Terrific Trilby

We left Hebel Sunday morning heading west to start the Darling River Run and our next stop Trilby Station. The Darling River Run was the start of the dirt roads, the red dust begins! The road is great, about thirty meters wide and recently graded, there are several sections with bitumen and lots of roadworks happening.

Trilby Station is situated near the tiny township of Louth, is 320,000 acres and has been grazing merino sheep since 1860. Trilby was once part of Dunlop Station, a one-million-acre property before it was divided up and allocated to members of the Murray family.

We’ve had three nights at Trilby camped beside the billabong not far from the main homestead. The weather has been great although yesterday was windy, and everything is now covered in a layer of fine white dust!

Trilby offers guests the opportunity to explore the property with a couple of mud map drives. Monday morning, we did drive #1, a 60-kilometre trek that showed some of the infrastructure needed to run such a large property as well as some of the property’s historical sites.

Before commencing the drive, we needed to check-in at the homestead, and they provided us a folder full of information about what we would see and the route. It was a great way to spend a few hours.

Trilby has great facilities including wonderful hot showers!

Today we went over to Dunlop Station, now a much smaller operation at only 2000 acres. The Station is full of history with the current owner living in the original homestead that was build in 1886. There is also the original store and shearing shed. Despite all of these buildings being neglected for a number of years the current owner is doing a fantastic job restoring the site and providing tours and sharing Dunlop’s history.

Tomorrow it’s time to pack up and hit the road. We've had a slight change in plans and have decided to head to White Cliffs (North West of Wilcannia), Australia's oldest opal mining town since the 1880s and one of the most remote (and they tell us spectacular) corners of NSW. Unsealed all the way. Staying at another station some 15kms north of the town.