Menindee Lakes...

[plextech]

... or what's left of them. Menindee, NSW Australia.

Menindee Lakes

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[ZX14-R]

Just a tad dry around that area....

Maybe now 50% of Copbby has been sold will be a little more water released.

 

[Thomas B]

Interesting video... not much lake left.

Read a prediction that, in absence of significant rain that you guys down under could be out of fresh water in as little as 2years.

 

[plextech]

There are all sorts of schemes on the table, from rebooting the desalination plant in Sydney to pipelines across the states, but we'll see where it all goes. The big cities will always be alright; it's the regional towns that are suffering most in this drought.

 

[Phill]

You got that right.
Gladstone in QLD is considering restrictions and surrounding towns are having water trucked in on a daily basis.
It's been a lot of years since I was in Menindee but it sure didn't look like that when I was there.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

The Darling River itself looks reasonable level, at 3:40, this was the little pondage entry to the main lake to the NW ?
And at 3:45, the other side of the road ?
This is very near the campground, but I've never stayed there when travelling through.

No footage of the main Lake Menindee ?
Of course it is HUGE, so might not have got too good coverage panning around (unless very high), but if you got any I'd be keen to see a snippet of that.
It has been dry for a very long time, and what's usually been in there has been infested with blue green algae.

If I drive to Brisbane that way (rarely now), I usually go the Darling River run between Wilcannia and Bourke to go in a more direct route up through back roads to Moree, then the Newell Hwy from there.

 

[plextech]

Yep this is near the Darling River Campground. The river shots were taken in Menindee itself, so there's still a bit of water left in it. Even these Google Earth shots taken earlier this year show a million times more water than there is now.




Unfortunately I had no time to do the rounds and shoot - this is as far in as I managed to get. There was a very brief window to leave town and do a bit of shooting between meetings, so this is all I could get done before having to head back. I will, however, pass through again in a year from now (unless otherwise scheduled), and I'll make sure I have a whole day available. Who knows what it will look like then.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

I will, however, pass through again in a year from now (unless otherwise scheduled), and I'll make sure I have a whole day available. Who knows what it will look like then.

Hopefully some more water will get down there, hard to say, so much gets taken from it all the way down.
The main lake is probably about 100sqkm (you were right on the SE corner / edge of it) is a sight to see when full apparently.
I think you'd have to push the 120m to get a decent look around.

As with all inland lakes, the birdlife that gets that far inland is incredible.

I just (finally) went up to William Ck (SA) and did an early morning Lake Eyre flight (little GA8 Airvan), no huge pelican flocks at the moment, but seagulls and banded stilts in their thousands.
Took loads of pics from the plane, and also drove out to Halligan Bay and flew the Mavic for 10 mins . . . got a little bit of nice footage on the short flight, but still only just started clipping the segments up a bit, too busy working to finish it as yet. Soon.

 

[plextech]

Well I have my RePL, and will have my ReOC in a couple of months from now, so I should be able to get to a decent height for the next time, assuming there's no red tape. Australia truly has some of the most stunning country.

BTW here's a panorama of sunset William Creek that I took on our last desert trek in 2016. We just stared in awe.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Nice shot !
As much as I love all regions of Australia, the outback (and more so the deserts) of Australia have an impossibly strong attraction to me.
SA, NT, WA, inland, simply stunning.

Lake Eyre taken with the MP.
Accidental photo ! Was videoing (as I normally mostly do) and hit the photo button by mistake when fumbling about for C2 to do minor horizon fix.

 

[Hardgainer]

Our droughts sure are a killer. Hope you get some relief soon.

 

[Sawtybt]

So sad to see for the town and people. Can remember camping there when lack of water was not an issue.

 

[bushie]

Interesting video... not much lake left.

Read a prediction that, in absence of significant rain that you guys down under could be out of fresh water in as little as 2years.

Over in the west we have had a fair bit of rain this winter, with another front due on Thursday

 

[Biggles54]

remember getting bogged on the drive from Menindee to Ivanhoe many years ago, quite an experience.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Those roads when even slightly damp are like driving in ice [emoji51]

 

[Biggles54]

even with a slight gradient my panel van ended up on the other side of the road. We were stuck for 2 hours.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Ha ha, yeah that's the same as happened to me, coming down the Bourke - Wilcannia road on the west side of the Darling once.
Could see big thunderstorm brewing to the SW, but the road was all signed as open when we left the road north end, so went for it !

Started to shower about half way down just past Louth.
Had no choice but to keep going.
If we went off the crown of the road either way, we'd start sliding off with the slight slope.

The was in the Ranger and of course in 4WD by then, but that clay fills treads anyway (only had fine tread pattern AT's on) and it's like driving slick tyres on wet glass, LOL.
Made it ok, and kept going on the blacktop towards Broken Hill to get the nice build of of clay off the underbody.

Always an adventure driving this great country.

 

[Biggles54]

we had no hope, I had a totally empty Ford 351 XD panel van with a limited slip diff, no grip whatsoever. Spent an hour in Ivanhoe trying to clean off all the mud!

 

[plextech]

Hopefully you guys will like the 4WD documentary I'll be shooting next year

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

we had no hope, I had a totally empty Ford 351 XD panel van with a limited slip diff, no grip whatsoever. Spent an hour in Ivanhoe trying to clean off all the mud!

Ha yeah that's a bad combination ?

Hopefully you guys will like the 4WD documentary I'll be shooting next year

Always like a good 4WD epic.
Where are you shooting that ?
What's the basic background, magazine, your own trip ?

I'm not into the 4WD mag type of drama, but like Ronny Dahls vids on YouTube, looked at many of his before a big mid year 5 week trip through WA (5 states actually !!) to see what we had ahead of us.
Think he lives WA, Perth.