Pink lakes, salt country and big Mallee skies

Overview

Murray-Sunset National Park spreads across Victoria’s far north-west, between Ouyen and Mildura and out to the South Australian border. It is a very large Mallee park, covering about 6,330 square kilometres, with a landscape shaped by sand dunes, woodlands, riverine plains and broad saline depressions. The scale is part of what makes it memorable. This is a place of long horizons, open country and subtle changes in colour and texture rather than one dramatic feature after another.

The park also includes four designated wilderness zones, which helps explain its strongly remote feel. Much of the country remains semi-arid Mallee in a relatively intact form, giving a good sense of the environments that once covered far more of inland south-eastern Australia.

Highlights

The best-known scenery is around the Pink Lakes, where shallow saline basins, gypsum flats and low dunes create one of the park’s most distinctive landscapes. These lakes are part of a boinka landform complex, with salt, gypsum and sand all shaping the surface in different ways, so the country can look pale, silvery or faintly rose-toned depending on light, water levels and season.

Elsewhere, Murray-Sunset shifts between Mallee dune country and river country along parts of the Murray floodplain. Rocket Lake stands out as the park’s largest salt-crusted ephemeral lake, and the contrast between dry inland plains and the greener river fringes gives the park much of its character.

Best Time to Visit

Cooler months are usually the most comfortable for walking, especially from autumn into spring. Winter often brings the Pink Lakes to their fullest, while periods of higher rainfall can make their colours and reflections more noticeable. Autumn is also a particularly pleasant time for being out in the open Mallee, when the heat has eased but the days are still bright and clear.

Plants and Animals

This park protects a broad sweep of Mallee habitats, from heathlands on sand dunes to woodlands, saline shrublands, lake systems and riverine country. The saline areas around places like the Pink Lakes and Raak Plain are especially important botanically, supporting plant communities adapted to gypsum and salt-rich soils.

Birdlife is one of Murray-Sunset’s real strengths. More than 300 bird species have been recorded across the Mallee parks, including 22 parrot species. Significant birds of this country include the Regent Parrot, Malleefowl, Black-eared Miner and Western Whipbird. Reptiles are another strong point, with the Mallee supporting greater reptile diversity than any other region in Victoria.

Culture and Heritage

Murray-Sunset National Park lies within the Country of the First People of the Millewa-Mallee Aboriginal Corporation. The park also contains Aboriginal cultural sites, and this country holds a long history of occupation, movement and resource use across riverine areas, freshwater systems and the semi-arid Mallee.

European history here was largely shaped by pastoral use, with later traces of grazing, mining and attempted closer settlement. Some of that history still survives in remote remnants such as buildings, fences, yards, tanks and old water-supply structures.