Day 5 Mildura to Melbourne Jun 9 2025

 We had a relatively quiet drive back especially given it was a holiday weekend.

We stopped at Carlton en route for another exquisite pie experience.

Until next time...

Day 4 Broken Hill back to Mildura Jun 8 2025

 Today we checked out the the motel and had another walk around Broken Hill. We drove past Jack Absalom's gallery which was of interest as we have one of his paintings bought almost 50 years at the Anvil Gallery near Kiewa VIC.

After having a coffee back tg the Alfresco Cafe, we went to a particularly interesting local gallery (Broken Hill City Art Gallery).

This was full of some really interesting works by such people as Russell Drysdale, Arthur Streeton, Pro Hart and Jack Absalom

The building itself goes back to 1908 and has been beautifully renovated.

After that it was off to Menindie and Menindie Lakes. Menindie is a small town ( pop 70 ) on the banks of the Darling. The Lakes are a system of 9 shallow lakes which rely on water breaking over the banks of the Darling.

The Darling is the third longest river in Australia and is a tributary of the Murray which is the longest river in Australia.

After Menindie was headed for Mildura. As was the case with the Silver City Highway, it was a very quiet road with Pooncarie being the only small town along the route. It is also located on the Darling.

For more pix, click here 

Day 3 Broken Hill, Silverton NSW etc Jun 7 2025

We set off for Broken Hill just after 10am.

The last time I travelled along this road and visited Broken Hill was in 1972.

Wikipedia suggests the population is only just over 17500 but it feels much larger.

The distance between the two towns is 335km and it was a quick trip due to the fact that there is nothing in between them. There are a couple of very humble rest areas. There is/was a road house about half way along but that appeared to be shut.

We arrived in Broken Hill around 1.45pm.

We went to Cafe Alfresco where we had a great lunch and coffee.

Then we went for a walk around the town which is full of very pretty buildings.

Broken Hill is a mining town established in 1883. Broken Hill Proprietry ( BHP ) originated here. It is famous for its ore deposits. It has one of the world's largest silver, lead and zinc deposits including a relatively new mineral Nyholmite. 

Broken Hill was discovered by Charles Sturt and became a city in 1883. Apparently Charles called it Broken Hill as he saw a hill which was bisected. This has long since disappeared presumably due to mining activity.

A famous nurse by the name of Vivian Bullwinkel went to High School there and studied nursing in Broken Hill. She was in WW2 as were both of my parents. My mother was a nurse and knew Bullwinkel as she used to describe her. I can recall her visiting Mum at home when I was a small child.

After walking around the town we drove up to the Line of Lode Miners Memorial which provided a great view although a guy rope was almost necessary due to the strong winds !

From there we drove to a particularly delightful group of sculptures called the Living Desert Sculptures.

This comprised a series sculptures from a group of international artists which was stunning and made more so by the beautiful backdrop of the local landscape.

We decided we had enough time to see Silverton which was around 30km away.

This turned out to.be a delightful little town which had a great olden days feel epitomised in the pub.

It has been used as a location in over 140 films. It has a Mad Max museum which is privately owned.

We saw a camel ride returning, donkeys, plenty of emus, goats, sheep and cattle. 

For more pix, click here.

Day 2 Lake Mungo NSW Jun 6 2025

We were picked up promptly from the Grand Hotel at 8.30am. We are staying at it for two nights.

I have stayed here on a number of occasions and its position is perfect. It is adjacent to a street containing almost all of restaurants and cafes. The hotel is also close to the Murray River which forms the boundary of VIC and NSW.

Phil was the tour guide who proved to be excellent. He was originally from a wheat and sheep farm located in Ouyen to the south of here. We were two of ten people involved in the tour.

We headed off to Lake Mungo which was about a two hour drive into NSW. The road was mostly sealed but there was a section of about 45 minutes duration which was not.

We stopped about 10.30am and had morning tea. We drove on a while further to the lake itself.

We were able to see the Walls of China which form the  eastern section of the lake.

On the way to it we had some animals lurching across the road in front of us which included a fox, several sheep and lots of feral goats. The sheep were of several different varieties including a black faced one which is unusual for Australia.

We also drove past a gypsum mine, a large power station driven by alternative energy as well as a Bentonite mine. Bentonite is a highly porous clay used in a variety of manufacturing purposes including kitty litter.

There were lots of Mallee trees around. The top of the the tree can highly vary in age but the roots ( Mallee roots) can be over 2500 years old. They are an excellent source of firewood renowned for its longevity and heat that it exudes.

We also drove past the Willandra Heritage area.

A short time after that, we arrived at the Lake Mungo itself .

It's one of 17 lakes in the Willandra Heritage Region. There are 5 in and around Lake Mungo. 

Several important archeological finds have been made there including Mungo Man and Mungo Woman. The remains are over 42000 years old with Mungo Woman being the world's oldest cremation.

We had a 90 minute walk across Lake Mungo including the former shore area. As you can see it's dry but 18000 years ago was covered in water to a depth of 10 meters.

The hairy nose wombat was one of the animals that inhabited the area but the only wild life appears to be lizards. On our walk we saw remnants of the hairy nose wombat which has long been extinct. There are also lots of shell remnants.

We went back to the visitors centre where there was an interesting display depicting the history of Lake Mungo plus several other buildings including an old shearing shed made of Murray Pine which is found in the area along with Black Box still existing in dried up river bed even though it is usually found in exisiting rivers.

There was also a display depicting a collection of fossilised  human footprints from the time of Mungo Man.

For more pix, click here.

Day 1 Hawthorn to Mildura Jun 5 2025

Today we set off to Mildura which is around 600km NW of Melbourne.

It is on the Murray River which is on the border of NSW and VIC. This is Australia's longest river at 2500km plus in length. Mildura is also quite close to the the border of SA and is much closer to Adelaide than to Melbourne.

I have quite a gap before the next oncologist appointment so we have decided to go for it once again.

As usual we travelled along the Calder Highway. We stopped at Charlton for lunch. That bakery is highly recommended.

Victoria is in drought conditions for a lot of the state.

Mildura is located in a region called the Mallee which is big wheat area. The roads are dead straight with the small towns having a series of wheat silos which can be seen from afar. Many of these have been painted by local artists and some of my previous blogs have described these in depth.