To Narrandera, New South Wales

Today we explored a few towns in the Murrumbidgee area… Darlington Point, Whitton, Leeton and Narrandera. We also do a tour of a Cotton Gin.

Our day began in Darlington Point. There are a few historic buildings left in this small rural town. We walk along the river amongst the huge river gums.

We then drive 15mins to do an 11am tour ($15pp) at the Southern Cotton ginning facility. It was built in 2012 and boasts state of the art technology in quality measurement, cleaning, humidification, processing and data traceability. This technology ensures maximum yield and quality potential of lint is achieved.

From when the bales are brought in, cleaned and packed ready to ship out, Southern Cotton's specially-built observation walkways allow visitors to witness these stages first-hand.

The seed shed

We had a brief stop in Whitton to admire the ANZAC water tower memorial.

Leeton was a much bigger town. It was initially designed by Walter Burley Griffin at the same time as he was designing Canberra. It was created on a green site in the 1910s and, like Canberra, has an essentially circular design with four street precincts radiating out from the town centre. Its orderly design, concentration of Art Deco buildings, shady and tree-lined streets, 102 ha of public recreation parks and reserves, and its surrounding orchards and rice fields have been central to its unique appeal as a service town for an agriculturally rich area where even the water towers are enhanced by Art Deco ornamentation.

We get a very good pepper pie for lunch before moving onto Narrandera. This town is another substantial rural centre situated on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River. It is enriched by its many historic buildings and cedar-lined streets. Not surprisingly the town has been declared an urban conservation area by the National Trust. The heritage walk covers over 50 sites.

We start our explorations at the water tower, the art depicting the local environment. 

We have a look at the Tiger Moth Memorial and learn about the WWII air school. 

At the information centre we have a look at the big playable guitar.

The 1922 Hankinson Fountain crafted by Royal Dalton is one of only two in existence. 

The newly built skywalk on Lake Talbot was quite impressive.

From here we called it a day at the Rocky Waterholes free camp just out of town. Thus ending a lovely day.

98km today