Murrumbidgee River
Headwaters to Tantangara Dam

The Murrumbidgee has an amazing diversity of water and character along its length. High in the Snowy Mountains, it starts as a tiny mountain stream, and gathering size from innumerable side creeks, tumbles downhill to the east to Adaminaby and Cooma. From Cooma it turns and wanders north to Canberra, before heading west to join the Murray River near Balranald, travelling over one thousand kilometres. The best fly fishing for trout lies between it's headwaters near Kiandra down to Cooma.
Headwaters to Tantangara Dam:
At the top of Australia, in Kosciuszko National Park near Yarrangobilly Caves, there is a treeless frost hollow called Long Plain. It is a tussock flat, lined on each side by low, gnarled snow gums, and carpeted in summer by alpine daisies, eyebrights, and alpine sunrays. In winter the area is covered by metres of snow, while in the warmer months, temperatures can reach the thirties during the day, before falling to sub-zero during the night.
It seems appropriate then that a stream as beautiful and diverse as the Murrumbidgee should be born here, fed by snowmelt, ground springs and the occasional fall of rain. The stream is little more than a gutter here, carving its way through the tussocks, shielded by coarse grass on overhanging banks. The water is as clear as crystal, bubbling over a pebbly bottom from rapid to pool to rapid.