Photography | Outback Australia

Bourke Darling River

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Bourke, an iconic outback town set beautifully on the banks of the Darling River, has been immortalised in much Australian folklore.  Henry Lawson put it when he wrote,” if you know Bourke, you know Australia”.  A town steeped in pastoral and indigenous history, Bourke is known as the 'Gateway to the Outback' and is not only at the cross-roads of the Kidman Way and the Kamilaroi Highway but also that other great historic transport route, the Darling River.

Bourke - Outback NSW

Anything to the west of Bourke is colloquially referred to as the 'Back o Bourke'; a term etched deeply in the Australian psyche meaning to be a long way away from anything. On the contrary, Bourke may be a distance from 'civilisation' but the further out you go the closer you get to the true essence of this land and its people. Maybe it is to this that Lawson was alluding.

Bourke is one of the major towns of along the Darling River Run.

Bourke Images

After Charles Sturt’s expedition to discover the inland rivers and the fabled inland sea, Major Mitchell ventured into the area in 1835 to continue Sturt’s work and track the path of the Darling River as it was believed the Darling somehow met up with the Murray River. Captain Sturt had previous discovered a river flowing north from the Murray at what is now known as Wentworth.

Sturt was known for his ability to avoid trouble with the indigenous groups but Mitchell was treated with a more hostility and had lost men and supplies to the locals on previous expeditions. Upon reaching Bourke, he built a stockade 35kms downstream from Bourke’s current location and this formed the basis of a future settlement; originally known as Prattenville but later renamed Bourke in honour of then Governor of the Colony, Richard Bourke.

Early pastoralists started to open up the interior of Australia as they saw the potential with cattle and sheep and this potential increased William Rendell was the first person to take a paddle-steamer (The Gemini) up the Darling as far as Brewarrina in 1859. The stage was set as there was a means to get the Australian Wool clip to the shipping ports at Adelaide (Down the Murray) and Melbourne (Up the Murray to Echuca).

By the 1890’s, ports were established at Bourke, Wilcannia and Wentworth and serviced over 1 million hectares; by now, the Port of Bourke was the centre of the world’s wool industry with amazing 80 riverboats servicing Outback NSW and Queensland.

The boom was short-lived though as the unreliable nature of the river became apparent and the advent of the railway system reaching Bourke in the mid 1890’s. By the 1930’s Bourke had seen its last commercial steamer.

But that didn’t spell the end of the town as it continued to be the main rail-head for the region until the late 1970’s. Today Bourke is a service town with a great many things to see and do for the visitor.

The recently (re)opened 'Back of Bourke' Centre has been redeveloped as a world class facility nestled in a spectacular natural setting amongst the river red gums on the banks of the Darling River.

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