 | 38 | 103 | 153 | 238 | 247 | 269 | 318 | 354 | 384 | 411 | 450 | 474 | 487 | 497 | 601 | 622 | 685 | 725 | 903 | 927 | 1,089 | 1,181 | 1,234 | Gooloogong |
Mandagery Ck | 351 | 251 | 145 | 128 | 97 | 44 | 38 | 0 | 65 | 115 | 201 | 210 | 231 | 280 | 317 | 346 | 373 | 412 | 437 | 449 | 459 | 564 | 584 | 648 | 688 | 866 | 889 | 1,052 | 1,143 | 1,197 | Mandagery Ck |
Forbes | 416 | 316 | 210 | 192 | 162 | 109 | 103 | 65 | 0 | 50 | 136 | 145 | 166 | 215 | 252 | 281 | 308 | 347 | 372 | 384 | 394 | 499 | 519 | 583 | 623 | 801 | 825 | 987 | 1,078 | 1,132 | Forbes |
Jemalong Weir | 466 | 366 | 260 | 243 | 212 | 159 | 153 | 115 | 50 | 0 | 86 | 95 | 116 | 165 | 202 | 231 | 258 | 297 | 322 | 334 | 344 | 449 | 469 | 533 | 573 | 751 | 774 | 937 | 1,028 | 1,082 | Jemalong Weir |
Island Ck | 552 | 452 | 346 | 328 | 298 | 245 | 238 | 201 | 136 | 86 | 0 | 9 | 30 | 80 | 116 | 145 | 173 | 211 | 236 | 248 | 258 | 363 | 384 | 447 | 487 | 665 | 689 | 851 | 942 | 996 | Island Ck |
Bumbuggan Ck | 561 | 461 | 355 | 337 | 307 | 254 | 247 | 210 | 145 | 95 | 9 | 0 | 21 | 71 | 107 | 136 | 164 | 202 | 227 | 239 | 249 | 354 | 375 | 438 | 478 | 656 | 680 | 842 | 933 | 987 | Bumbuggan Ck |
Island Ck | 582 | 482 | 376 | 359 | 329 | 275 | 269 | 231 | 166 | 116 | 30 | 21 | 0 | 49 | 86 | 115 | 142 | 181 | 205 | 218 | 228 | 333 | 353 | 417 | 456 | 634 | 658 | 820 | 912 | 965 | Island Ck |
Condobolin | 631 | 532 | 425 | 408 | 378 | 324 | 318 | 280 | 215 | 165 | 80 | 71 | 49 | 0 | 36 | 66 | 93 | 132 | 156 | 169 | 179 | 284 | 304 | 367 | 407 | 585 | 609 | 771 | 863 | 916 | Condobolin |
Micabil Weir | 667 | 568 | 462 | 444 | 414 | 361 | 354 | 317 | 252 | 202 | 116 | 107 | 86 | 36 | 0 | 29 | 57 | 95 | 120 | 133 | 143 | 247 | 268 | 331 | 371 | 549 | 573 | 735 | 826 | 880 | Micabil Weir |
Kiacatoo Weir | 697 | 597 | 491 | 474 | 443 | 390 | 384 | 346 | 281 | 231 | 145 | 136 | 115 | 66 | 29 | 0 | 27 | 66 | 91 | 103 | 113 | 218 | 238 | 302 | 342 | 520 | 543 | 706 | 797 | 851 | Kiacatoo Weir |
Booberoi Weir | 724 | 625 | 518 | 501 | 471 | 417 | 411 | 373 | 308 | 258 | 173 | 164 | 142 | 93 | 57 | 27 | 0 | 39 | 63 | 76 | 86 | 191 | 211 | 274 | 314 | 492 | 516 | 678 | 770 | 823 | Booberoi Weir |
Euabalong | 763 | 663 | 557 | 540 | 509 | 456 | 450 | 412 | 347 | 297 | 211 | 202 | 181 | 132 | 95 | 66 | 39 | 0 | 25 | 37 | 47 | 152 | 172 | 236 | 275 | 454 | 477 | 640 | 731 | 784 | Euabalong |
Lake Cargelligo Weir | 787 | 688 | 582 | 564 | 534 | 481 | 474 | 437 | 372 | 322 | 236 | 227 | 205 | 156 | 120 | 91 | 63 | 25 | 0 | 13 | 23 | 127 | 148 | 211 | 251 | 429 | 453 | 615 | 707 | 760 | Lake Cargelligo Weir |
Lake Ck | 800 | 700 | 594 | 577 | 547 | 493 | 487 | 449 | 384 | 334 | 248 | 239 | 218 | 169 | 133 | 103 | 76 | 37 | 13 | 0 | 10 | 115 | 135 | 199 | 238 | 416 | 440 | 602 | 694 | 747 | Lake Ck |
Murrin Bridge | 810 | 710 | 604 | 587 | 557 | 503 | 497 | 459 | 394 | 344 | 258 | 249 | 228 | 179 | 143 | 113 | 86 | 47 | 23 | 10 | 0 | 105 | 125 | 189 | 228 | 406 | 430 | 592 | 684 | 737 | Murrin Bridge |
Brewster Weir | 915 | 815 | 709 | 691 | 661 | 608 | 601 | 564 | 499 | 449 | 363 | 354 | 333 | 284 | 247 | 218 | 191 | 152 | 127 | 115 | 105 | 0 | 21 | 84 | 124 | 302 | 326 | 488 | 579 | 633 | Brewster Weir |
