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Photographing the Black Box Trees of Lake Cawndilla, Menindee Lakes

Photographing the Black Box Trees of Lake Cawndilla, Menindee Lakes

Posted by Helen K. on Sep 08, 2025 in Places, Travel

Out at Menindee Lakes, the water stretches wide and flat, broken by the silhouettes of Black Box eucalyptus. Many are long dead, their roots drowned when the lakes were re-shaped, but they remain — sharp, skeletal, and impossible to ignore.

This is Barkandji Country. The Darling–Baaka River and Menindee Lakes have been a source of life and culture for the Barkandji people for thousands of years. Standing among the trees, I felt the weight of that history and the disruption that came when the natural flooding cycles were altered.

Black Box eucalyptus trees in Lake Cawndilla, Menindee Lakes, silhouetted at sunset against a soft pink sky.

The last stand

Three dead Black Box trees sit in a precise horizontal line across the still water. Between them, one lone tree remains alive. Its quiet persistence feels stubborn and patient — a solitary defiance in a drowned forest.

Row of dead Black Box trees in the water at Lake Cawndilla, Menindee Lakes NSW, with one living tree standing among them.

Crowded Perches at Menindee Lakes

A mass of cormorants cluster on the bare branches, filling the dead trees with movement. One pelican arcs through the frame in mid-flight. Even among decay, life presses in, claiming the drowned forest as home.

Cormorants perched on dead Black Box trees in Lake Cawndilla, Menindee Lakes, with a pelican in flight across the scene

Lines of Memory

A thick dark band traces the trunk of a Black Box tree. Past floods have left their mark, written in the skin of the landscape. Time, water, and survival intersect here — a quiet archive of the lake’s history.

Black Box tree trunk at Lake Cawndilla, Menindee Lakes NSW, marked with a dark band from past floods and high-water levels

These photographs of Lake Cawndilla, Menindee Lakes, NSW were taken in late August 2025 on a Canon 5D Mark IV. The Black Box trees stand in water and wetlands, quietly marking time and change across this far-western landscape. Each frame captures the tension between life and decay, water and land, survival and loss. Spending time here, I was struck by how the landscape carries the memory of past floods, the slow shifts of seasons, and the resilience of both trees and wildlife. The series is a record of place — a moment of stillness in a constantly changing environment, and a way to reflect on the histories, both natural and human, that shape this part of NSW.

Skeletons of ancient Black Box eucalyptus trees in the wetlands around Lake Cawndilla, Menindee Lakes.