Mungo – Outback Road Trip Day 4

desolute land

Last night, at Mungo, some of our group had stayed up to shoot Astro. So instead, we (my travel buddy sister and I) had gone off to bed knowing we had an early start the next day. Two of our group, however, were up till all hours, and Maddie still got up for sunrise the following day. Ahh, to be young again, LOL.

Milky Way over old Mungo Wool Shed
Milky Way over Old Wool Shed by Maddie Townsend
Mungo NP with milky way
Astro, taken at the back of the lodge by Niki Rogalski

The alarm went off at 5.30 am, and amid much groaning and complaining, we were up and out of bed. Knowing how little motivation we would have at this hour of the morning, we had set our clothes out the night before. We had filled the kettle and readied two coffee cups, plus our go cups. With the kettle boiling, we dressed in a gazillion layers of clothing to cope with the cold. We then downed our first cuppa and donned our puffy coats, beanies and gloves. Once ready, we then headed out into the pitch darkness with the camera and tripod, clutching our go cup of steaming coffee and using a torch to light our way to the bus.

arriving at great walls of china in the dark
Dawn over the Walls of China
sunrise

Our group was heading back to the Walls of China for a sunrise. Mungo Lodge doesn’t usually run sunrise tours, but they had agreed to put one together for us at our request. So thirteen of us piled back on the bus, with two cars following, for the drive out to the walls in the dark. We waited for the sun to come up over the lunette, using the spots we had picked out the night before. Because of the fact we were out in the absolute middle of nowhere, surrounded by a silent landscape untouched for thousands of years, it was an almost spiritual experience.

  • A reverse sunrise looking the other way
  • Walls of China sunrise
  • isolated beauty
  • looking across the walls
  • morning glow
  • sunrise love

Before we finished the shoot, I decided to do an HDR pano. So I set my camera for auto bracketing, taking one correctly exposed, another one stop underexposed, and lastly, one stop overexposed. As usual, I then took a pano overlapping each shot by 30% and then edited it once I was home.

sunrise at Mungo NP walls of china
Finished HDR Panorama

With sunrise in the bag, we returned to the bus to return to Mungo Lodge and breakfast. Then, after breakfast, we popped over to visit the emus. Mungo Lodge raised the three chicks with NPWS permission after the parents were killed.

curious emu at mungo
Curious Emu

From there, we drove out to make the self-drive trail. But, unfortunately, the road was closed after recent heavy rains where part of it washed away. So our first stop was the old woolshed, a remnant of the pastoral heritage of Mungo.

pastoral heritage

In 1860, Gol Gol station took up 200,000 hectares, covering much of the Willandra Lakes. By 1869, Gol Gol had built the shed as its main shearing base. Chinese labourers constructed a drop log shearing shed out of termite-resistant White Cypress Pine logs using a drop log construction. Vast flocks of sheep used to roam this remote region. The shed was a hive of activity during the shearing season, with 18 men hand-shearing 50,000 sheep in 30 bays.

From the woolshed, we headed towards the parking area of the Walls of China, then followed the road to the right to continue on the self-drive tour. We came across a small waterhole on our way to Red Top Lookout.

Driving to Red Top Lookout (we put the camera up through the sunroof), It really is a wide brown land.
Red top lookout
  • At Red Top, Looking back towards the lodge
  • Red Top Lookout
  • The lunette at Red Top Lookout
  • Red Top Lookout

We had reached the locked gate now. However, the road loop was closed due to recent heavy rains washing away the road. So, turning back the way we came, we made a right at the Visitor Centre and headed for the other end of the loop and Zanci Homestead.

Mungo History

By the turn of the century, the massive stations had become unviable because of drought, rabbits, and overuse of grazing, causing widespread erosion. The 1920s saw the subdivision of many of the old runs. In addition, smaller soldier settler blocks were created for veterans returning from WWI. Consequently, in 1921, Gol Gol was broken up into five blocks, with Mungo and Zanci being 16,000 each. Albert and Venda Barnes bought the Mungo block in 1934 from the current owners, Ewan and Angus Cameron. In 1921, Joseph Vigar and his son Roy took over Zanci. Three other blocks were created to the north and south. As a result, the Mungo woolshed was reduced to four machine shearers, and a section of it was removed and rebuilt at Zanci station in 1922.

The Barnes sold Mungo to the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) in 1978 after being on the land for 44 years. As a result, Mungo National Park was created in 1979 and added to the World Heritage List in 1989. Since then, Zanci and four other stations have also sold back to NPWS.

Zanci homestead
zanci homestead chimney at mungo np
Still Standing
  • shearing shed
  • zanci shearing shed
  • zanci cellar - maybe a coolroom?
  • Zanci station from the shearing shed
  • zanci station

Given the fact it was nearing lunchtime. So, we headed back to Mungo Lodge. After a delicious lunch (there is no other kind at Mungo Lodge), we all enjoyed some downtime in the afternoon before heading out again for our last sunset.

days end
Carole and I had elected to shoot sunset by the old woolshed. And didn’t the sky turn it on for us!
sunset at mungo
Fire in the sky

As darkness fell, we again turned back to Mungo Lodge for dinner and drinks with the gang. It was our last night at Mungo before we all went our separate ways in the morning.

mungo map
Bear in mind that Big Blue Lake is bone-dry
Next week – Mungo to Home via a few more water tanks and silos

Lake Mungo Sunset
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