Heading west from Glen Innes, we visited the Draught Horse Centre just outside Inverell.
They have pure bred Percheron, Suffolk Punch, Shire and Clydesdale horses as well as Australian Draught horses cross-bred from the others to suit local conditions. All beautiful animals and all so obedient.
Its hard to see how anyone can keep themselves alive running such a place. There can't be any significant demand for the horses or stud services and the tourist potential must be limited. I guess the man of the place goes out to work!.
Inverell was closed as it was Saturday aternoon.
The Copeton Waters State Park is a wonderful facility for the camping holiday maker. There are extensive provisions for caravans and tents with beautiful bush all around and lots of wildlife. We talked to an Austrian couple travelling in a small Winnebago who had watched a flock of Sulphur-crested Cockatoo attack and send off a Goanna which had tried to climb "their" tree.
This was such a nice place that we stayed for another day soaking up the natural beauty.
I sighted twenty species of birds including Blue-faced Honeyeater, Buff-rumped Thornbill and Little Friarbird. A Whistling Kite which took off from somewhere close by, giving me a perfect view of its underside, circled to a great height on the thermal updraft from the dam wall before heading off into the distance.
It took some time to realise why there is such an enormous dam (it hold three times as much water as Sydney Harbour) in the middle of nowhere. The Gwyder River flows from here, through Moree and Wee Waa to the Darling, and much cotton is grown in this area. The dam is for river flow control, holding back the bulk of the flood releasing it gradually throughout the year to allow irrigation of the cotton crop. How much water is denied to the main flow of the Darling I don't know but this must be contributing to the poor state of the lower Murray.