At the marker for the "Terminal Point of Captain Sturt's 1829 Expedition of Discovery" on the dirt track between Bourke and Tilpa in north-western NSW, travellers get a glimpse into Australia's ongoing historical amnesia.

The accompanying information board, located beside the juncture of the bone-dry Hume Creek and Darling River, informs those who stop that "inland Australia was unknown in the 1830s and 40s".

Barkandji elder Kevin Knight, right, talks to Indigenous youth from Bourke, Laithan Rocher, 12, Aaron McKellar, 12, Sharika McKellar, 13, and Shekia Edwards, 12, about the significance of the Darling River to Indigenous communities. Credit:Kate Geraghty

Unknown, of course, except to the Indigenous population, whose tribal groups managed to survive for many thousands of years.

They treated the Barka – as they know the Darling River to be – with a reverence that lasts to this day even as more recent colonial arrivals have allowed over-extraction of water to push its health to the brink.