 However floods in 1956 saw the Darling River span at its widest, isolating Tilpa for five months.In its heyday, Tilpa was an important river port with paddle steamers delivering supplies to nearby sheep stations and returning down river laden with bales of wool.The wool was taken to Wentworth—at the confluence of the Darling and Murray Rivers—and then either to Adelaide or to Echuca for passage to the port at Melbourne.