lake menindee

Menindee is an outback town with its Lakes. Its remote and very quiet. The lakes are a must see and there is plenty of wildlife. Buy your BBQ provisions & drinks before you leave Broken Hill so you all set to go for a great lunch / dinner. PLEASE NOTE: As an ex-Broken Hill person born & bred we used to go to Menindee very often for fishing, water skiing and rabbiting, But we NEVER went in SUMMER - December January or February is WAY TOO HOT! (You'll note the other reviewers on this website went during this time which is why they rated it low) Its uncomfortable for the locals let alone for city dwellers and overseas visitors. The blowflies will drive you crazy. Vehicles overheat & us Broken Hill locals ALWAYS added at least an extra 5 degrees to the temperature forecast in Broken Hill at this time of the year eg.if its 40 degrees celsius in town then its AT LEAST 45 at the river!. The lakes are a water source for crops and humans (Its Broken Hill's main water source for 20k people + an additional 25K in the far western outback district) - of course they are going to be at very low levels at this timem of the year!. And when they are they are not pretty (just like any dried up/low level lake) so please dont expect an oasis at this time of the year!! - this is when the lakes come into their own and are used for what they were put there for in the first place (yes they are man made)Winter can be too cold and wet (unsealed roads can become slippery). Autumn is a comfortable time to go. Although Autumn is when the country recovers from harsh summers and if there is no local rain or rain in SE Qld (this is where the water comes from! -it takes 3 months to work its way down from SE Qld into the Darling River and into the Menindee Lakes) then dont expect the lakes to look good then either. Speak to the locals / tourist info centre to find out the current levels. Spring is the best time - water from SE Qld arrives, lots of wildlife building up the numbers again, fish, yabbies come back out of the mud, few blowflies, great sunsets!Enjoy! Feel free to email me bjeffery69@yahoo.com.au anytime for extra info about Menindee or Broken Hill - I know the lot - it IS the back of my hand! hahahaha Cheers!

Have been to this National Park before but hoped to see Lake Menindee with some water in it. Found out that it only had 19% capacity so did not see much water! The park is accessed by sealed road from Broken Hill (110 km away) but all the roads in the park are dirt roads and some are corrugated. The majority of the road are quite good if taken at the speed limit in the park 40 & 60 kph. The access cost is $7 per vehicle plus any camping fees. You can look through the old woolshed but the best thing is to drive the “River Drive”. This takes you along the side of the Darling River past many camping spots where you can also stop and have a picnic lunch.Location – Very Good – sealed road from Broken Hill, Service – N/a, Value – Very Good - $7 entry fee, Atmosphere – Very Good if you like the bush and river, Overall – Very Good

Traveled out to Menindee while exploring around Broken Hill, the drive out was lovely, many emu's on the side of the road, we ended up going into Menindee and buying some fish and chips and drove out to the lakes to sit and watch the sunset, I love little side trips like this.

Seeing the lake system (only a third full at present), the little holiday village of Sunset Strip, the wild emus and kangaroos on the road, the visit to Kinchega National Park and the well-preserved large sharing shed, we fought was well worth the longish drive.

The trip up the east side of the Darling to Pooncarie is an easy drive. To Menindee up the western side is another thing. As unformed dirt roads go, it was pretty good at first but deteriorated where it had been cut up after recent rain. Not the place for a Commodore towing a van but there some lovely views of the Darling. About 50 k's from Menindee, the road deteriorated and was very rough and pot holey. We were told at Pooncarie that the road up the eastern side was as rough as guts.Despite the road, the journey was worthwhile and the lakes are spectacular.

It would be amazing to see the lake when it was full and when all the pelicans are around- the lake was really low and we only saw five pelicans. Drove around many of the lakes in the system- sometimes on the red dirt roads. Stopped by a lake for lunch a saw a huge goanna in the tree above us. If you like outback driving it was great fun. Loads of wildlife- kangaroos and emus. Town is small, we had brought our own lunch.

The location of the park is excellent - camp sites have a view looking out over Lake Menindee. Opted to upgrade from a tent site to a cabin at the last minute. Was given a discount on the price as the cabin's sliding door did not work all that well. It appeared that the door itself did not fit the frame (too small), and required careful maneuvering to open and close. It's a pity the owners have not replaced it with the proper sized door. The amenities were very dated - the shower cubicles looked to be from the '50's or '60's, but having said that, they were all very clean and well maintained. It's worth noting that given the location, when the weather gets very windy, there is nothing to shelter you from the wind when it comes in over the lake, and in these conditions, little to stop the ensuing dust storm. All in all however, the couple who run the park are both extremely friendly, polite, and helpful and despite the age of the facilities, I would definitely recommend this park to anyone visiting Menindee.

Menindi is 110 kms from Broken Hill on a sealed road but if you venture further then the track becomes red dirt and dust. Scary for some but brilliant if you enjoy the remoteness of the outback. The road from Menindi to Ivanhoe is over 200kms of red dust and potholes, corrugated surfaces and some deceptively smooth stretches which lull you into false a sense of security. That is, until you bounce into a pothole, recover and bounce into the next. You need to concentrate. But for a person who likes to drive and enjoys the challenge it is great. Exhilarating even! Don't forget to stop every half hour and change drivers and while you do, look around, breath the pristine air and enjoy the amazing blue greens, bright yellows, purples and mauves of the undergrowth, the red of the soil and the brilliant blue of the sky. This is the Australian dessert and is unlike anywhere else in the world. Beautiful

Fantastic sites overlooking Lake Menindee. Cheap, but quite run-down. Tolerable for a night. If you don't want to be in the National Park by the Darling River, this is a good alternative.No shop, so plan on going to the pub or buy provisions.

Lake Menindee does offer a lot of water in a landscape dominated by dry spinifex vegetation. The locals love to boast that this lake can hold 3 times more water than Sydney Harbor. It is almost as if they can convince themselves that this ramshackle town with its rusting corrugated iron roofs is really brighter than Pitt Street by virtue of this one fact. In truth, Menindee is a pretty dismal sort of town. There are a few vantage points along the lake-shore. The best known one offers a reasonable backdrop of a few drowned ghost gums poking up their skeletal figures before the vast flat expanse of water. At the dyke alongside you can watch a feral population of carp sucking pond-slime off a concrete wall. They are such easy targets for fisherman that dozens of decayed carp rot in the sun along the dyke, with blowflies buzzing about them. I enjoyed the drive here, which was punctuated by emus running across the road and a razorback hog spot down in the middle of teh road by some amateur gunman but this like is not all that special.

Ive made the trip to Menindee many times as a day trip. On warm days its a beautiful place to cook a bbq (bbq's on site take 20c coins only - 60c is usually enough to cook a meal for a group) and have a swim

This has got to be one of the best ways to appreciate Menindee Lakes. It's huge! The flight up from Broken Hill, over the Lakes, up the Darling River then back over the desert to Broken Hill is just the best way to spend a couple of hundred dollars and a couple of hours. I've driven up there on quite a few occasions and love going along the Darling River and into the lakes picnic areas. Copi Hollow is very pretty from land and from the air, is much bigger than I expected. There's a couple of pubs in Menindee which put on a countery at lunchtime, also a little cafe which serves normal cafe type food... chips and hamburgers etc. You should also drive out to the weir and check out Burke and Wills camp site. It's very pretty with birds everywhere at the moment... and the biggest goanna I've ever seen in my life, eating the dead carp which fishermen had thrown on the bank. Driving there is a great day trip and flying there is even better...magic.