Mildura is a very spaciously laid out city on the Murray River, with huge wide streets.
While there, we learned about the irrigation scheme and its impact on the land use in the area, allowing the Riverina to be 'the food bowl of the nation'.
We visited OrangeWorld, which is a working citrus farm that runs tractor tours to explain what is involved in producing all that fruit we love to eat. A very engaging tour! I think I was most stunned by the quantity of water necessary to keep the trees alive and producing fruit. Ben was most impressed with the orange juice!
We went out to Perry Sand Hills - a desert experience near the river. Rolling sand dunes, in which megafauna skeletons have been found.
There is an enormous river red gum buried in the sand, they think 5m deep, with huge branches. It is estimated to be 500 years old You can walk inside its mighty canopy and be in awe. No wonder they call it the God Tree.
We also visited Wentworth to see the confluence of the Murray and Darling Rivers. The Murray flows over sand, the Darling over clay, so the latter is milky. At the confluence you can see the two Rivers mixing together!
While in Wentworth we also visited the old Wentworth Gaol, which was a fascinating step back in history.
Back in Mildura, a highlight of our visit was a trip on the PS Melbourne, a venerable 105 year old paddle steamer, with its original engine. The cruise took us through Lock 11, so it was fascinating to experience the water falling, and rising on the return to town.
