Great Darling Anabranch Canoe Trip

Introduction

This is an description of my journeys on the Great Darling Anabranch in Western NSW. This river is not paddled very often. In 2022 Alan Davison paddled the Anabranch three times effectively and provided detailed information for those wanting to paddle it. It is believed that someone may have paddled the Anabranch in 2012 and Tony Pritchard may have gone down the Anabranch in the mid-1970s. 

A summarized account of my journey is available in the NPA Bulletin, Vol. 60, No. 2, June 2023, pages 11-13 (Part 1) and NPA Bulletin, Vol. 60, No. 3, Sep 2023, pages 24-25 (Part 2)

Our journey described here was timed to make most use of the flood peak that was flowing down the Anabranch during February 2023. We started at Menindee, paddled down the Darling (120 km to the Anabranch Offtake) then 450 km to the Murray River. The Darling River had started to fall from it's peak at Menindee about a month earlier and when we entered the Anabranch the water level was 9.3 m (and falling at about 6 cm per day) with a flow in the Darling of about 20,000 Ml/day. The flow into the Anabranch is about 3500 Ml/day. In practice you need a height of about 7.0 m at the Offtake to have adequate water to paddle from the Darling into the Offtake. By the time we had passed some of the major Anabranch lakes we had caught up with the flood peak in the Anabranch and then each night the water rose by about 5 cm.

This description is broken up into sub-pages (click on the links below or on the three horizontal lines at the top left corner of this page): 

Go here for links to my kayak trips (and those of others) on the rivers of the Murray-Darling Basin and for further information (sample pages, reviews etc) on the book Murray-Darling Journeys.

Alternatively

For a description of my trip on the Murray River see: Murray River Canoe Trip 


For a description of my trip on the Darling River see: Darling River Canoe Trip 


For a description of my trip on the lower Murray River (Wentworth to the Murray Mouth) in 2021 see: Lower Murray River Canoe Trip 


For my description of my trip on the Murrumbidgee River see: Murrumbidgee River Canoe Trip 


For my description of my trip on the Murrumbidgee River 2020-2021 see: Murrumbidgee River 2020-2021


For my description of my trip on the Edward River see: Edward River Canoe Trip


For a description of my trip on the Goulburn River see: Goulburn River Canoe Trip 


For a description of my trip down the Barwon River see: Barwon River Canoe Trip 


If you have any questions or comments please contact me on mcbremers@gmail.com

Mike Bremers