Over the next few days we continued our journey along the river toward the Murray-Darling confluence. Our first stop was Robinvale. A fascinating town on the VIC side of the river, claiming a population of 8000, but looking more like 1000. Its biggest claim is being the largest town in Australia without a pub!
The town also claims to be a multicultural hub, with a large Vietnamese community, which was very evident in the Main Street with most of the shops being Asian grocery stores.
The most noticeable aspect were all of the grapes being grown. We were clearly entering Sunraysia country as we passed endless vines loaded with fruit.
Our next stop was Mildura where we planned to settle in and ride out the rain that was forecast over the next couple of days. We set up camp just in time!
Our Mildura visit started with the Holden Museum.
It was a great place, bringing back a lot of memories with a large range of models on display. It also has a great timeline displayed on the walls showing how big local production became before its decline due to global competition.
Our next stop was Orange World, which wasn’t quite what we expected. We didn’t stay long, but Bel did try to join the line of old ladies from a bus tour to scam a free orange juice! I think it would have been better if it wasn’t raining and we could tour the orchard.
So after stocking up supplies we went back to camp for some Uno and Jenga!
The following morning it was time to tick off our next major milestone with a drive to Wentworth, 30km up the road, to see the confluence. Along the way the endless orchards and nut trees give you a great sense of how big a food bowl the Murray Darling Basin is. When researching it, I discovered it produces over 30% of our food in Australia.
Once in Wentworth we arrived at the junction site that had a great viewing tower over the confluence. It was very cool seeing such a large river like the Darling, merging with the Murray. Australia’s two largest rivers.
We then went to see the weir and one of the many locks along the river.
We then took a quick drive to the Perry Sandhills that sit on the edge of the flood plain. They are ancient and hold many Aboriginal cultural heritage areas. They are also used as backdrop to many movies.
And then a look around town. There were a number of beautiful heritage buildings that showed the wealth that would have existed in Wentworths heyday as a major port.
There was a huge new visitors centre with great displays on the history of the region. Very worthwhile.
We finished with lunch at the Crown pub, which had been sold and was closing at the end of March, and started planning the next stage of our trip – the Darling river run! Fingers Crossed that the roads will open after all the rain!
