– a place of lost dreams and enduring stories –
A visit to Mungo National Park is an easy day trip from Mildura (see our other post for more Mildura day trip options). Mungo is on many peoples’ bucket lists judging by the number of visitors we encountered on the day, including an army of grey nomads in their powered up utes and campers. They put us to shame – we felt like very poor cousins in our city car!
why is mungo on everyone’s map?
It’s famous for the discovery, back in the 1960’s, of the remains of Mungo Man and Mungo Woman which are dated to around 42,000 years old. These are amongst some of the oldest human remains found anywhere outside Africa. And the remains of Mungo Lady are said to represent the earliest evidence of a cremation ritual.
The remains are not on public display. They have been returned to the traditional owners of the area and have been re-located to an unknown place on their lands. Also discovered in the area are fossilised footprints believed to be 20,000 years old. These have been re-covered with sand, and their location is also undisclosed although replicas can be viewed at the Visitor Centre.
The other notable feature of the park is the ancient dry lake bed surrounded by lunettes and dunes. Once a thriving, vegetated landscape, various climatic changes over the millenia have now left a dry, barren desert landscape punctuated by eerie rock formations known as lunettes. These are compacted, layered sand dunes which are gradually being eroded by the westerly winds that whip across the plain. The wind is also gradually revealing more and more remains of the thriving human, plant and animal life that once lived there.
getting there…
We had attempted to book accommodation at the Park a few months earlier only to find that there were no vacancies (be warned, especially in times of COVID!). So we had no choice but to make Mildura our home base. We didn’t regret the decision as it gave us the flexibility to take day trips to a few other places as well – but sadly, the almost two hour journey along 87km of unsealed road makes it harder to catch views of the park at sunrise or sunset. So there’s a tip for those of us who are not quite so organised!
The Park is about 140km north of Mildura and having read about the long stretch of unsealed road we decided to leave Mildura at about 8am.
The drive was through unirrigated Mallee country and so the landscape was flat, sparse, arid – and beautiful. As it turned out, the driving was effortless, and we were able to arrive well ahead of our 10am tour giving us plenty of time to explore the small museum at the Visitor Centre beforehand. I’d recommend this as it helps to put both the indigenous and European history of the park into context and explains certain natural features of the landscape which a casual visitor might not otherwise appreciate.
to visit the walls of china, be sure to book ahead…
We had pre-booked several weeks ahead for a NSW National Parks & Wildlife guided tour of the Walls of China with an indigenous park ranger. Again, this is highly recommended especially in times of high demand (or COVID). It’s not possible to visit this site in the Park without a guide and numbers are limited. The cost of the tour was $50 per person for an hour, plus a Park Entry fee of $8 per vehicle. We later met a number of visitors who regretted missing out on the tour – which would have been a great shame given the distance they had travelled to get there.
At the appointed time, we followed the guide in our cars from the Visitor Centre along the dusty loop road to the Walls Lookout. From here , the tour gives you entry onto the dunes and lets you to walk amongst the lunettes which make up the Walls of China.
This is accompanied by an informative presentation by the ranger. It was appreciated as, frankly, there would have been several features of note in the landscape – both geological and cultural – that I would have otherwise just passed by without any understanding of their significance.
However, if you do miss out on the tour, rest assured that it’s still possible to see the Walls of China from the entry gate at The Walls Lookout, and if you hop back into the car and drive further along the loop road to Red Top Lookout you can get even closer to a cluster of lunettes along a raised walkway.
This may actually be a preferrable vantage point if you want to take some stunning photos of the lunettes at sunset.
a self-guided drive along the loop road
One thing you can do once you’ve finished the tour is to drive the full loop road around the park and back to the visitor’s centre. Unfortunately, when we visited in mid-May 2021, the road was closed for remedial and research work beyond Red Top Lookout, so this wasn’t an option. However, if you plan to visit once the road re-opens take note that there’s plenty of information available at the National Parks website or at the Visitors Centre if its open. This includes helpful driving and walking guides that you may want to download before your visit (the network is unreliable or non-existent once you get there). Just beware that the loop road is one-way in an anti-clockwise direction!
A helpful map is available here.
other things to do
There a several walking tracks in the Park, but being the not-so-energetic people that we are, Niran and I opted for a visit to the Mungo Woolshed, followed by a drive up to the Zanci Homestead.
The woolshed is located close to the Visitor Centre and can be accessed from the rear.
Definitely pop in – it gives a rare insight into the form and history of a type of Australian architecture that we sadly haven’t respected and preserved enough in this country. It’s an opportunity to reflect on the courage, hope and resilience of European settlers who tried vainly to tame the forces of a land they didn’t understand.
The point is further driven home when you visit the Zanci Homestead. You can get there by walking the 10km loop road, or by driving back out onto the main road and continuing to head north until you reach the Pooncarrie turn-off. Instead, turn right onto Ivanhoe Road.
It’s sad that there wasn’t more effort made to maintain the homestead itself. All that remains are some underground storage shelters, a brick fireplace, an outhouse and some scattered equipment parts.
There is a semi-preserved woolshed, which is much smaller than the one at Mungo. I guess that the area’s European history isn’t considered to be a priority in terms of preservation.
our final take
This is a difficult one. Clearly, Mungo NP has ancient archaeological and geological interest, but apart from the lunettes and the somewhat contrived opportunities to view some only-mildly remarkable remains on the guided tour, this isn’t in any way obvious to the casual visitor.
We didn’t get an opportunity to explore the Park fully because of road closures and time constraints. And we didn’t visit at either sunrise or sunset to appreciate the full impact of the colours in the landscape. So it could be that our assessment is tainted by these shortcomings in our visit. However, we have to admit that we’ve been to more breathtaking sites in outback Australia and having seen it once, we’re satisfied.
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