Menindee Lakes

The nearest town to the Menindee Lakes system is Menindee (population 900). The Lakes system is located on the Darling River, about 200 km upstream of the junction of the Darling River and River Murray, which is at Wentworth in south-western NSW. The nearest city is Broken Hill (population 25 000). It takes approximately 12 days for regulated flows to travel from the Menindee Lakes to Wentworth.

There are four main lakes in the system: Lake Menindee, Lake Cawndilla, Lake Pamamaroo, and Lake Wetherell. The Lakes were originally a series of natural depressions that filled during floods. As the flow receded the floodwaters in the natural depressions drained back into the Darling River.

The Menindee Lakes and Darling River were a lifeline for early explorers of one of the world’s most arid regions. Major Thomas Mitchell, Charles Sturt, and Bourke and Wills all used the lakes on expeditions between 1835 and 1860.

Later, it was thought that the Darling River would be navigable providing a suitable route to develop Australia’s interior. The township of Menindee became an important access point to the outback. However, the flows in the Darling River proved to be unreliable, causing difficulties with navigation and water supply. For example, the paddlesteamer Jane Eliza took 3 years between 1883 and 1886 to complete a voyage between Morgan (on the River Murray in SA) and Bourke, NSW.

The idea of using the Menindee Lakes for water conservation was first proposed in 1894. In 1949 the Menindee Water Conservation Act was passed in the NSW parliament. Works started in 1949, with major works being completed in 1960 and completion in 1968. The total cost of the works to completion (December 1968) was $11,269,817.

In 1963, the New South Wales Government agreed to lease the storage in perpetuity to the Commission to be managed in harmony with the River Murray.

Purpose

The purposes of the Menindee Lakes storage scheme are to capture water:

for riparian releases, stock, domestic and irrigation needs along the lower Darling River;
used to augment flows in the River Murray to assist in supply to New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia;
for urban and mining needs for Broken Hill (the Menindee Lakes supply up to 10 000 megalitres of water each year to Broken Hill) and local communities;
for flood mitigation along the lower Darling River; and
to provide a recreational amenity.

The Catchment

The catchment of the Darling River comprises southern Queensland including the towns of Toowoomba and Charleville and most of New South Wales to the west of the Great Dividing Range. A chart showing the average percentage of water contributed by each of the tributaries of the Darling River follows.

Pie chart of river catchment

The length of the Darling River is 2 739 km, which makes it the longest single-named river in Australia and the 31st in the world.