Menindee, New South Wales

The Menindee district lies within the traditional lands of the Barkindji people, who occupied the area for thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans, with evidence of previous Aboriginal activities going back 35,000 years.[7] Aboriginal people became increasingly concentrated along the Darling River as the nearby Willandra Lakes system began to dry out after the last ice age 20,000 years ago. The area around present-day Menindee was a particularly productive region for Aboriginal occupation with its overflow lakes and channels in combination with the riverine environment.[8]

The first Europeans into the region was an exploring party led by Major Thomas Mitchell in 1835. The expedition had travelled down the Bogan and Darling rivers, intending to follow the course of the Darling to its junction with the Murray. Mitchell and his men encountered bouts of hostility from aboriginal groups as they progressed. In the area of the Menindee Lakes the expedition was subject to increasing confrontation from the native inhabitants and Mitchell decided it would be too dangerous to proceed and decided to turn back.[9] Mitchell named the ephemeral lakes in the area 'Laidley's Chain of Ponds' after James Laidley, the Deputy Commissary-General of New South Wales. The Barkindji people called the lakes 'wontanella' meaning "many waters".[7]

An expedition led by Charles Sturt arrived at Laidley’s Ponds in October 1844, the initial stage of a series of explorations in Central Australia searching for the north-south watershed of the continent and an inland sea. The party established a base camp at Lake Cawndilla (south-west of present-day Menindee) and over two months made several scouting expeditions into and beyond the Barrier Range. In December 1844 Sturt’s party moved further north to the Grey Range, after which they undertook a number of exploratory trips into the dry interior, before returning to Adelaide in January 1846.[5][10]

'Junction of the Paramaru Creek with the River Darling'
Hermann Beckler (1861)

The Darling Pastoral District between the Murrumbidgee and Darling rivers was officially proclaimed on 4 December 1847.[11] In 1849 Alexander McCallum took up the 'Menindee' pastoral lease. In September 1850 it was reported that "the commandant of the Native Police… and his gallant band" were "at Laidley Ponds" to investigate "aggressions… committed on shepherds". The account stated that "the natives had been very troublesome, and some parties had been obliged to abandon their stations."[12] In 1851 the government surveyor Francis McCabe surveyed and mapped the lower Darling River. His plan of survey named the locality as "Minnindia".[3] In about 1852 Thomas Pain, with his wife Bridget and children, settled at the site of Menindee and built a shanty hotel to provide services to travellers along the Darling River.[4] Another source states the public house was built in about 1855, possibly by "a man named Williams".[13] In any case Thomas Pain was certainly in possession of the building by 1860.

In late January 1859 Captain Francis Cadell in charge of the Albury steamer entered the Darling River at its junction with the Murray and after four days travel he reached the site of Menindee before continuing on for a further four days until he reached the 'Mount Murchison' pastoral run.[14] Cadell’s pioneering voyage on the Darling "demonstrated that the river could be navigated for the purpose of carrying on trade".[13]

In 1860 Thomas Pain was contracted to take mail on horseback once a fortnight along the Darling between Wentworth to Mount Murchison.[15] Francis Cadell established a depot store at Menindee (which he sold in about 1862).[16]

The Burke and Wills expedition camped at Menindee on their journey to cross Australia from Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria. They arrived here on 14 October 1860, crossed the Darling River at Kinchega Station and made Camp XXXIV (their thirty-fourth camp since leaving Melbourne). There was dissent within the party and the deputy-leader George Landells resigned. Robert O'Hara Burke split the party, heading north to Cooper Creek with half the men, stores and animals. The remaining men, stores and animals made a depot camp at Pamamaroo Creek (a sign and cairn mark the site of the camp). This camp was used for the remainder of 1860 and for most of 1861. While in Menindee, Burke stayed at Thomas Pain's hotel. Pain was later reimbursed by the Victorian Exploration Committee for outstanding accounts.[4]

In October 1861 Menindee was described as a settlement consisting of the following buildings: "a public-house, a store, and a hut in the occupation of the police". The population of permanent residents numbered "about fifteen souls, including women and children".[17]

The Menindee Post Office, erected in 1881.

The location of Menindee was surveyed in preparation for land sales in 1861 and the name "Perry" ("with but little regard for euphony") chosen by the colonial government.[17] In June 1862 it was notified that "the approved Plan" for "a Town to be called Perry" had been deposited for public inspection in Sydney and with "the Land Agent at Wentworth".[18] The name "Perry" was unpopular with the locals and the subject of ridicule in the colonial press. One report in July 1862 speculated that the name was a "cheap honor, we suppose, to some political snob" and suggested that "winkle" might have been added to the name "and then we should have known what creature was intended to be honored".[19] The first land sales at Perry (Menindee) were held in July 1862.[20] In November 1863 the previous notification for the town to be called "Perry" was rescinded. The notice in the Government Gazette explained that "it has been considered expedient to alter the name of the Town in question to the native name of the locality, viz., Menindee, by which it is not only better known by the Colonists, but has become celebrated in the annals of Australian Exploration".[21]

In 1866 Thomas Pain sold his inn "to a man named Robertson or Robinson" and "after a few months it again changed hands". The new owner was Christopher Quinn who was granted a publican’s license in July 1866 (probably the first license obtained for the establishment). Quinn named his public house the Menindie Hotel.[13][22]

An application was submitted in 1868 for a government school at Menindee.[23] Classes began in a temporary structure in 1869.[24] In June 1873 it was reported that the Council of Education in Sydney was experiencing "great difficulty in providing a teacher for the public school at Menindie… on account of the distance of that place from Sydney".[25]

It was recorded in September 1875 that "Menindie maintains a public Hospital, a Catholic Church, besides hotels and stores".[26]

In November 1878 Menindee was described as "yet only a small place", consisting of "four public-houses, two good stores, a Post and Telegraph Office, Court-house, a Police-station, with its necessary adjuncts, and, as near as I could judge, about twenty cottages scattered about".[27]

At the time of the 1881 Census Menindee had a population of 261 persons (156 males and 105 females).[28] A new post and telegraph office was completed at Menindee in 1881. Soon after it was built it was described by a correspondent as "by far the most handsome building in the town". A visitor to Menindee in August 1881 described the lay-out of the town as "higgledy-piggledy", adding: "Perched on a collection of little sandhills, which effectually raise it above all floods, it is composed of buildings, most of them brick, which, judging from their appearance, might have been dropped down by chance, like a collection of children's toy bricks".[29]

At the time of the 1891 Census Menindee had a population of 194 persons (113 males and 81 females).[28]

A January 1924 account of Menindee describes it as "probably the most casual of all villages in the State". The "dozen or so houses that constitute Menindie" seemed to be set out without a town-plan; "of streets or roads, there are none, the only few yards of made surface being the approach to the punt".[30]

A direct railway connection between Sydney and Broken Hill was accomplished with the completion in October 1927 of a railway bridge over the Darling near Menindee. The iron bridge was of the bascule type, with a centre span hinging at one end to permit river steamers to pass. The bridge had provision for a roadway as well as a railway on a single deck.[31][32]

The threatened Menindee nightshade (Solanum karsense) is named after the Menindee region, one of the locations where it is known to occur. It is a grey-green downy forb with spines scattered along the stems, bearing purple flowers (typically solanum-type) in spring. The Menindee nightshade is restricted to the far south-western plains of NSW, mainly in the area between the Darling and Lachlan rivers, along the Darling between Menindee and Wilcannia, and across to Broken Hill. It has been recorded from Kinchega National Park near Menindee.[34]