Since discovering the vast beauty of Murray Sunset National Park (NP) – Victoria’s very own patch of mallee-dotted outback – on a trip last year, I’ve been itching to get back there. So when we were planning the itinerary for our Cross-Country Epic from Melbourne to Perth, I strongly advocated for this delightfully isolated and unique national park to be our first stopover.

Located in Victoria’s far northwest corner, the 677,000-hectare national park is Victoria’s largest, stretching from the Pink Lakes near  Underbool at its southernmost point to Lindsay Island, bordered by the Murray River in the north. Much of the park is accessed via long sandy tracks suitable only for high-clearance 4WDs, but you can reach the Pink Lakes in the south by 2WD.

Given our cross-country chariot was an Avida Birdsville motorhome, we were not going to be heading off into the scrub, so the Lake Crosbie campground in the Pink Lakes section of the park was our destination of choice. The salt lake is a stunning backdrop and it’s an incredibly peaceful spot to pull up stumps for the night. Sitting at camp watching the shadows stretch across the sparkling pink saltpan at sunset is truly a sight to behold.

With this in mind, we decided to get an early start on the 520km run from Melbourne, our first of many long days of driving.

GOLDEN DAYS

Just an hour up the Calder Highway is the laid-back Macedon Ranges town of Kyneton – the perfect  place for hungry road trippers to stop off for coffee and breakfast. Saturday morning brunch was in full swing around us as we tucked into tasty eggs and great coffee at the delightful Little Sparrow Café on historic Piper Street, a popular tourist destination in its own right.

Kyneton is an old gold rush town, once a resting place for miners on route to the Bendigo Goldfields. Today, Piper Street is a charming place to wander, gazing at the heritage bluestone buildings that line the street, with an eclectic array of gourmet restaurants and cafés to satiate any foodie, and plentiful antiques, arts and crafts to browse.

Kyneton, along with nearby Daylesford and Hepburn Springs, is renowned for its natural mineral springs and there are plenty of options for washing away the stresses of daily life at one of the region’s health and wellness spas and retreats. To benefit from the

healing properties of the mineral-filled and strong-tasting water, fill your own bottle directly from  the source at the Kyneton Mineral Springs Reserve.

Saturday brunch in full swing on Kyneton’s Piper Street

WALKING ON WATER

As we continued north, the golden fields of country Victoria stretched off on either side of the highway, hay bales dotting the horizon, broken only by blink-and-you-miss-it country towns with huge grain silos standing sentinel along the highway. By the time we pulled into the viewing point at Lake Tyrrell it was well and truly time for a lunchbreak.

Just north of the town of Sea Lake, Lake Tyrrell is touted as Victoria’s largest salt lake and is mostly dry, although at times areas fill with shallow water. In recent years, the lake has become a popular attraction, particularly with Chinese tourists, who come a long, long way to see the mirrored reflections in the parts of the lake that have water, which on still days create the optical illusion that you’re walking on water, making for incredible photos.

While this tourism boom is mostly a good thing for the area, it does have its downsides. This is a particularly fragile environment and care must be taken not to damage it. As such, driving is not permitted on the lakebed.

We walked across the saltpan, silent bar the whistling wind, no tourists in sight. The summer heat rippled across the crusted surface under a wide blue sky, dotted with puffy white clouds. Although the lake is home to a host of reptiles, emus, kangaroos and birds, the only obvious forms of life (except for the very friendly flies) were the scrubby saltbush and the occasional bare branch poking its head up from the salt.

OLD SALT

We arrived at the Pink Lakes late in the afternoon. The park’s often scorching summer temperatures may be a deterrent to some and shade is at a premium. More popular times to visit are autumn and spring, when colourful wildflower displays are a drawcard.

Meandering around Pioneer Drive is the easiest way to see the sights in this section of the park. The gravel road loops around the cluster of pink lakes, which get their pink colour from a particular type of red algae that lives in the salt.

Commercial mining of the salty lakebeds began in 1916, originally with picks, shovels and wheelbarrows, and later with horse-drawn scarifiers and scrapers that broke up the salt-crust. Afghan  cameleers arrived in the area in 1922 and, for many years, the camels became the most reliable means of transporting the salt to the railways at nearby Linga and Underbool.

