THE RIVER RUN

WITH ICONIC 1880s PUBS AND HISTORIC STATION STAY PROPERTIES SCATTERED ALONG ITS LENGTH, THE DARLING RIVER IS A MUST-SEE DESTINATION

- ROBERT NORMAN

AT 1472KM, the Darling is the third longest river in Australia and a visit here had been on my bucket list for some time. The Darling had all but dried up in 2019 but recent record-breaking rains have brought life back to the river. After several months of delays due to rain events and floods, the roads finally opened and we had a clear forecast, so we decided to chance it.

LONG RUN TO THE RIVER

FROM Melbourne we took a 4000km scenic route north via South Australia’s Flinders Ranges to Innamincka before looping through Queensland to pick up the Darling at Bourke in NSW.

The Lyndhurst pub stands at the start of the 470km Strzelecki Track to Innamincka. When we arrived there were a few trucks and 4x4s stopped at the pub – even at 10.30am there were several hardy souls sinking a few early ales. The collective opinion of the bar was that the Strzelecki was its usual self – a mixture of the good, the bad and the ugly. Overall, it wasn’t a bad run apart from the ‘ugly’ sections, which were teeth-rattlingly corrugated.

We overnighted at Montecollina Bore, which was deserted apart from one other van. Regrettably, this remote bore is no more, having been capped as a cheaper option than maintaining it.

Continuing north, a smattering of wildflowers could be seen along the road verge, spurred into life by recent rainfalls. Not exactly a kaleidoscope of colour, but cheerful paper daisies and yellow flowering native shrubs brightened up the otherwise drab landscape.