Red dust, salt lakes… You won’t believe where this slice of outback is

Not many people associate red dust, stumpy shingleback lizards and emu chicks darting through the scrub with a Victorian road trip, but in the north-west of the state, just a few hours drive from Mildura, you can find Victoria’s very own corner of the outback.

I am sitting in the front bar of the Werrimull Hotel, surrounded by faded photos of people cradling toddler-sized Murray cods and vehicles that have come to a sticky end on the area’s famously tricky roads. The Werrimull pub lays claim to being “Victoria’s most outback pub” and joining me while I have an ice-cold Carlton is Luke Thornton, from Offroad Tradies, a sparkie who now offers tag-along 4WD tours all over the country.

Desert colours in the Murray-Sunset National Park.Credit: iStock

Thornton clocks up the sort of miles that would make a long-haul truckie wince, but he is particularly fond of Victoria’s little slice of Mad Max Country and the Werrimull Pub in particular.

“It is a taste of the outback without having to travel too far. It has a good atmosphere and the bush-pub feel without having to be hundreds of kilometres from town,” Thornton says as we sit at a round table with a glass top that covers an arrangement of rusted farming equipment – the nearby bar stools are metal seats from historic HV McKay “Sunshine” tractors and the beer garden is mix of rusted metal sculptures and anachronistic Greek busts.

We are just off the Sturt Highway that joins Mildura and Adelaide in the county of Millewa (not to be confused with the food and wine destination of Milawa at the other end of the state on the way to the High Country). Millewa is a large agriculture region with the sort of sprawling properties that you see just before hitting the outback.

“You get a little bit of everything here,” Thornton says. “There’s red sand, white sand – you can even get a bit of an ocean feel at times when you are in the middle of the bush. It’s a reminder of the Mallee country; of how harsh it can be but also how ruggedly beautiful it can be, too.”

Touring with the Offroad Tradies.

Thornton has spent the past few hours driving me to some of the region’s highlights.

Given we are right on the New South Wales border we have crossed over to see the Perry Sandhills that formed after an ice age, tens of thousands of years ago. The dunes are just outside Wentworth and attract families that grab a piece of cardboard box and slide down the dunes on their stomachs. The dunes are also a place where mega fauna skeletons have been unearthed and on our visit the sand is criss-crossed with animals tracks.

We pay a visit to Fletchers Lake which spends most of its life as a featureless salt pan but which La Nina has turned into a two-kilometre wide mirrored lake that runs up to a metre deep.

At the confluence of the Murray and Darling Rivers, the water has covered the carpark and is lapping up against the road, with more water to come. Entering the Murray Sunset National Park we come across a few hairy water crossings – I’m glad to have Thornton at the wheel. This is real Mallee country, scrubby and tough and when the water does come it makes the area hazardous; you need a good guide.

“On the tag-along tours I love watching people experience things and learn new things in the car and push themselves to experience things that they have never done before,” Thornton says. “In Murray Sunset there is so much diversity.

“People have lost their cars in boltholes and we have also had some really nice trips along the South Australian border with families and the kids jumping in sand dunes and enjoying themselves and parents driving up and down the hills. It’s got enough in it to be fun, but there is also a chance for people without much experience to learn.”

The Offroad Tradies tours also feed you well. We have lunch at Murray Sunset by the roadside where Thornton whips some pulled beef out of the back of his ute from an oven that has been running for the whole drive. He makes a slaw and hands out bread rolls and we have a gourmet roadside sandwich with a side of outback flies. Then we’re off to the Werrimull Hotel for a post-lunch drink.

Lunch is served.

“I don’t think people realise that this bit of outback is up here in Victoria,” he says. “They think of the Murray River and the wineries and the citrus but they don’t come for an outback experience, so we encourage people to take a bit more time in the area and look around.”

THE DETAILS

FLY

Rex Airlines fly into Mildura from Melbourne twice daily from $149 one way.
See rex.com.au

DRIVE
The Offroad Tradies host a huge variety of tag-along tours from the Flinders Ranges to the Simpson Desert, the Victorian High Country to Cape York. They do weekenders and multi-week adventures with all the support and cooking you will need. Prices vary according to the length of the trip. See theoffroadtradies.com.au

The writer was a guest of Visit Victoria. See visitvictoria.com