And so to Leeton, for the compulsory viewing of Fivebough Swamp. This is now, like the Australian economy, a two-speed swamp. The current water-flow plan has caused large areas to dry out, becoming baked clay, while the deeper and less accessible area to the north has quite deep water lapping up to the abundant cumbungi that lines the pathways. Although not immediately evident, there is a LOT of birds - coots, ibis, ducks, pelicans. In the early morning and at dusk, when disturbed by a raptor or a walker, they rise in clouds to circle briefly before being lost again in the cumbungi (or ‘baaliyan’as it is called by the Wiradjuri people, apparently)..
