Paddling in Yanga National Park

Yanga National Park sits on the inland floodplains of southwestern New South Wales, where the Lower Murrumbidgee River has spent millennia shaping a landscape of wetlands, billabongs, and river red gum forest.

The water here is slow and flat — this is not whitewater country.

What the park holds is a rare combination of a major inland river and a significant lake system, both accessible to paddlers willing to make the drive to one of the more remote corners of the Riverina.

The Murrumbidgee is the backbone of the park, with roughly 170 kilometres of river frontage running through it.

The banks are lined with river red gums and provide camping spots close to the water — Woolpress Bend and The Willows campgrounds both sit near the river, making multi-day canoe camping a natural fit.

The current is gentle enough for open canoes, and the scale of the river means you can cover real distance or simply drift and watch the birdlife work the margins. Yanga Lake is the park's dedicated paddling destination.

Launch from Regatta Beach picnic area, where there is a boat ramp and parking. NSW National Parks rates the lake paddle as medium grade and suggests three to six hours on the water — enough time to work the shoreline properly.

The lake is large and open, so wind exposure is a real consideration; check conditions before you commit to the middle. Autumn and spring are the peak seasons, when waterbirds concentrate for breeding and the light is easier than the full summer heat.

That said, wedge-tailed eagles, white-bellied sea eagles, cormorants, and egrets are present year-round. A few practical points matter here. The road to Regatta Beach is unsealed and becomes boggy after rain — check the forecast before loading the boat.

No water is available at the lake, so carry everything you need. The park is genuinely isolated, and self-sufficiency is not optional. A current NSW recreational fishing licence is required if you plan to fish from the water.

The flatness and the silence are the point. Paddling Yanga is about moving through a working floodplain ecosystem at water level, under a sky that doesn't compress the way it does closer to the coast.