21 January 2000
Drove out to Menindee today. Not much there. Looked around
Menindee Lakes - there are a number of them, which I didn't
realize. Unfortunately there were no tourist boards explaining
how the lakes came to be created or when, or what their purpose
is. They (or at least the two we saw) are a funny pale grey/green
colour, similar to a light cement grey. Also drove around the
Darling River. Although it has a reasonable flow at the moment it
must carry a huge amount of water when in flood. At one point
there was a sign on a tree showing the high water mark of the
1976 floods. This mark was about 3 metres above the top of the
ute where it was standing and about 15-20 metres above the
present river level. The flood plain is enormous. Saw plenty of
emus - singly, in pairs, a group of about six and a father and
three youngsters. Also went through an old shearing shed - this
was very interesting. The shed was built in the 1860's and only
closed down about 20-30 years ago. In its heyday it employed in
season over 60 shearers and was part of a sheep station of over
2,000,000 acres.
Ute went OK, so on returning from Menindee dropped it in to
dealer and they replaced fuel pump. The pump they took out of its
fuel tank had a filter attached (no wonder I couldn't find another one
when I went looking) and it was covered in a thick, dirty sludge;
it's a wonder any fuel got through at all - back to load of
contaminated fuel as the cause of our problems (but I'm still not
sure - just have to wait and see how it goes).
Late this afternoon went out to see the Living Desert Sculptures.
These are a number of sculptures (6-8 or more) on a high hill
overlooking Broken Hill and the surrounding desert. They were
done some years ago by a number of Australian and overseas
sculptors and are very impressive (although I don't pretend to
understand what some of them represent). After photographing them
with the sunset as a backdrop, we were about to go when we turned
around to see a full moon climbing over the eastern horizon, so
we photographed them all over again.
Will probably go gallery hopping tomorrow. Pro Hart, Jack
Absalom, and many others (well-known and not so) have galleries
or exhibitions here.