Page 436 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Australia

434  VIC T ORIA

Kulkyne section of the park
make for fine fishing, picnics,
camping and bird-watching.
Murray-Sunset National Park is
also home to Victoria’s largest
flower, the Murray lily.

7Mildura
* 50,000. ~ £ @ n 180–190
Deakin Ave (03) 5018 8380.
∑ visitmildura.com.au
In 1887, Mildura was little more
than a village on the banks of
the Murray River, situated in the
Murrayville track in the Big Desert Wilderness Park middle of a red sandy desert. That
year, two Canadian brothers,
5Big Desert complex billabong (natural William and George Chaffey,
Wilderness waterhole) overflow system. came to town direct from their
Its perimeters are typical dry successful irrigation project in
@ Hopetoun. n 75 Lascelles St, Mallee country of low scrub, California and began Australia’s
Hopetoun (03) 5083 3001; Parks mallee trees and native pine first large-scale irrigation scheme.
Victoria Information Line 131963.
∑ parkweb.vic.gov.au woodland, but the large lakes, Since then, the red soil, fed by
including Lake Hattah, Mourn- the Murray and Darling rivers,
Victoria is so often seen as the poul and Lockie, are alive with has become a vast plain of farms
state of mountains, green hills, bird and animal life. Ringed by stretching for nearly 100 km
river valleys and beaches that massive red gums, the surround- (60 miles).
many visitors don’t realize that ing habitat is home to an Today, Mildura is a modern
a large part of the west of the abundance of emus, goanna city with a thriving tourist trade.
state consists of arid desert lizards and kangaroos. The The former home of William
and mallee scrubland. freshwater lakes teem with fish, Chaffey, the Rio Vista is worth
These are areas of beauty while pelicans, ibis, black swans a visit. Built in 1890, it has been
and solitude, with sand hills, and other water birds flock on restored with its original furnish-
dwarf she-oaks, lizards, snakes the surface. ings and is now an Arts Centre.
and dry creek systems. Big The lakes are ideal for Grapes, olives, avocados and
Desert Wilderness Park and canoeing, and the twisting wet- citrus fruit are grown successfully
Murray-Sunset National Park lands and billabongs along the in the region and the area is
are true deserts, with hot days Murray River and in the Murray- rapidly expanding its vineyards
and freezing nights. Murray-
Sunset National Park is also The Murray River Paddlesteamers
home to Australia’s rarest bird,
the black-eared miner. Between the 1860s and
To the south, Wyperfeld and 1880s, Australia’s economy
Little Desert national parks are “rode on the sheep’s back” –
from the Western District of
not true deserts, as they contain Victoria to the Diamantina
lake systems that support diverse Plains in central Queens-
flora and fauna, including a land, wool was king. But the
wide range of reptiles. only way to transport it from
the remote sheep stations
to coastal ports and then
6Hattah-Kulkyne Old paddlesteamer on the Murray River on to its thriving English
National Park market was by river. There
were no roads other than
£ Mildura. @ Mildura. a few dirt tracks, so the paddlesteamers that plied the Murray,
n Mildura (03) 5018 8380; Parks Murrumbidgee and Darling river systems were the long-distance
Victoria Information Line 13 19 63. lorries of the day. Towing barges loaded with wool, they reached
∑ parkweb.vic.gov.au the Port of Echuca after sailing for days from inland Australia. Then,
stocked up with supplies for the sheep stations and distant river
settlements, they returned upriver. However, by the 1890s railway
Unlike its drier Mallee region lines had crept into the interior and the era of the paddlesteamer
counterparts, Hattah-Kulkyne was gone. Now the Port of Echuca is once again home to beautifully
National Park is a haven of creeks restored, working paddlesteamers, such as the PS Adelaide and
and lakes that are linked to the PS Success (www.portofechuca.org.au).
mighty Murray River through a
For hotels and restaurants in this area see pp494–5 and pp529–31