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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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).

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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.

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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)

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Additional Resources

The MDBA Environmental Assessments for the Great Cumbung and Lachlan Swamps provide an excelent overview of the basin.

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