– the meeting place of rivers, desert and sand hills –
Mildura can be a little quiet on weekends, so we organised a couple of side trips to make the best of our short time in the region. We had three options on offer, but only time to do two:
- Wentworth and Perry Sandhills (36 mins from Mildura)
- Mungo National Park (1 hr 45 mins from Mildura)
- The Pink Lakes at Murray-Sunset National Park (2 hours from Mildura)
Heeding the advice of our tour guide back at Lake Tyrell, we decided that we would give the Pink Lakes a miss. It’s better to visit the lakes when the algae that create the pink colour are at their best. We’ve read that late summer is the ideal time. So for now, Wentworth and Mungo it was! We’ve written a separate post on our day trip to Mungo National Park which you can find here. This post will only cover Wentworth and the Perry Sandhills.
a heritage walk around wentworth
It was Sunday afternoon and having exhausted most of the possibilities in town (not many!) we took the opportunity to drive out to Wentworth.
Wentworth was also fairly sleepy with only a handful of people on the street. What to do?
The town’s main claim to fame is that it’s the place where the Murray and Darling Rivers meet. So we headed over to Junction Park to take a look. It seemed that everyone who was visiting Wentworth on the day was here.
There were plenty of picnic facilities, food vans and space for the kids to play. There was also a viewing tower which you could climb to get a better vantage point of the river junction. With that done, what next?
Before we had left on our trip we had downloaded a map and details for a heritage walking trail around the town. We like to amble around towns and even residential streets to get a feel of what it’s like to be a local and understand a little about the history of a place.
So we spent the next hour and a half promenading and taking photos of a few of the historic buildings around town. First stop was the old Gaol.
Unfortunately it was closed for a private event. This seems to happen to us all the time! So no opportunity to pass some time here – only a photo of the outside. Then we stopped to read about a few of the other public buildings:
In the next street, we found the St John the Evangelist Anglican Church.
As we explored the river bank behind the church, we read that the bricks used to construct the building were brought onto the site by barge. This reminded me of a Peter Carey book I read many moons ago. It was a haunting tale of a glass church precariously floating down a river on a barge to its final destination in rural NSW. Great book and movie..
We tried to imagine what it must have been like to stand by the river and wait for the much anticipated barges and paddle steamers to bring in supplies. Wentworth is truly the end of the road and it’s known as the gateway to the outback. There are no major settlements beyond this point for hundreds of miles out into the desert, until you reach Broken Hill. For a European settler, the necessities of life would have depended on those boats arriving at the dock.
We were surprised to learn that at one time Wentworth was the third busiest port in NSW.
The town’s record was 31 steamers in dock in the course of one week. It’s hard to comprehend now.
Sometimes walking suburban streets is more interesting than visiting the tourist hotspots! This house looked like it had just been relocated from some outback farm and was a nice example of a small Australian homestead.
There was barely a soul in sight, particularly in the middle of town that Sunday – though COVID may account for some of this.
The main street is interesting enough with a few welcoming shops open on the weekend including some galleries and a couple of gift/homewares stores. The Lock 10 & Weir Restaurant also seemed to be very popular for lunch, though note that it closes at 2pm.
exploring the perry sandhills..
On our way back from Wentworth to Mildura, we decided to stop at the Perry Sandhills, which are about 8km off the main route.
Should you decide to do this, we would suggest that you leave it until a little later in the day or opt for a sunrise visit, so that you can catch the the changing colours on the sandhills. We were there a little too early in the afternoon for any truly dazzling photos.
Interestingly, the sand hills seemed to be a popular spot on a Sunday. There were a few families taking the opportunity to gather.
The kids were having a whale of a time sliding down the dunes. We took the opportunity to chat to one of the little patrons for her review. She wasn’t particularly happy that dad had only provided her with was a sheet of cardboard – not slippery enough! Take note dads – you’ve got to make sure you provide the correct equipment if you want to impress!
We walked from the carpark across to the other side of the sandhills and back. It was easily manageable even with my level of fitness and not that large an area to cover.
An hour or so is really all you need to get a feel of the place and experience the oddity of this solitary heap of sand, plonked in the middle of a vast flat dry plain.
back to mildura
Returning to Mildura, we had enough time for a quick walk down to the riverfront and the Ornamental lakes Park which were really pretty.
The town itself was dead with only a handful of people about. Sunday is definitely not recommended as the day to be in Mildura!
our final take..
If you have half a day to spare when visiting Mildura, a trip to Wentworth and the Perry Sandhills is worthwhile, especially if your visit to the sand dunes can be timed with either sunrise or sunset. And, oh, don’t forget to bring your boogie board!