Willandra Weir | 935 | 836 | 729 | 712 | 682 | 628 | 622 | 584 | 519 | 469 | 384 | 375 | 353 | 304 | 268 | 238 | 211 | 172 | 148 | 135 | 125 | 21 | 0 | 63 | 103 | 281 | 305 | 467 | 559 | 612 | Willandra Weir |
Gonowlia Weir | 998 | 899 | 793 | 775 | 745 | 692 | 685 | 648 | 583 | 533 | 447 | 438 | 417 | 367 | 331 | 302 | 274 | 236 | 211 | 199 | 189 | 84 | 63 | 0 | 40 | 218 | 242 | 404 | 495 | 549 | Gonowlia Weir |
Hillston | 1,038 | 939 | 833 | 815 | 785 | 731 | 725 | 688 | 623 | 573 | 487 | 478 | 456 | 407 | 371 | 342 | 314 | 275 | 251 | 238 | 228 | 124 | 103 | 40 | 0 | 178 | 202 | 364 | 456 | 509 | Hillston |
Torriganny Weir | 1,216 | 1,117 | 1,011 | 993 | 963 | 910 | 903 | 866 | 801 | 751 | 665 | 656 | 634 | 585 | 549 | 520 | 492 | 454 | 429 | 416 | 406 | 302 | 281 | 218 | 178 | 0 | 24 | 186 | 278 | 331 | Torriganny Weir |
Booligal | 1,240 | 1,141 | 1,035 | 1,017 | 987 | 933 | 927 | 889 | 825 | 774 | 689 | 680 | 658 | 609 | 573 | 543 | 516 | 477 | 453 | 440 | 430 | 326 | 305 | 242 | 202 | 24 | 0 | 162 | 254 | 307 | Booligal |
Thelangerin Rd | 1,402 | 1,303 | 1,197 | 1,179 | 1,149 | 1,096 | 1,089 | 1,052 | 987 | 937 | 851 | 842 | 820 | 771 | 735 | 706 | 678 | 640 | 615 | 602 | 592 | 488 | 467 | 404 | 364 | 186 | 162 | 0 | 92 | 145 | Thelangerin Rd |
Oxley | 1,494 | 1,394 | 1,288 | 1,271 | 1,240 | 1,187 | 1,181 | 1,143 | 1,078 | 1,028 | 942 | 933 | 912 | 863 | 826 | 797 | 770 | 731 | 707 | 694 | 684 | 579 | 559 | 495 | 456 | 278 | 254 | 92 | 0 | 53 | Oxley |
Murrumbidgee | 1,547 | 1,448 | 1,342 | 1,324 | 1,294 | 1,240 | 1,234 | 1,197 | 1,132 | 1,082 | 996 | 987 | 965 | 916 | 880 | 851 | 823 | 784 | 760 | 747 | 737 | 633 | 612 | 549 | 509 | 331 | 307 | 145 | 53 | 0 | Murrumbidgee |
The distances were calculated by manually digitizing the river path from Bing aerial images in QGIS (WGS 84 / UTM Zone 55S).
Previous trips
Fairly minimal detail about the upper section has been found online other than the whitewater paddling guides at Waterways Guide that has some info on the top section from just above Wyangala Dam down to Condobolin.
-
2018
Peter White
SoT
He started his journey at Darbys Falls on Saturday June 16. He travelled some 900 km down the Lachlan River to Booligal over 41 days. He reported some tough stretches carrying his gear over snags and dry areas.
Peter started with a flow of 1,000 ML/day, but within days had a flow under 200 ML/day within days of his departure. It appears he kept up with the tail of the flow to Condobolin, but started facing more difficult times as he kept going. At Booligal, this had dropped to 50 ML/day.
Wildlife
Some Great Cumbung Swamp bird species of interest include:
- Australasian bittern (Botaurus poiciloptilus)
- Blue-billed duck (Oxyura australis)
- Common greenshank (Tringa nebularia)
- Eastern great egret (Ardea modesta)
- Freckled duck (Stictonetta naevosa)
- Glossy ibis (Plegadis falcinellus)
- Latham's snipe (Gallinago hardwickii)
- Sharp-tailed sandpiper (Calidris acuminata)
Additional Resources
The MDBA Environmental Assessments for the Great Cumbung and Lachlan Swamps provide an excelent overview of the basin.