Menindee

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Menindee
MenindeeBurke & WillsCampsite.JPG
Burke and Wills rest stop
State : AustraliaAustralia Australia
State : Flag of New South Wales.svg New South Wales
Coordinates : 32 ° 24 '  S , 142 ° 26'  E Coordinates: 32 ° 24 '  S , 142 ° 26'  E
Height : 61  m
Residents : 414 (2016)
Time zone : AEST (UTC + 10)
LGA : Central Darling Shire
Menindee (New South Wales)
Menindee
Menindee

Menindee is a small town with 414 inhabitants in western New South Wales in Australia 622 kilometers northeast of Adelaide and 112 kilometers southeast of Broken Hill . The city is located in the Central Darling Shire on the banks of the Darling River .

history

The first European to come to the area was the explorer Thomas Livingstone Mitchell in 1835 , followed by Charles Sturt in 1844. The first settlement of European descent Australians on the Darling River was founded by Tom Pain, who built a hotel here in 1853. This is now known as Maiden's Menindee Hotel and is considered the second oldest hotel in New South Wales. In the years 1860/61 it served the explorers Robert O'Hara Burke and William John Wills as a base station on their expedition from Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria , which ended fatally for both at Cooper Creek .

Among other things, due to the settlement of a trader in 1856, Menindee developed into an important port of call for the steamers on the Darling River. A post office opened in the settlement then known as Perry in 1861. The place got its current name in 1863, at that time still written Menindie . Menindee grew into the 1870s when mineral resources were discovered further north and economic activity began to focus on Wilcannia .

economy

The inhabitants of the place derive their income mostly from agriculture and tourism. There are hotels and caravan parks at Kinchega National Park and Lake Cawndilla. There are shops and a gas station in town.

Menindee Lakes

Aerial photograph of the Menindee Lakes (2009)

A number of lakes border the city to the north and west. The four largest are called Lake Menindee, Lake Cawndilla, Lake Pamamaroo, and Lake Wetherell. The lakes that arose from a geological depression , but previously only led during floods, now serve as water reservoirs. Weirs on the Darling River northeast of Menindee divert the water into the lake district. The construction of the water reservoirs began in 1949. The work was not completed until 1968.

In the Menindee Lakes , the high water peaks can be temporarily stored and gradually given to agriculture to irrigate the fields for grapes, melons, apricots, tomatoes and oranges. The lakes serve as a drinking water reservoir for the town of Broken Hill, 120 kilometers away. The reservoirs are also used for water skiing, sailing, swimming and fishing. In early 2005 and 2008, the lakes fell dry due to the drought and the high water demand. The lakes had also dried up by the end of the 2010s. The local population complains that a lot of water is taken from the headwaters of the Darling River in Queensland for irrigation , for example for cotton and rice cultivation, which further exacerbates the consequences of droughts .

The Indian-Pacific-Express railway line runs through a dam between two lakes , and the Outback Xplorer that runs on it connects Sydney and Broken Hill twice a week. At the western end of the village is Kinchega National Park, which includes Lake Menindee and Lake Cawndilla.

Web links

Commons : Menindee, New South Wales  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files
  • Menindee. Central Darling Shire Council, accessed April 11, 2014 .
  • Menindee Lakes. Murray-Darling Basin Authority, accessed April 11, 2014 .

Individual evidence

  1. a b Australian Bureau of Statistics : Menindee (L) ( English ) In: 2016 Census QuickStats . June 27, 2017. Retrieved January 26, 2020.
  2. Menindee. VisitNSW website of Tourism New South Wales, accessed April 11, 2014 .
  3. Our neighbors. (No longer available online.) Corner Country - Outback New South Wales, archived from the original on March 19, 2014 ; accessed on April 11, 2014 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.outbacknsw.com.au
  4. ^ Menindee: Historic town on the edge of the desert. The Sydney Morning Herald , February 8, 2004, accessed February 13, 2011 .
  5. a b Menindee Lakes. New South Wales Office of Water, accessed April 11, 2014 .
  6. Esther Blank: Australia fights over the last drops . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . March 9, 2019, p. 7 ( nzz.ch [accessed on March 10, 2019]).