Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
THE MALLEE
Occupying the relatively vast northwestern corner of Victoria, the Mallee appears as a flat
horizon and endless, undulating, twisted mallee scrub and desert. The attractions - other
than the sheer solitude - are the semi-arid wilderness areas, such as Wyperfeld National
Park, Big Desert Wilderness Park and Murray-Sunset National Park. Collectively these
parks cover over 7500 sq km, and are particularly notable for their abundance of native
plants, spring wildflowers and birds. This is 'Sunset Country', the one genuinely empty
part of the state. Nature-lovers might delight in it, but much of it is inaccessible to all but
experienced 4WD enthusiasts. Like most outback areas, visiting here is best avoided in the
hot summer months.
The main route through the Mallee is the Sunraysia Hwy (B220), via the towns of Bir-
chip and Ouyen, but if you want to explore the region's national parks, turn off to the his-
toric farming towns of
Jeparit
(birthplace of Sir Robert Menzies, and the jumping-off point
for Lake Hindmarsh),
Rainbow
,
Yaapeet
and
Hopetoun
.
MALLEE SCRUB
A mallee is a hardy eucalypt with multiple slender trunks. Its roots are twisted, gnarled, dense chunks of wood,
famous for their slow-burning qualities and much sought after by woodturners. Mallee gums are canny desert sur-
vivors - root systems of over a thousand years old are not uncommon - and are part of a diverse and rich biosystem
with waterbirds, fish in the huge (but unreliable) lakes, kangaroos and other marsupials, emus, and the many edible
plants that thrive in this environment.
When the railway line from Melbourne to Mildura was completed in 1902, much of the region was divided into
small blocks for farming. The first Europeans had terrible problems trying to clear the land. They used a method
called mullenising (crushing the scrub with heavy red-gum rollers pulled by teams of bullocks, then burning and
ploughing the land), but after rain the tough old mallee roots regenerated and flourished. Farmers also had to deal
with rabbit and mouse plagues, sand drifts and long droughts. Today the Mallee is a productive sheep-grazing and
grain-growing district, with more exotic crops, such as lentils, also appearing.
TOP OF CHAPTER
Wyperfeld National Park
Wyperfeld is a vast but accessible park of river red gum, mallee scrub, dry lake beds, sand
plains and, in the spring, a carpet of native wildflowers. It's a naturalist's paradise, with
over 200 species of birds and a network of walking and cycling tracks. A sealed road from
