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Daily ramblings from the Niemur River

Don't worry if the name doesn't sound familiar, even some locals haven't heard of it!

The Niemur River is a distributary of the Edwards River that starts at the upper edge of Werai Forest and joins the Wakool River about 75 km upstream of Kyalite. However the flow in the Niemur mostly comes from Collagen Ck that starts just upstream of Stevens Weir about 25 km downstream of Deniliquin. The combined length of these two is 220 km or just over 300 km if you paddle from Deniliquin to Kyalite.

Mike Bremers being the absolute legend dropped me off at the weir and I was greeted with great flow. Two of the four low bridges at the start required a portage but the weir about 10 km downstream was washed out and I was able to paddle over this after bumping over the buoy line. It soon became clear that the creek was especially high and this allowed me to easily paddle around a section of willows that clogged the main channel just downstream. Past here there were minimal hazards and most of the waterway appeared to be semi-permanent waterholes with the black tannin stained waters creating a great mirror like surface.

There was minimal flow joining from the true Niemur even though the Edwards was in flood and the regulator being fully submerged. This did mark the start of lower banks that quickly became large floodplains. Some of these were wide and deep, allowing you to almost straight line across the plains, others were shallow forcing you to stay in the main channel. At one point multiple creeks and overflowing banks remove the majority of the flow from the river. This created a small channelled marshy section before the creeks rejoined to form a large river with floodplains again. It was only in the very last section that I lost the floodplains completely as I approached the Wakool.

From a paddling perspective it proved to be a hidden gem among the middle Murray anabranches, at least while it was in flood. The large floodplains and uncertainties in navigation are probably not everyone's cup of tea but I loved the experience and was reminded of the flooded Culgoa floodplains of my first real trip in the Murray Darling Basin.

Even with a combined distance of around 1,800 km paddling on the middle Murray anabranches, I know I have only explored a small fraction of what is possible, especially the network of tributaries and distributaries of the Edwards. The locals are definitely spoilt for choice when the system is flowing so high!

Map of Key Locations

• Stevens Weir
• Kyalite
• Campsites
• Water Feature