We are now starting to wind our way back home along the Lachlan River. However, before leaving Balranald we made a brief visit to Yanga NP. This is a former pastoral property that has something like a 160km frontage to the Murrumbidgee River. It was established in the 1840s and acquired by the government in 2005 to form a NP. The old homestead and woolshed are centre pieces for visitors.

The homestead overlooks Yanga Lake and has been left in ‘as it was’ condition when National Parks acquired ownership. Frozen in time if you like. It is being maintained of course but not renovated, the same goes for the woolshed which could house 3000 sheep about to be shorn. It is a big shed. After 20 years it still has that sheep smell.

The lake is a little mysterious in that it fills, not only by surface run off, but by the ‘two way’ Yanga Creek. During flood times water runs out of the Murrumbidgee into the Lake. As things dry out the water runs back out of the Lake into the river, a weir has been built to keep water in the lake. It was very full when we there but it has been known to be almost empty. There was a water skiing club here once. It is an amazing sight in an otherwise ‘dry’ landscape.

Balranald is also big on green frogs. The Southern Bell Frog, aka ‘Growling Grass Frog’, is endangered in these parts. So the good townsfolk have installed green frog cut outs around town as a touristy thing ..,, go and see how many you can find, so we did here are a couple.

It was back on the road after our brief stop passing by some expansive crop and pastoral land.

We are taking a loop road back to Hay. It goes through the town of Oxley, to the north west of Hay. Involves a bit of gravel road and skirts around the Great Cumbung Swamp.

The swamp is what the Lachlan River drains into. It is only during flood that the Lachlan reaches the Murrumbidgee. The swamp is something like 35-50,000 acres and is a vast network of creeks and reed beds, depending on the flood water flows. Oxley is the place where you see the Lachlan disappear into the swamp, that is why we are going there. You can’t get much closer to it than this spot on a small bridge out in the middle of what city folk would call ‘nowhere, absolutely’!

The explorer Oxley was stymied by the boggy ground conditions in his explorations of the Lachlan river system back in 1817, near Lake Cargelligo (where will stay the night further on) which is 100km or so north east of Oxley.

After lingering awhile in Oxley we got back onto the loop road and made it back to the van park in Hay for the night.

As is generally the case the blog runs a few days behind real time, it is no different this time. Allthego aims to catch up!