ISLANDS IN THE STREAM
Wedged in the far north-western corner of Victoria is the gloriously remote and relatively untouched Murray-Sunset National Park. At 677,000ha, it is the state’s largest national park, stretching from Ouyen in the south to Mildura in the north, and west to the South Australian border — a fair day’s drive from the nearest capital cities, Melbourne (550km) and Adelaide (400km).
Most of the park qualifies as Victoria’s ‘outback’, with semi-arid saltbush plains, rolling sand dunes and shimmering pink salt lakes, but the south bank of the meandering Murray River, downstream from Mildura, presents a very different environment. Here, Lindsay, Mulcra and Wallpolla Islands are formed by separate anabranches of the mighty Murray and occupy expansive floodplains riven by numerous creeks and channels that connect permanent and ephemeral wetlands. Lindsay Island (15,000ha) was made part of the national park in 1991, with Mulcra (2156ha) and Wallpolla (9000ha) Islands added in 2010.
THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT
The prevailing climate is typical of
