Mildura

Mildura is a city in northwestern Victoria, Australia, on the south bank of the Murray River in the dry Sunraysia region. Irrigation from the river turned the surrounding red sandy plains into vineyards and citrus groves.

The Latji Latji people are the traditional owners of the land around Mildura. In 1887 the Canadian brothers George and William Chaffey, who had built irrigation colonies in California, began an irrigation settlement at Mildura with pumps that lifted water from the river. Alfred Deakin, the future prime minister of Australia, had met them in California and backed their plan in the government of Victoria. Paddle steamers on the Murray carried supplies to the settlement and took its dried fruit to markets, and the railway from Melbourne later replaced them. Mildura became a city in the 1930s, and settlers from Italy, Greece and Turkey later planted many of its vineyards.

Sultanas and other dried fruit from the vineyards of Sunraysia are packed in Mildura and sold across Australia. Table grapes, oranges and almonds from the irrigated farms are shipped to cities and ports.

Rio Vista, the Queen Anne house of William Chaffey, holds the Mildura Arts Centre and its collection of paintings and sculpture. Paddle steamers such as the Melbourne take passengers on river cruises from the wharf. The Mildura Grand Hotel, a hotel of the late 19th century, holds a restaurant known for its regional cooking. Mungo National Park, northeast of the city, protects dry lake beds where traces of people living tens of thousands of years ago have been found.