In Blackbutt Nature Reserve. A sunny holiday emerged as the wet weather fled away.
A sly Mr Fox would make nice work of these cute little ducks.

A legendary 'yellow jersey' was seen toiling uphill near Glenrock lagoon.  The gears clicked and the gravel surface rattled. Cadel Evans is probably making a big impact on cyclists following his victories and his homecoming parade in Melbourne this week.   

Saturday is the day for Weddings and a number of  couples retain the Marriage custom.

In the wild a male magpie goose and two females attend to nesting and breeding tasks together.
This flock of geese enjoy a home at Hunter Wetlands. Originally these birds were distributed more widely before loss of their habitat occured in our temperate areas so they hang around tropical northern areas. Even there exotic grass introduced for cattle grazing competes with native foods that suit Magpie greese best. What an inheritance!

It has been said that the family became an institution to facilitate issues to do with inheritance. There would be new unwritten laws of inheritance used to craft a will and testament suitable for blended families and change of status. Should inheritance generally be an unconditional right for family members?

Is this our most precious resource? The dam supplies water to the Newcastle region. Where would we be without it these past few days of heatwave conditions?
The dam is in a wilderness area to the north of Newcastle; we are not talking about alps here. The mountains and the plateau are shared out between the water catchment of Hunter District Water; state forests, reserves and conservation areas; Mount Royal National Park and  Barrington Tops National Park reaching about 1500 metres above sea level.

Barrington Tops covers over 74 000 hectares listed as a World Heritage Area protecting much of it as Wilderness. It was born from an ancient volcano and forms part of the Great Escarpment.  The rugged landscape... forests and streams... provides habitat for a wide range of plants and animals. In this area many northern and southern plant species meet the limit of their range...protects more than 50 rare or threatened plants and animals..... NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.

Waterhole near Round Tank Picnic Area and goat trap. Water attracts wild goats (non-native) who roam the outback in large numbers and cause major damage to the vegetation.

All the same, feral goats are forging a reputation as a valuable commodity says the journal Australian Geographic, for their resilience and adaptability in drought-ravaged parts. The meat is exported and has a large international market, most of it going to Taiwan and the USA. Goat meat is not commonly seen on our shelves.

Where's the emu? They were in Mungo National Park. The scene changed from the lakebed and saltbush to zones with several species of trees and mallee scrub and the plant and animal communities they support. Hugh non-native rabbit populations have been controlled.
Unlikely as it seems, deep floods have been recorded at Allen's Plain Tank.

The wide surrounding countryside, in the vicinity of the Willandra Lakes World Heritage area, was seen to be flat and waterless but as visitors, we are unfamiliar with the potential for change and floods.

The Murray-Darling Basin accounts for three-quarters of the country's irrigated crops and pastures, and one-third of its agricultural output. The basin's annual water flow ranges from 5000-57000 gigalitres. Research shows over-allocation of this water underpins widespread biodiversity losses and damage to the environment, much of which may already be irreversible. From Australian Geographic journal.

A flood swept throught the Western Region in 1890, especially around Bourke, and is the subject of the painting by W C Piguenit: The flood in the Darling 1890. The work is described as one the the Gallery's (of NSW) great icons of Australian painting. The Darling is a major river.
The sky is notable and the reflections and birds are from one in touch with nature. Piguenit was the son of a convict and is credited as our first professional Australian born painter.

Often the surface soil was of fine red 'cornflour' and was voluptuous and cushioned the Michelins around the curves of the drive in the National Park where trace of ancient megafauna could be sensed (such as the giant obese wombats and the towering kangaroos) and all the roads led to Vigars Wells in the middle of nowhere to the path taken by the horse drawn coaches.
There any romanticising of the west dissolved away.
The deserted dry outpost was windswept. Why did the old coaches cross the sand dunes instead of taking an easier path? Even today compacted wagon wheel tracks are still visible. Imagine the strain on the horse teams.

