BOURKE TO GUNDABOOKA
These days Bourke is still a hub for travellers to top up with food and fuel before hitting the dirt, but also to explore the history around town. There ' s plenty to see and do, including the Darling River wharf system, the centre lift bridge, outer stations and the majestic buildings with heritage listings in the main part of town.
Heading south from Bourke along the Darling River Road, we crossed through the stunning Gundabooka NP where there’ s options to explore remote campsites, hike out to Mt Gundabooka or even camp beside the river at nearby Yanda campgrounds with beautiful river gums lining the Darling.
Bourke Weir overlooking the Darling River.
Bridging the Darling...
Sign-posted about 10km out of Gundabooka, right beside the road, is an important marker where, in 1829, explorers Charles Sturt and Hamilton Hume discovered the Darling. The info board has some interesting insights as to what happened here.
Our first stop was to check out Louth, about 100km downstream from Bourke. It’ s here that Henry Lawson wrote poems about drinking and partying, especially when the only service here was the pub that was a stopover for Cobb & Co coaches plus the river trade back in the late 1880s.
Today, it’ s still a great place for a stop-over, with Shindy’ s Inn right on the riverbank, and when the races come to town there’ s plenty of partying. Inside Shindy’ s, the walls are packed with interesting items from decades gone by, pictures of massive floods and a few quirky tools.
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