A day looking at some of the highlights of the Mallee District of Victoria.

Before leaving Swan Hill, we check out the Murray River bridge. This bridge is a historic, heritage-listed timber and steel lift-span bridge built in 1896. It was the first lift-span bridge on the Murray River to let paddle steamers pass.

We could ‘ave visited the warf but we ‘eaded for town.

Not sure if this is Len’s Garden or if it is tended by the local Camera Club.

Sea Lake Art Silos – the artwork depicts emus and the night sky, sunset over nearby Lake Tyrrell and a young girl swinging from a mallee eucalyptus tree and gazing out over Lake Tyrell with a Wedge-tailed eagle soaring in the sky.

I think we are at Lake Tyrell. The name ‘Tyrrell’ is derived from the local First Nations word for sky. The Boorong people of the area being distinguished for their interest in star-lore telling stories connected with constellations in the night sky and seasons foretold by the position of constellations.

Lake Tyrell is Victoria’s largest salt lake, nearly 21,000 hectares.

Having some R and R at Lake Tyrrell

Sky Lounge for stargazing and boardwalk

Lake Tyrrell is a “pink lake” caused by high salt levels combined with salt-loving microalgae and red halophilic bacteria. When water evaporates, the rising salinity stresses these organisms, causing them to produce bright red-orange carotenoid pigments (like beta-carotene) for protection. (A polarising filter was used for these images to minimise reflections)

There was minimal bird life at the lake when we were there. This is a Red-capped plover.

We drive across the Mallee district on roads less taken.

Speed town sign – not the safest road safety message!

Speed kills – we didn’t stay long in town.

Patchewollock celebrates the mallee as a vital habitat for Mallee fowl…..

… and they get pretty big around here – these two were in a fowl mood.

Patchewollock Silos were built in 1939. The silo artwork features a hard working lanky local by the name of Nick “Noodle” Hulland who exemplifies the no-nonsense, hardworking spirit of the region.

The access road to Murray-Sunset National Park

Murray-Sunset National Park is the second largest national park in Victoria and home to over 600 species of plants and 300 species of birds. 

Pink Lakes of Murray-Sunset NP – Lake Hardy. This area was the site of a major salt industry from 1916 to 1975. 

Reflections in Lake Hardy

Lake Crosbie

The historic salt works at the Pink Lakes began commercial harvesting in 1916 during a World War I salt shortage. At its peak, the operation extracted about 10,000 tons of salt annually before mining completely ceased in 1979.

Remnant salt mounds

Pioneer Drive winds past a series of lakes.

Brachyscombe daisy

Eastern grey kangaroo

Mallee ringneck – a subspecies (barnardi) of the Australian ringneck

Spiny-cheeked honeyeater

Red samphire at Lake Becking

Old corduroy roadway to the lake from earlier salt mining activity.

Lake Becking

Black-faced cuckoo-shrike

Blue-bonnet parrot near Lake Becking

Wurmbea lily

Walpeup Silo Art tells the story of Harold Thomas Bell who was born in Walpeup in 1901. He enlisted in the Light Horse Regiment as a 16 year old and sadly died of his wounds in North Africa.

Singing honeyeater at Walpeup Dry land garden

Big Mallee Root Stump at Ouyen. It is from a Mallee, a multi-stemmed small Eucalyptus tree and is considered the biggest root in the world. The massive root has a circumference of 10.69 metres. Tooleybuc, east of here on the Murray River, has a similar mallee root measuring 10.55 metres.

The Big Wheat at Ouyen – I get the feeling I am being stalked.

These hardy footballers model the changes in the Ouyen football jersey over the last 100 years, These particular footballers wooden train and wooden play.

Sunset glow in the mallee where the highway passes through an eastern section of Murray-Sunset National Park.

A mallee sunset

Big Lizzie the Tractor at Red Cliffs was built in 1915 to replace the camel trains which carried wool and other heavy loads in the sandy terrain of inland Australia. This one is the wheel deal!

On to Mildura for the night.