Tonight we are in Balranald, 280 km west of Griffith.   And the day has been full of surprises.

The first one is that the Sturt Highway follows the Murrumbidgee River from Darlington Point, 35km south of Griffith, through Hay and onto Balranald.    After Balranald it merges with the Murray River.   And for a little more information for people that do not live in Australia, the Murray River joins with the Darling River in Wentworth, NSW, and then winds its way through South Australia where it meets the sea at Goolwa.  

The second surprise is that Hay and Balranald are beautiful little towns, and prosperous looking as well. 

And the third surprise is the large amount of cotton and rice being grown along the 280 km stretch of road we travelled on today.   Both crops need a lot of water, consequently there were plenty of canals and dams and pipes to irrigate the crops.    All coning from the Murrumbidgee River.   This is in an area of Australia that is basically very dry, not quite desert but certainly very scrubby.

No wonder New South Wales is such a rich state!   

So what is my grumble, you may ask.   Well coming from South Australia which ends up with the water left over after New South Wales, and Queensland, take more than their fair share.   No doubt the run off,  from the agricultural land ends up in the river, that is all the chemicals that are sprayed on the crops. 

And now I can see why there is so much concern about the amount, and the quality of water, that ends up at the end.   This water is needed to keep the Murray mouth in good condition, and to support the wild life, including plants, animals, waterbirds and fish in the Coorong lagoon.

And yes, South Australia also uses water from the Murray River to irrigate the orchards and vineyards along the river, but it is nowhere the amount of water that is being used in New South Wales.  

The Murrumbidgee River by the camping ground at Balranald.

We have only travelled through Hay and Balranald twice, and stopped mainly to get fuel, although we did stop in Hay for a picnic lunch on the last trip two years ago.    On both trips we were covering 600/700 km a day as we were heading to Queensland, but the advantage of this trip is that we have time to stop, and observe, and appreciate the two towns.   And of course take more notice of the countryside.

I must include our early experience of the town of Hay, and what we referto as the 'Hay Plains'.   It was the end of 1982, and western New South Wales was in the grip of a really bad drought. The 'Hay Plains' was a sea of sand blowing everywhere, and piled up against fences.   It was 40 degrees and baking hot.  We drove a VW Combi van, no air conditioning of course, which had tiny windows at the side, which we tried to tie open.   Our four children had their faces pressed against the openings in order to get a bit of air.    When we stopped for fuel in Hay the starter motor would not work, and of course the Combi would not start.   The mechanic told Walter to crawl under the vehicle and hit the starter motor with a spanner in order to get it going.   I can still see Walter crawling around on the hot cement with a spanner in his hand.  

Our response to any suggestion about travelling along this road is  'Not the Hay Plains!'.