09-Mar-2002 -- Quarry Hill Station, NSW.

Continued from 33S142E.

Coming from a cluster of stations south of Lake Tandou, we eventually got ourselves onto the main road from Tandou to Menindee; but not after getting slightly lost a couple of times and having to pull out the laptop computer, load up ‘Australia Unfolded 2’ and work out where we were!

We had previously decided that if we made back onto that road by 4:00 p.m. we would try for 32S142E, otherwise we would abandon that confluence and head straight into Menindee where we had a motel booked for that night.

As it happened, we got onto the road to Menindee at 3:59 p.m. so we did attempt this confluence.

The track up to Quarry Hill was quite reasonable and we arrived at the station at about 5:45 p.m. There were three gentlemen working on some farm vehicles in a large shed and I got out of the car to explain my mission.

They were quite helpful and broke the bad news to me that the creek that I needed to cross was not passable in a car of any description. One of the guys rode a motorbike in front of us to take us out to the track that would get us closest. We then drove up to the end of that track and parked next to the creek – still about 3.5 kilometres from the confluence and a little bit after 6:00 p.m.

With sunset approaching, I knew that I wasn’t going to make it to the confluence, but I wanted to at least get within 1 or 2 kilometres. I agreed with Ada that I would walk for 30 minutes, take some photos from that point and come back with an hour. As it happened, I got within 1.5 kilometres.

I noted some disused tracks that the guys at Quarry Hill were unaware of, presumably as the land on the other side of the creek had only been recently acquired by the owners of Quarry Hill. There are two possible alternative access points to these tracks; one being an abandoned station called Kinalung to the south and the other being Topar Station to the north. I believe Topar Station runs some sort of eco-tourism operation so it might be a viable option to stay there if attempting this confluence.

The guys at Quarry Hill Station asked that any future visitors seek permission first by writing to:

The Manager Quarry Hill Station Broken Hill NSW 2880 Australia

Continued at 32S143E.