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Published: April 26th 2024
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We seem to have spent a lot of time traversing the globe over the past few years, and we’ve often been quizzed on our impressions of the empty arid centre of our wide brown homeland. And our response? Um, ahh … well we’ve never actually been there, which has always felt just a tad embarrassing. So we’ve decided it’s time to put that little wrong right - a three week and six thousand odd kilometre road trip up into our Red Centre. That feels like it’s going to be an awful lot of driving, but if that’s what it takes …. And today’s first step to get us in the mood, well that would be a lazy five hundred and fifty kilometres from Melbourne up to Mildura in the far north west of Victoria on the mighty Murray River.
As is characteristic of our homeland, it’s a long and lonely drive. We stop at the thriving metropolis of Charlton, population 1,095, to stretch our legs. It seems that what they lack in numbers here they make up for in quality. We come across a bronze bust of one of our great wartime Prime Ministers, The Honourable John Curtin, who, if
the signage is to be believed, was a Charlton local. We can even push a button in a wall next to bust to hear more about the great man’s life. It seems to matter little that Mr (Master?) Curtin moved here when he was nine and only lived here for two years. He was a one time resident, and that’s clearly been deemed sufficient grounds for the locals to claim him as their own.
So it’s on to the equally thriving metropolis of Sea Lake, population 619, for a quick bite of lunch. We came here in 2021 during COVID and struggled to find anywhere to get a sandwich; the owner of the town’s only cafe told us that the pandemic had forced all his opposition to close down. It looks like they’ve come back with a vengeance. We’re not quite sure why anyone would chose to call their establishment the “Bottom Cafe”, but as we continue along the main street it all becomes clear … a competitor …. the “Top Cafe”. We opt to eat at yet another competitor, a culinary establishment across the street. Business must be thriving. We count at least six staff, and they‘re apparently
too run off their feet to come to the table to take our orders …. we’re instructed instead to scan a barcode and order on-line. And this would all make perfect sense if the place was packed and there were hordes queued up in the street outside clambering to get in … but they’re not… the street’s deserted, the establishment’s tiny, and we’re the only people here. That was a bit strange.
I take a pleasant early evening stroll down to Lock Island in the Murray River near Mildura’s town centre. Lock 11 on one side of the island, and Mildura Weir on the other side form part of a system of 14 weirs and locks along nearly 2,000 kilometres of River between the mouth and Yarrawonga in northern Victoria. The weirs regulate flows and maintain water levels for irrigation diversions; the locks allow vessels to navigate through or around the weirs. The Murray is indeed “mighty”. The Murray Darling Basin covers around a seventh of the continent and produces a staggering 70% of the country’s irrigated agriculture. Very impressive.
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