Derelict homestead
Tourism Victoria

Highlights

Mildura

With its museums and galleries, excellent dining and surrounding wineries and orchards, Mildura is like a colourful Mediterranean oasis. Go to the zoo, visit the Mildura Arts Complex and the Rio Vista museum (once the home of William Chaffey), or book a day tour with indigenous guides to Mungo National Park in New South Wales.

Stefano’s

The star of Mildura is Stefano’s, the kind of place you dine at one night and love so much you go again the next. This may have something to do with the restaurant’s beautiful setting in a historic hotel cellar – and celebrity chef Stefano De Pieri’s food. The menu is degustation, with five different courses nightly, each focusing on the best local and seasonal produce; you can expect handmade pastas and dishes featuring the finest quality beef, pork and lamb.

River district wines

The wine-producing areas of Mildura and Swan Hill are an unrecognised heartland of the Australian wine industry, producing 37 per cent of the total output – most for the bulk market, although prestige production is rising. The dozen or so wineries include the large Lindemans Karadoc estate, with cellar-door tastings and sales.

Swan Hill Pioneer Settlement

This 7 ha park offers a lively experience of riverport life in early Australia. Wander through the 19th-century-style streets, complete with staff in period dress. Ride on a paddlesteamer or book for the popular Sound and Light Tour. Also in the park is an Aboriginal canoe tree.

Wyperfeld National Park

A park of brilliant sunsets, huge open spaces and spring wildflowers, Wyperfeld is explored via walks from Wonga Campground and Information Centre, 50 km west of Hopetoun. The park is
home to the endangered mallee fowl, a turkey-size bird that makes nesting mounds up to 5 m across.

Focus On: Murray and mallee wildlife

This landscape of rivers and plains is home to abundant wildlife. Most notable is the birdlife: spoonbills, herons, eagles, mallee fowl, harriers and kites are to be found in the parks and on the roadsides and riverbanks. Hattah–Kulkyne National Park protects around 200 bird species as well as the red kangaroo. Murray–Sunset National Park – true desert country in parts – includes riverine plains. It supports an array of native fauna, including mallee fowl and the rare black-eared miner. To see the kangaroos and birdlife of Wyperfeld National Park, follow the Brambruk Nature Trail.