Kings Billabong (Mildura)

A short drive from central Mildura, Kings Billabong is a lovely wetland known for its peaceful setting and abundant birdlife. I visited early in the morning to catch the birds at their most active, and it felt like a wonderful way to ease into the trip. It was also a welcome opportunity to brush up on my bird photography skills before heading to Kinchega National Park.

The historic Billabong Pumping Station

I parked on the street and walked down to the billabong beside the historic Billabong Pumping Station. The old building was wonderfully photogenic in the soft early morning light, with the water providing a lovely setting. Built as part of the Chaffey brothers’ pioneering irrigation scheme in the late nineteenth century, the station pumped water from Kings Billabong up into a network of channels supplying Mildura’s farms and orchards. Water first reached the billabong from the Murray via the separate Psyche Bend pumps—a remarkable system that helped transform this dry region into a thriving agricultural district.

Walking into Kings Billabong

I was very glad I’d chosen to walk into Kings Billabong. After all the rain, the roads were thick with mud, and negotiating them in my little two-wheel-drive hire car would have been decidedly stressful. It did make me wonder what lay ahead on the more remote roads, and whether the national parks I was so keen to visit would be open. Thankfully, those worries never became the obstacles I feared, but at the start of the trip there was still some uncertainty.

For now, though, I had a lovely walk along the billabong, with the sun rising over the opposite bank and the morning light spreading across the water. It was easy to pause, enjoy the view and let the rest of the journey take care of itself for a while.

Birds I saw along the way

I managed to get some bird photos, though there was nothing like the abundance I would later encounter at Kinchega. The highlight was a beautiful black swan. I always find them evocative, with their dark feathers and elegant necks. Europeans once assumed that all swans were white, until seeing black swans in Australia overturned that belief. Today, a “black swan event” means an unexpected event with major consequences. This one was simply a pleasure to see and photograph.