Kings Billabong — Attraction in Nichols Point

We did 2 kayaking outings here, lovely, still and peaceful, not busy at all. Firstly from the Walks Car Park, which has a canoe launch point indicated on the Parks Vic April 2021 map near the levee, BUT it doesn't exist! So we put into the water through the reeds, canoed down to where it widens out into the main lagoon, then back to get out again on the bank just a bit south of the car park. Nice paddling on a less wide part of the billabong, lots of black Swans and their cygnets. To do this end again, would park just south of the car park by rivers edge and launch from there. Second trip we did a return loop from the Psyche Bend Pump, using the new accessible canoe launcher, which worked well. A nice quiet channel to canoe down, was good for birding, might take 45mins down and back. We wanted to continue thru into the main billabong so near another larger pump building we had to portage around a weir (or you cd pull up and down another set of launchers). Main billabong was beautiful and again nice to canoe on, although a little choppy, lots of ibis and pelicans...

Only a few kilometres out of town and you are in wonderful bushland where there are numerous walks you can do, areas to park and camp, and some amenities although it is best if you are totally self-sufficient. Our interest on this visit was the pumping station, which was opened especially for us - thank you! Told the story of how water was pumped from the Murray River to irrigate the region which allowed it to be the prime agricultural area it still is today. If you have an interest in steam engines, boilers and huge pumps then this is the place...

A must for the bird watcher. You'll need an all wheel drive to traverse some of the smaller tracks but even from the better tracks you can see plenty. One of the best free things to...