MILDURA, Victoria (dpa) – Mildura, the sleepy city in Victoria, Australia, could easily be mistaken for a town in the Midwest of the United States if it were not for the numerous eucalyptus trees which dominate the landscape.
Life is leisurely here where the Darling River flows into the Murray. Most vehicles on the roads are pick-up trucks, more commonly known in this part of the world as “utilities”.Fruit and vegetable farmers and wine growers work plantations that stretch further than the eye can see. This oasis in the middle of the arid bush landscape thrives on an ingenious irrigation system that is fed by the two giant rivers.Some tourists hire houseboats in Mildura to explore the Murray River and rural Australia at leisurely pace.Paddle steamers also offer daily trips. But it is not just this rural idyll that makes Mildura a good base for tourists exploring the Australian outback. It also is a centre of fine food and wine.Celebrity chef Stefano de Pieri has put the town and locally grown produce on the map as the location for his TV show “A Gondola on the Murray”. Pieri cooks a five-course surprise menu in “Stefano’s” restaurant in the Grand Hotel every evening.Guests do not know in advance what they will be served for 60 Australian dollars (around 32 U.S. dollars) per head – just half the price it would be likely to cost in Sydney. And the wine list is the size of a telephone book.Stefano’s, which is nearly always fully booked, has been an important catalyst in the development of the district.“It does an enormous amount of good for the region,” said restaurant manager Mario Mammoni.“Two new vineyards opened only recently, and the region will soon be able to hold its own among the most important wine growing regions in Australia, Barossa, Hunter and Yarra,” he said.Mildura is also a good base for trips into Mungo National Park 110 kilometres away, across the border in New South Wales. On the journey there, it soon becomes clear why the region is also called “Mallee”. There are millions of low-growing eucalyptus of the same name.The Aborigines traditionally made their woodwind instrument, the didgeridoo, from the branches, and between the trees you will see emus, and occasionally even mallee fowl that were once common here but are now threatened by introduced foxes.The trip to Mungo leads mostly over dusty hills. The park has been a world cultural heritage site since 1981. In 1968 parts of a 26,000- year-old human female skeleton were discovered here.“She is the oldest known human to have been ritually burned,” said George O’Neill, an Aborigine despite his Irish name who works for Harry Nanya Outback Tours and knows the region well. “In 1974 a male skeleton 30,000 years old was discovered here,” he said.Near to the spot where the skeleton was found is the “Chinese Wall” – a narrow, 26-kilometre-long rock formation that was given its name by Chinese labourers who built a hut for sheep shearing here in 1869.George shows visitors scrap heaps containing wombat, kangaroo and fish bones that Aborigines ate thousands of years ago. Suddenly you are deep in rural Australia, a long way from the gourmet kitchens of Mildura.Information on Internet at http://www.murrayoutback.org.au or http://www.visitvictoria.com.
