River Lady Tours, Menindee: Can I do a Darling River cruise?
River Lady Tours runs a Darling River cruise that takes in the history, bird life and river red gum trees of the Menindee Lakes in the New South Wales outback.
Menindee doesn’t tend to feature heavily on the tourist map. It’s in outback New South Wales, about an hour’s drive away from Broken Hill and three hours from Mildura on the Murray River.
You really have to embrace the allure of the Australian outback to end up in Menindee. It’s somewhere you visit as part of a long road trip through Australia rather than on a flying visit. It is, however, arguably the best place for a cruise on the Darling River.
Darling River cruises from Menindee
River Lady Tours, a family-owned and operated tour boat company, runs Darling River cruises from Menindee. It’s currently the only outfit running tours of the Darling River and Menindee Lakes in these parts. Crucially, the River Lady has a shallow draft, allowing to access the river and lakes. As any Australian living around the Darling will tell you, water levels are dangerously low too often.
There are two options for a Darling River cruise with River Lady Tours. The first departs in the morning, aiming for the upper reaches of Lake Wetherell. This one hour cruise provides binoculars so passengers can take in the birdlife. It passes the Edwards Family Homestead and tells stories of early settlement in the region. It also takes in swathes of river red gum trees.
Menindee Lakes sunset cruise with River Lady Tours
It’s these river red gums that tend to be the stars of the two hour afternoon sunset river cruise. These cruises cover much the same itinerary, but stay out on the water to take in the sun setting over the Menindee Lakes.
Be warned: Menindee is in the outback, and the only mobile phone network that works is Telstra’s. If you’re on a different provider, you may have trouble contacting the River Lady Tours crew should you be running late or have questions.
More out-of-the-way New South Wales
Taronga Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo.
The Oxley Wild Rivers National Park near Armidale.
The Yanga Homestead in Yanga National Park.
The Mutawinti National Park near Broken Hill