Long weekend trip to Brewarrina

[Ultralights]

where to start? well, Goulburn i guess. I ferried our aircraft from Wollongong to Goulburn to pick up Flightygirl,at 8:30 then waited, and waited, and waited....

 

Finally got off the ground at around 12:30 for Brewarrina via Narromine for fuel

 

Stupid me forgot to pack a memory card for the camera, so only had the mobile phone for pictures until we arrived at Brewarrina and purchased another card.

 

Trip from Goulburn to Narromine was fine once above the turbulence at about 4500 ft. Once in the smooth air we picked up a nice little 5 kt tail wind.

 

Arrived in Narromine at approx 2:30 using just 50 ltrs of a usable 100 ltrs fuel from Wollongong.

 

 

Awaiting my Co-Captain at a nice green and very cold Goulburn morning..

 

 

Nice easy to spot landmark Southwest of Orange

 

 

A very large hole in the ground.

 

 

Not far north of the mine, is a small hole, looks like a new sinkhole!

 

 

and after 2 hrs, we arrived at Narromine, and a nice straight in approach to runway 29

 

After topping up the tanks, it was direct to Brewarrina, winds below 5500 were a bit bumpy and gave a 5 kt headwind, but climbing to 8500 gave a good smooth 10 kts on the tail. 95 kts ground speed meant the longest leg was only 100 minutes.

 

From Narromine to Warren was a fair bit of crop duster activity, but past Warren the landscape changed to the more outback grazing land and millions of semi circles on the ground, we cant tell if they were made made or natural, so if anyone knows what they are, we can settle a bet.

 

 

8500 above nothing but plenty of tree lined creeks.

 

 

getting redder

 

 

Lots of those semi circle things from 8500

 

 

Finally arrived over Brewarrina, Our Hotel is just in front of the wing strut overlooking the river.

 

 

On the ground at Brewarrina.

 

 

The Barwon river is still flowing strongly after the heavy rains in central queensland some months ago, sadly the 20,000 yr old Aboriginal fish traps were submerged.

 

 

Our accomodation, and with airport transferes provided.

 

 

The 20,000 yr old fish traps, still used to this day, well, when the water was lower

 

The Following day, little wind, and high overcast, so hopefully no thermal activity.

 

this time we wecided to fly to Narromine at 1000ft Agl, to get a better look at the landscape, from 8500 ft you miss quite a lot of stuff, we just didnt see the vast amounts of water in the area, the flocks of Emu's, cattle and sheep. though navigating from higher is easier as homesteads can be seen from quite a distance, and out here, homestead spotting is all you have to navigate by, other than the compass and watch. there are far too many creeks and waterways to by able to pinpoint one.

 

 

 

Departing Brewarrina runway 21

 

 

Tracking direct Narromine at our cruise height of 1000 ft. just south of Brew' was this river, flowing well.

 

 

Amazingly flat and desolate.

 

 

these patterns look so much larger from here, just what are they? are they bulldozed into the ground? or raised above?

 

 

from this lower level, the vast amounts of water out here is obvious.

 

 

Scaring the Emu flocks

 

 

Looks dry

 

 

yet still plenty of water on the ground

 

 

very deceiving, still plenty of water there, almost a swampland

 

 

even though we returned on a reciprocal track, the scenery was completely different from this level. looked very dry from 8500, not so from 1000

 

 

Narromine.

 

 

refuelling at Narromine, used 60 ltrs for the return trip to Brewarrina from Narromine

 

Nice collection of bugs as well, though not 1 Locust amongst them, just millions of little green things.

 

 

from the Flatness of Brewarrina to the Vertical of Mt Victoria. in just 4 hrs.

 

 

YKAT and the Hydro Majestic Hotel, cloud base was 4500

 

At 1000 ft from Brewarrina to Narromine there was no wind, and little turbulence, but once departed Narromine we climbed to 3500 and picked up another 10 kt tailwind. from what i hear its quite rare to have decent tailwinds on the outbound and return legs of a short overnight trip! for the entire trip, except for over the mountains, weather was perfect. aircraft performed flawlessly as expected and used an average of 18 ltrs an hr at 5200 rpm indicating 85 kts. prop pitch could be coarsened to improve economy. but we proved we could do a Wollongong to Brewarrina leg without refuelling.

 

still cant comprehend just how big this country really is..

 

 

[Spin]

Loved the story and the photographs Ultralights, first class once again. I linked one of your previous threads on the delivery trip, to an overseas site that I frequent, as a way of showing what flying can be like here. It received a lot of favourable comment.

 

 

[Guest JRMobile]

Thanks for sharing Rob, great pics and great story.

 

Cheers

 

John

 

 

[dazza 38]

Great Piccys, Rob and Rach, enjoyed them.

 

 

[FlyingVizsla]

The 'circles' are man made as part of a water ponding system to rehabilitate scalded land. Here's one short description of the process. http://www.austrangesoc.com.au/userfiles/file/2010_ARS_conf/Ray%20Thompson%20new.pdf

 

A much longer explanation is found at:

 

http://www.agric.wa.gov.au/objtwr/imported_assets/content/_archive/tr051.pdf

 

In short - they are low walls pushed up to capture water so that it ponds against the wall so that soil and seeds are not washed away. It improves the land and guards against salinity. One of the many wonders of The Outback really only appreciated by light aircraft.

 

So who won the bet?

 

Sue