Dates: 2/7/22 – 8/7/22 Leader(s): Berni & Jane
Mudgee Bushwalking Club – Western NSW / Mutawintji trip report Report and photos by Berni Aquilina
Fourteen members of the Mudgee Bushwalking Club spent the best part of a week in Western NSW during the first week of July, 2022. Berni Aquilina led the trip, following a suggestion put to the club after a solo trip hampered by wet roads 18 months before, that became the reconnaissance for this one.
The trip, which entailed far more driving than walking, focussed on the rock engravings and cultural heritage of Mutawintji National Park, visiting an area that is only available through guided walks with Aboriginal-owned Mutawintji Heritage Tours, and time in Broken Hill at the end of the trip.
Two planning meetings kept participants informed and allowed for shared decision making about the final schedule, accommodation bookings, safety planning and meal arrangements. Eight cars and a bus travelled in an informal convoy, and accommodation varied from motels and cabins, to tents, swags and sleeping in vehicles.
We took the Club’s emergency equipment – 2 way radios, Defibrillator, EPirb, and 2 First Aid Kits. Berni also took a Personal Locator Beacon (PLB). Participants were also encouraged to download the free Emergency Plus App that has been developed by Australia’s emergency services and their Government and industry partners. The app uses GPS functionality built into smart phones to help a Triple Zero (000) caller provide critical location details required to mobilise emergency services, however it only works when the user has access mobile networks.
Our trip began with a rendezvous at Dubbo on a drizzly Saturday, 2nd July 2022. Our loose style reflected the rest of the trip: people arrived and went at different times, but checked in and confirmed our next meeting place. Travelling at our own pace, we headed to Cobar where many of the group visited the recently refurbished Great Cobar Museum and Information Centre that had excellent displays of mining and social history. That night we shared a meal at the Cobar Golf Club. It was still drizzly that night but from then on we had clear skies and beautiful weather for the rest of our trip.
On day 2 we had intended to camp at Coach and Horses campground, on the Darling River in Paroo-Darling National Park, but our bookings had been cancelled when the campground was closed due to the high river levels caused by earlier massive rain events in northern NSW and Queensland. Instead, we stopped for a bushwalk at Mt Grenfell, about 60 kms from Cobar and with its beautifully smooth access road newly sealed, and a good morning tea and lunch spot at the parking area. As we tested the 2-way radios, Renee found a scar tree not far from the carpark. Mt Grenfell is home to the Ngiyampaa people and our walk took us past three ochre rock art sites Some took a longer walk into the bush and hills beyond, before heading onto Cobar, where we checked out the recently refurbished Great Cobar Museum, checked into various accommodations, and shared an evening meal at the Cobar Golf Club.
Originally, we had planned to camp on the Darling River, at the Coach and Horses Campground on the southern side of Paroo-Darling National Park. However, the heavy rain events of past weeks and months across NSW and Queensland had seen the Darling flow and fill, and the campground was closed due to flooding, a week or so before we travelled. Instead, we stopped a night at White Cliffs and looked around this historic opal mining town next day. Berni, John and Jane also chose to drive out to Peery Lake, in the northern section of Paroo-Darling NP. Given the season, we expected this to be full of water, but it was still dry. Nevertheless, it was a fascinating place, being ephemeral wetlands in an arid environment and with unique artesian mound springs that no doubt, in the past, provided survival water for the Ngiyampaa and Barkandji people whose land this is.
1. The arid landscape of Peery Lake; with an artesian mound spring centre at left.
Next stop was our main destination, Mutawintji National Park, reached with a dusty drive on unsealed roads, out from White Cliffs. We camped two nights at Homestead Creek where we shared a large campfire, enjoyed awesome meals prepared mostly by Elly, Denise and Nicole, with Glen providing damper and tips for viewing and photographing the splendid starry sky.
2: Relaxing round the campfire at Mutawintji NP
Next morning was perhaps the highlight of our trip, when we joined a guided Mutawintji Heritage tour. Keanu, our young Barkandji guide, shared historic, environmental, and cultural knowledge about the area. We climbed a rock slope that seemed the size of a football field and was absolutely covered in stippled rock etchings. Keanu said this was an area that had traditionally hosted large gatherings, and the planar sandstone was easy to carve, and he suggested that layer on layer was etched and that removing a layer of the rock sheet essentially provided a new ‘canvas’.
3. Our guide, Keanu, telling us about the Mutawintji rock etchings.
4. Stippled rock etchings, including a kangaroo, at Mutawintji Heritage site.
Across the valley, in sheltered sandstone overhangs were stencilled hands and other ochre paintings and symbols. While we took in the information Kaeanu was sharing, his young son, Thuli, played around the site. It was wonderful to see the continuous Aboriginal culture, from the evidence left in the art sites, to Keanu’s knowledge as a young traditional owner and guide, and his son playing there on his own Country.
5. Our guide’s son playing at an art site.
In this area we also saw large fossilised Eurypterid tracks. These sea scorpions, which were up to 2 metres in length, have been extinct for around 270 million years. Amazing evidence of Australia’s ancient inland sea.
6. Glen with fossilised sea scorpion tracks (top rock and bottom left).
That afternoon, several of us ventured on another bush walk, this time to Mutawintji Gorge. The walk began with an easy stroll through grasslands and ended with rock scrambling through parts of the gorge to some amazing waterholes.
6. Mutawintji waterhole, in Mutawintji Gorge.
The following morning Dave, Christine, Michelle and Berni walked part of the Homestead Gorge walking track, including Rockholes Loop that provided excellent views. Others explored closer to the campground and after a shared lunch we all departed for Broken Hill where we visited Sculptures in the Desert at sunset then shared a final meal at the iconic Palace Hotel, a mural-filled pub where scenes from Priscilla Queen of the Desert were filmed. It was karaoke night and the main bar next door was rocking while we ate in the adjoining busy restaurant. This marked the end of our formal Bushwalking trip and people variously returned to Mudgee, spent extra time in Broken Hill or travelled elsewhere in the following days.
All returned safely in their own time, and although four people contacted Covid (possibly from that last crowded night at the Palace, I wonder), fortunately they said it was no worse than a cold.
Many thanks to Jane and Elly for assisting with organisation, and to all who assisted with meals and helped in other ways.
Trip Participants:
Berni Aquilina, Jane Munro, John McCrea, Michelle Baker, Nicole Jelbart, Michael Jelbart, Denise Jelbart, Glen Hill, Renae Hill. Peter Brennan, Margaret Brennan, David Milton, Christine Milton & Elly Rands.
Report received 3/9/2022.