Visit Outback NSW

The explorer Major Thomas Mitchell followed the Bogan and Darling Rivers down to this area in 1835 and came across the naturally formed Lakes which he named 'Laidley's Chain of Ponds’, the Barkindji people referred to these as 'Wontanella' meaning  'Many Waters'.

A decade later, explorer Charles Sturt travelled up the Darling from Wentworth though Menindee enroute to the north west of Australia.

The arrival of the pastoralist and the opening up of the land also meant the start of a time of violent conflict with the Barkindji people who were subsequently decimated by European disease, driven from their traditional lands and forced into government missions. This era saw two horrific massacres of the traditional owners; one via poisoning of leasehold stipulated provisions for the Barkindji people with arsenic by leaseholders and the straight-out slaughter of a tribe on the banks of Boolaboolka Lake.

In 1852, Tom Pain and his family arrived in Menindee and opened up the Menindee Hotel in 1953 and with this and the ability to supply provisions, the town established itself as a Darling River Port. Soon after Captain Francis Cadell, who is credit with opening up the Darling River , established a store next to the Hotel in 1856.

Australia's most famous explorers Burke and Wills passed through Menindee for their Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria expedition.  The expedition arrived at Menindee on October 14 1860, and made camp at Kinchega Station after crossing the Darling River.  A depot camp for the expedition was established at the Pamamaroo Creek (a sign and cairn mark the site of the camp). Upon their departure, Burke and Wills carved an arrow in the door post of the hotel to indicate the expedition's direction.

River boat trade continued to develop the area and plans for a weir to control the flow of the river and level of the lakes to ensure river traded were shelved in the 1890's and by the time the railhead reached the area in the 1920's the future of the river as a transport route were doomed. The idea to control the flow of the river came to fruition in 1949 and completed in 1960 allowing for some retention of water in the naturally formed lakes to maintain some continuity for water supply and irrigation.

The Menindee Lakes originally comprised 9 natural ephemeral lakes covering an area of 453 km2 As a result of the weir, there are 4 major lakes Wetherill (including Lake Tandure), Pamamaroo (connected by a small lake called Copi Hollow), Menindee, and  Cawndilla.

For the traveller, there is great fishing on the lakes, the magnificent Kinchega National Park, bird watching on the lakes, Lake Pamamaroo and Main Weir, Copi Hollow, Menindee War Memorials, the 1872 wreck of the paddle-steamer 'Providence', the self-guided heritage walk around Menindee.