Travels with Ninmoore: Road Trip 2016 - Day 14 (21st July)

'Today we are enjoying quite warm weather again - as warm as you can expect here in winter.

First up we are out looking for a tyre place - we are suspicious of a slow leak in one of the back tyres. It was down a fair bit compared to the others when I checked them in Menindee - so we have been keeping an eye on it since then. Although it has not really gone down any since we have been checking it daily - we decide to go into Willys Tyres here in Wentworth to have them check it.

We leave the ute with the guy there and walk a couple of blocks back to the main drag for a coffee.

Turns out he could not find anything wrong with it - nothing in the tyre and the valve stem checked out okay. He was really nice and did not even charge us for his time.

We will just have to keep an eye on it and see how it goes.

Some interesting facts about Wentworth:

* It was named after the explorer and politician William Charles Wentworth

* Wentworth is a very historic town with respect to trade along the rivers in the past - being located at the confluence of Australia's two great rivers.

Both rivers opened up for trade and Wentworth became the first river port on the Darling.

* By the late 1880s Wentworth had become the busiest inland port in Australia.

In 1885 , 485 vessels were recorded as passing through the Customs House here in Wentworth - with 31 in one week alone.

* For many years Sydney was the only port in the country to handle more cargo than Wentworth.

* So prominent did Wentworth became that it was one of three places considered for the "Capital" of Australia at the time of federation.

And another couple of shots from another vantage point - of the confluence of the two rivers - Murray and Darling.

Below is the view looking back up the Darling from the bridge over the river at Wentworth. Looks lovely doesn't it!!

BUT - I have been wondering how come there is so much water here at Wentworth in the Darling River - when there was such pitiful little water at Pooncarie and it did not seem to be flowing there.

Well today I found out - apparently the weir just downriver from the confluence of the two rivers (Weir/Lock 10) - causes the water to back up along the Darling for many kilometres (not exactly sure how far) - and that is why Wentworth always seems to have water in the Darling River.

We purchase some pies and sausage rolls for lunch and head out the short distance to Perrys Sandhills.

In places these sandhills are upto 12 metres high and they span over 400 acres.

The dunes are believed to be at least 50000 years old - given the presence of fossils giant extinct animals - mega fauna - found amongst the sand dunes.

The trunk of this RIver Red Gum - called the God Tree (not sure how it has come by this name) - has been buried over the years by the dunes - and now you are able to stand, on the dune, in the canopy of the tree. The tree is believed to be many hundreds of years old and that 4-5m of the trunk is buried in the sands.

You could almost imagine yourself in the Simpson Desert out on these dunes - except you can see the

green of the surrounding plains.

After this we thought we would have a look at the Pioneers Museum.

As recommended to us on entry - we take the time to watch a doucmentary recording the biggest flood they have ever had here in Wentworth - in 1956.

We were out looking at Lock 10 - one of the many weirs on the Murray - and the top of this marker, that Moores is pointing at, is where the 1956 flood level is recorded to have peaked.

Apparently these poor people suffered with the flood waters that just kept coming down upon them, for 6-7 months in places, before receding. Meanwhile the Melbourne Olympics were all the news in the "big smoke" - with not much mention there of the plight of these people being flooded for so long.

The film is a really interesting record of this event and how the town's were saved by the district soldier settlers using TEA20 Ferguson Tractors. They were tough little tractors that could handle a bit of water and were small enough to run along the top of the levee banks they were building.

There are memorials everywhere around town to the "Fergies" - they even have a big tractor festival every year

Also in the Pioneer Museum they have several life-sizedreplica of mega fauna that have lived in this area in the past----many fossils of which have been found in Perrys Sandhills.