CARINDA Macquarie Valley Country

Hotel – Colin St. Ph. 0268232218 Golf Club – Shakespear St. Ph. 0268232257 Open Friday & Sunday from 5pm 12 Hole golf course. Local Store – Light meals & Post Office. Service Station – Diesel & unleaded fuel, and light refreshments.

Visit the Carinda Service Station or Carinda Store for visitor Willie Retreat information. Cnr. Carinda Road/Gibson Way 110kms north of Warren Walgett Visitor Information Centre Ph. 02 6824 4361, 02 6824 4301 Mob. 0428 244 361 www: willieretreatmacquariemarshes.com.au 88 Fox Street, Walgett 2832 Ph. 02 6828 6139 E. [email protected] Carinda Hotel 15km from the Macquarie Marshes. Colin Street www.walgett.nsw.gov.au Ph. 02 6823 2218 Fax. 02 6823 2388 Photography: Donna Veech Carinda Recreation Ground Public toilets and showers available

Annual Events July – Carinda Races TBA – Wool Day Aboriginal The Aboriginal people who inhabited the Lower region in belonged to the Wailwan/Weil tribal group. They dwelt on land stretching from the Brewarrina area to the Heritage Tour Warrumbungle range. By the 1890’s there were few Aboriginal people living at Carinda, although their presence echoes along the riverbanks Please view the Map which shows many places of interest such as: and at Cuddie Springs. Pioneer Graves & Police Station The Carinda village and district is within Pioneer Graves –This historic site was created circa 1897 and the with a population contains headstones of a pioneering family. Police Station – A very modern looking Police Station with two- of approx 250. Cuddie Springs storey’s, built in 1968, replaced a very old one which burned down. Cuddie Springs is an important archaeological site with fossil deposits The Bush Nursing Association - The Bush Nursing Association was preserved in a claypan on the floor of an ancient ephemeral lake. The In 1818 John Oxley & George Evans arrived north of Warren and founded in 1911 by Lady Dudley who was the wife of the Governor claypan fills with water after rainstorms and often takes months to attempted to come down the Macquarie River. Unseasonal rains and General of Australia. dry, a fact which facilitated the survival of fossils over a long period of swollen rivers overflowing into marsh country soon turned them back, time. In the late 1870’s a number of large fossil confirming their conviction that there was an inland sea. For ten years bones were discovered. the mystery of the inland sea remained unsolved. When Macquarie Marshes ventured into the interior in 1828-29 he endeavoured to verify Oxley’s findings. However, it became evident that the season was so much The Macquarie Marshes Nature Reserve is located along the lower easier, and it became evident that there was no inland sea and that all Macquarie River. The Macquarie Marshes are one of the largest semi- the inland rivers did flow into the . permanent wetlands in south-eastern Australia. Settlers came to the Carinda District in the mid 1800’s settling along The marshes contain a wide range of vegetation types primarily the waterways. determined by the frequency and duration of flooding including extensive areas of common reed, cumbungi, river red gum Thomas McNamara acquired 16,000 acres of land which became woodlands and water couch grasslands. Carinda Station. He built a dwelling on the nearby Marthaguy Creek where he ran a hotel and a store around which a small village grew. It The Marshes are recognized as the major colonial water is believed the name Carinda is derived from an early ‘run’ west of the bird nesting area in Australia and are recognized present town called ‘Currundy.’ In 1908 the Carinda Bore was sunk, under the Ramsar Convention as a wetland of enabling people to move away from the creek. A second settlement, international importance. known as “Top End”, grew up where The reserve is managed by the NSW present day Carinda is National Parks & Wildlife Service. situated. Ph: 02 6842 1311