Menindee Lakes

Menindee Lakes is a system of nine large, shallow ephemeral freshwater lakes on the Darling River near Menindee in far western New South Wales, about 110 kilometres south-east of Broken Hill. Regulated since the 1960s as a major water storage for Broken Hill and the lower Darling, the lakes cover up to 47,500 hectares when full. The system is noted for birdlife, fishing, boating and its outback landscape within semi-arid country.

Visitors can expect a vast outback lake system with wide open water, dry lake beds when water levels are low, and surrounding semi-arid plains and river red gums. The main lakes - Lake Wetherell, Lake Pamamaroo, Lake Menindee and Lake Cawndilla - are accessed via unsealed roads from Menindee. Visitors can view waterbirds, fish, launch boats from ramps, picnic, camp at designated areas and explore lookouts and shoreline tracks. Facilities are basic and conditions depend on water levels.

The lakes lie on the traditional lands of the Barkindji people. The Menindee area was a base camp for the Burke and Wills expedition in 1860. The natural ephemeral lakes were developed as a regulated water storage system between 1949 and 1968, with weirs, regulators and channels constructed to store Darling River flows for town water supply, irrigation and downstream flows.

The lakes and Darling River (Barka) hold long-standing cultural significance for the Barkindji people as a source of water, food and connection to Country. The area reflects outback pastoral and river history and remains important for community recreation and connection to the river system.