Vigars wells (in the previous photo) were build at a natural soak and were a vital watering and resting point used, for instance, by the famous Cobb & Co coaches whose services linked settlements literally from one end of the country to the other (in the eastern states).
By 1870, Cobb and Co were harnessing 6 000 horses per day and were covering 45 000 km each week. They moved the station people (farmers and pastoralists), shearing teams, wool buyers and public servants. The last coach ceased operating in 1924 in North Queensland.
Slower wagons drawn by horses or bullock teams took wool to the river ports of the Murray river and river boats cut the delivery times to Adelaide by as much as 3 months.
(The data is from intrepretive signage. I wonder if it has any exaggerations. And how well did the company manage all those horses?)

Vigars Wells. A viewing platform surrounds an old well.
A natural soak has long been a watering place on the edge of the sand dunes.

A dune extends across the horizon on the old 'shore' of Lake Mungo in the National Park. This lunette was dubbed the 'walls of China' and while it is a special rather than a sensational sight it holds buried 'treasures' from pre-historic times.
Over the centuries, the wind has carried layers of deposits and where these are eroded are revealed rare human and animal finds.
Also, the site contains more than 450 well-preserved footprints of groups who lived at the height of the last ice age in an area, in the SW of the state, now declared overall as the "Willandra Lakes World Heritage Area.
The traditional tribal groups of the area: the Barkindji, Mutthi Mutthi and Nglyampaa. (ref Balranald Shire Council)

In the Sandhills.
The interior of the continent has extensive sandhills, I read, that are massive and underlie the landscape and are parallel in formation. Contrasted with those are much smaller areas of crescent shaped dunes named lunettes. This is part of a lunette on the shore of a dried-up lake bed and formed by the prevailing wind over Lake Mungo.

Further into the Goulburn Valley, the National Parks has provided a rest area and a story board that tells about Phippes Cutting which is a hand-made road, part of which can be explored nearby.
This Wollemi National Park is included in the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage.
The area is within the traditional country of the Wanaruah Aboriginal people.
Horse transport is associated with the horse studs in the district. Widden Valley seems hidden away.

You may be able to see a baseball game in the photo. There is at least one baseball centre in Newcastle in Mayfield West.
As the crow flies, it is not far from the Wetlands.

Camping at Mungo Brush is close to the shores of the Myall Lakes and has delightful little bays for swimming, boating and exploring where the overhanging paperbark trees shade the water and the scary water weeds prevail. Parks and Wildlife manage the camping areas.
Dingoes prowled around as this was the off-season. They were timid yet would steal from the camp site while the back was turned. Massive gonnana lizards are cheeky visitors in the summer months.
Other visitors were the French tourists in the camper van.


Mungo Brush Walk is a simple pleasure.
A grey strangler fig is visible, above, in an early stage of growth.
MUNGO BRUSH seems to be a small area of littoral rainforest between the sea and the lake. The canopy is quite low with relatively few species of plants such as strangler figs, vines, mosses and ferns that have adapted to the harse, salt ladened winds off the ocean.
The rocky hill, Mungo Brush, was one of the off-shore islands once before geological change set in. The waters have risen and fallen and big sand dunes have also formed far and wide disguised under the vegetation.
Sand mining for minerals was undertaken relatively close by and concern led to action to curtail mining activity and preserve and extend the domain of the park. The Worimi people occupied the lands living a fisher-hunter-gather lifestyle. Middens and other evidence of their occupation has been found.

The path through Mungo Brush is cool.


From the easterly shores.
A short distance to the north, a very narrow point in the lake has a vehicular ferry crossing with a tow line.
Crossing the water leads to Myall Resort and water activities, more popular in warmer weather.

Myall Shores Resort has cabins, caravans, camping and restaurant and grew from the legendary Leggs Camp.


Return north-west by the circular route on a gravel road follows the Myall River to Bulahdelah where house boats can be hired for a jaunt around the lakes. Navigating the narrow but tranquil river to the lakes would mean all hands on deck and advice and assistance is only a phone call away for the seafarer adventurer.