2019/11 Australia trip - Balranald & Yanga |
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Monday November 18th
We came out in the morning to see that we had a flat tyre. We couldn’t blame the poor roads as the offending screw could have been picked up anywhere. Neither of us could undo the wheel nuts so John called the RACV. Amazingly the guy showed up within five minutes; he’d been passing the motel when he got the call. Things would have been very different if the puncture had happened hours north of Mungo, away from cell coverage.
He had a more substantial wrench and quickly put our spare on for us. We drove across the Murray River into Mildura in the state of Victoria; luckily the tyre repair shop there was idle and happy to see a customer and we were soon on our way back across the river, which seemed to have plenty of water. 
We headed upriver along the Sturt Highway towards Balranald and Yanga national park. Along the way we spotted Lake Benanee, a large lake well filled, a novelty after all the dry country we’d crossed. 
Where there’s water there are birds, mostly keeping their distance but we got to see this pair of kookaburras and a number of red-rumped parrots.
We stopped in Balranald long enough to check into Balranald Motor Inn and then had the rest of the day to explore Yanga national park, once part of Yanga sheep station.
Our first stop was at the woolshed; this one was large enough to hold 3000 sheep during the shearing, mainly to keep them 
dry. 
I tried to imagine what it would be like to share that building with 3000 sheep on a wet day! Behind the shed were the living quarters, not too bad until we realized that each of the small rooms had beds for 8 workers. They must have used really poor concrete to construct the quarters as large chunks of the walls are missing.
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Yanga sheep station (1.24) |
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The woolshed backs onto a landing on a bend in the Murrumbidgee River where the bales of wool were loaded onto steamers. 
When the shearers’ knives could no longer be sharpened they would hurl them up into the tree at the landing, and we could still see a couple of knives protruding from the bark. 
We moved on to the homestead, a few miles away. This was the family’s home until 2005 when it was sold to the government as a museum with all the furniture and history intact. I didn’t find the place all that interesting but it’ll have more value to future generations. The museum closed while we were there but the staff let us stay until we were done. The garden had some attractive plants, including these lupine-like flowers.
We tried a road that looked interesting on the map but had little in the way of wildlife and scenery. We ate dinner back in Balranald at the Ex-Services Memorial Club; Chinese again, this time Szechwan lamb.