Qualla: Kinchega National Park https://qualla.com/kinchega-national-park en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:28 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/r/4/j/p/kinchega-national-park-wk/hero-small.webp Qualla: Kinchega National Park https://qualla.com/kinchega-national-park Kinchega National Park: Introduction https://qualla.com/kinchega-national-park/ Photo credit John Tann from Sydney, Australia, CC BY 2.0. In 1967, the last sheep was shorn at Kinchega, and a number was tallied that tells you almost everything about the place: six million. That was roughly how many animals had passed through the station's great woolshed across the life of the run. Then the gates opened in a different sense - the pastoral lease became a national park, and a piece of the Darling River and half of the famous Menindee Lakes system passed from one enormous sheep enterprise into public hands. Today Kinchega protects that meeting of river, lake and red outback plain in the Far West of New South Wales, an hour south of Broken Hill.

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Image: John Tann from Sydney, Australia | CC BY 2.0

]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/4/j/p/kinchega-national-park-wk/r4jp-kinchega-national-park-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Kinchega National Park: The River and the Lakes https://qualla.com/kinchega-national-park/ Photo credit John Tann from Sydney, Australia, CC BY 2.0. Water is the whole story here, and it is never the same twice. Kinchega holds a long stretch of the Darling River and half of the Menindee Lakes, a string of shallow overflow basins that the river fills in flood and abandons in drought. When the lakes are full, they become vast m...

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Image: John Tann from Sydney, Australia | CC BY 2.0

]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/4/j/p/kinchega-national-park-wk/r4jp-kinchega-national-park-the-river-and-the-lakes.mp3 0:06 2 full Kinchega National Park: A Station the Size of a County https://qualla.com/kinchega-national-park/ Photo credit John Tann from Sydney, Australia, CC BY 2.0. Before it was a park, this was Kinchega Station, and its scale is hard to overstate. The run began as an early West Darling property called Menindel, held by the explorer John McKinlay in the 1850s and taken up under the Kinchega name by 1860. At its height the station sprawled a...

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Image: John Tann from Sydney, Australia | CC BY 2.0

]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/4/j/p/kinchega-national-park-wk/r4jp-kinchega-national-park-a-station-the-size-of-a-county.mp3 0:06 3 full Kinchega National Park: When Steamers Worked the Darling https://qualla.com/kinchega-national-park/ Photo credit John Tann from Sydney, Australia, CC BY 2.0. In the riverboat age, the Darling carried the district's wool to market, and Kinchega's reach extended onto the water. One of the more dramatic relics in the park marks the wreck of the paddle-steamer Providence, which exploded on the riverbank here - a reminder that the Darling'...

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Image: John Tann from Sydney, Australia | CC BY 2.0

]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/4/j/p/kinchega-national-park-wk/r4jp-kinchega-national-park-when-steamers-worked-the-darling.mp3 0:06 4 full Kinchega National Park: A Sanctuary for Birds https://qualla.com/kinchega-national-park/ Photo credit John Tann from Sydney, Australia, CC BY 2.0. Take away the sheep, add the water, and Kinchega becomes one of the great bird places of inland Australia. When the Menindee Lakes fill, they draw enormous congregations of waterbirds - flocks of pelicans, black swans, ducks and egrets gather along the shallows, and the air fills...

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Image: John Tann from Sydney, Australia | CC BY 2.0

]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/4/j/p/kinchega-national-park-wk/r4jp-kinchega-national-park-a-sanctuary-for-birds.mp3 0:06 5 full