Campsite views – and no one else for miles.

The mine operated until 1979 when the Pink Lakes were declared a state park, and in 1991 the area was incorporated into Murray Sunset National Park. Some rusting relics of the old harvesting machinery and salt piles remain along the edge of Lake Crosbie on Pioneer Drive.

There are a couple of short bushwalks in the area, including the Kline Nature Walk – a one and- a-half-hour loop that follows the edge of Lake Crosbie and Lake Kenyon; a one-and-a-half-hour loop that circumnavigates Lake Hardy; and a 45-minute loop along one edge of Lake Becking. If you have bikes, a ride around the relatively flat Pioneer Drive would be a nice way to explore the area.

The old salt harvesting machinery is a point of interest on your explorations of the Pink Lakes.

REMOTE TOURING

Those with 4WDs can continue north on the sandy tracks that criss-cross the park. It pays to have a good map with you as this part of the park  is fairly remote – on my last trip through the park’s centre we didn’t see another soul for two days.

On route north, the short climb to the top of Mount Crozier from the campground at the base affords 360-degree views across the park, providing a vantage you just don’t get otherwise. In the north-west corner, not far from the South Australian border, the Shearers Quarters are an interesting place to take a coffee break and look around, providing insight into the area’s pastoral history.

Murray Sunset NP protects an important ecosystem of plants and animals that thrive in the semiarid and sandy soils of the mallee environment. The low scrub and orange dirt along the undulating tracks is not something you expect to find in Victoria and the sheer isolation and vastness of the landscape is awe-inspiring.

The park is popular with birdwatchers and significant sightings may include regent parrots and malleefowl.

LESSON LEARNED

After we finished exploring we picked a spot in the deserted campground and set up for the night. We wandered out across the expanse of pink-tinged salt, marvelling at the sparkling crust as the wide blue sky changed to pink then purple. As the evening rolled in, lightning fl ashed in the distance, adding to the otherworldliness you experience when there’s not another soul for miles. We settled in around the campfire while our sausages cooked, watching as the stars appeared above us.

Quiet camping at Lake Crosbie

It wasn’t until later that we realised the error of our ways. It’s really camping 101, but let’s put it down to being excited about the prospect of getting out of the office for a week. Given the absolute darkness that surrounded us, the motorhome’s lights were a beacon to the local insect population and, as we popped in and out grabbing food and drinks from the fridge, we had neglected to keep the mesh-screened door closed at all times.

The dull roar of insect wings greeted us as we went inside. While I’m usually a pacifist and certainly  a nature-lover, this was more than I could handle. Our only option was to spend the next half-hour swatting away, resulting in a massacre of proportions I’d rather not talk about. Yep, lesson learned.

After a not-so-amazing sleep sharing our beds with what remained of our insect campmates, we awoke to a beautiful sunny morning. Magpies stalked in the scrub and galahs squawked overhead as we packed up and headed back down the bumpy dirt road to the highway to continue our journey west.

Sunrise over the lakes

RV FRIENDLY TOWN: SEA LAKE, VIC

Sea Lake is located on the southern shores of Lake Tyrrell, around 360km north-west of Melbourne. RVers can stop here at the Travellers Rest,  on the Calder Highway, for up to 48 hours. Facilities include toilets, showers, rubbish bins, water, covered seating and barbecues. Pets are allowed on leads. 

Sea Lake is a great stopping-off point for those wanting to witness Lake Tyrrell at its finest – during sunrise, sunset or on clear, starry nights.

RV FRIENDLY TOWN: KYNETON, VIC

Kyneton is an RV Friendly Town perched on the edge of the Campaspe River, just an hour’s drive (around 90km) north-west of Melbourne in the Macedon Ranges.

A free short-term campsite (48 hours) is located at the leafy-green Kyneton Mineral Springs Reserve, right near the river off Burton  Avenue, just outside of town. The reserve has a dump point, access to toilets and potable water, and pets on leads are allowed.

You can sample the mineral-fi lled water from the town’s renowned mineral springs directly from the source here, via the pump under the reserve’s rotunda.

Category: Destinations
Written: Thu 01 June 2017
Printed: June, 2017
Published By: