The Murray-Sunset National Park is the second largest

national park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, located in the Mallee district in the northwestern corner of the state, bordering

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

. The national park is situated approximately northwest of

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

and was proclaimed in 1991. It is in the northwestern corner of the state, bordering

to the west and the

Murray River The Murray River (in South Australia: River Murray) (Ngarrindjeri: ''Millewa'', Yorta Yorta: ''Tongala'') is a river in Southeastern Australia. It is Australia's longest river at extent. Its tributaries include five of the next six longest r ...

to the north. The

Sturt Highway Sturt Highway is an Australian national highway in New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia. It is an important road link for the transport of passengers and freight between Sydney and Adelaide and the regions situated adjacent to the r ...

passes through the northern part of the park, but most of the park is in the remote area between the Sturt Highway and the

Mallee Highway Mallee Highway (formerly Ouyen Highway in Victoria) is a highway in south-eastern South Australia and north-western Victoria, Australia, Victoria, running mostly across the Mallee plains. It forms part of the shortest route between Adelaide, Sou ...

, west of the

Calder Highway Calder Highway is a rural highway in Australia, linking Mildura and the Victoria/New South Wales border to Bendigo, in North Central Victoria. South of Bendigo, where the former highway has been upgraded to freeway-standard, Calder Freeway link ...

History

The park was created in 1991, and expanded to encompass Pink Lakes State Park in 1999. The lakes are dubbed "pink" after the beta-carotene pigment that colours it in late summer, caused by the algae ''

Dunaliella salina ''Dunaliella salina'' is a type of halophile green unicellular micro-algae especially found in hypersaline environments, such as salt lakes and salt evaporation ponds. Known for its antioxidant activity because of its ability to create large a ...

''. This area was the site of a major salt industry from 1916 to 1975. At its peak, ten thousand tons of salt was harvested and railed from Lake Crosbie, Lake Becking and Lake Kenyon to the nearby town of Linga. For management purposes, the Murray-Sunset National Park is managed with the

Hattah-Kulkyne National Park The Hattah-Kulkyne National Park is a national park in the Mallee district of Victoria, Australia. The national park is situated adjacent to the Murray River, approximately northwest of Melbourne with the nearest regional centre being Mildura. ...

Wyperfeld National Park The Wyperfeld National Park is the third largest national park in Victoria, Australia, located in the Mallee district, approximately northwest of Melbourne, The national park was declared in 1921 and expanded significantly to protect of malle ...

, Lake Albacutya Park and Murray-Kulkyne Park as part of the Victorian Mallee Parks. Another defunct railway, the

Nowingi Nowingi is a locality in Victoria, Australia, approximately south of Mildura. It is in the local government area of the Rural City of Mildura. History In May 2004, unreserved Crown land, roughly five kilometres south of Nowingi, was declared ...

line, terminates at the remains of a gypsum mine hopper on the

Raak Plain The Raak Plain Boinka is a wilderness area in the state of Victoria, Australia. The boinka groundwater discharge complex is a shallow depression within a region of Mallee dune fields, and contains gypsum flats and salinas, pools of salty water th ...

. Other historical relics include Shearer's Quarters and Mopoke Hut, built as grazier accommodation in the 1960s.

Flora and fauna

Over 600 species of plants have been recorded, and 300 species of birds. Notable plants include Murray lily, silvery emu-bush,

saltbush Saltbush is a vernacular plant name that most often refers to ''Atriplex'', a genus of about 250 plants distributed worldwide from subtropical to subarctic regions. ''Atriplex'' species are native to Australia, North and South America, and Eurasia. ...

buloke ''Allocasuarina luehmannii'' (buloke or bull-oak) is a species of casuarinaceae, ironwood tree native to Australia and its wood is the hardest commercially available as measured by the Janka hardness test, Janka Hardness Scale. Description ...

porcupine grass Porcupine grass is a common name for several grasses and may refer to: *''Miscanthus sinensis ''Miscanthus sinensis'', the eulalia or Chinese silver grass, is a species of flowering plant in the grass family Poaceae, native to eastern Asia thro ...

, blue-leaved mallee and other mallee eucalypts. In spring, wildflowers include

spider orchid Spider orchid typically refers to the orchid genus ''Caladenia'' as a whole. It may also mean one of the following: * Several '' Corybas'' species, including ** '' Corybas macranthus'' ** '' Corybas trilobus'' * '' Dendrobium tetragonum'' ( Common ...

s, azure sun orchids, desert heath-myrtles and poached-egg daisies.

Emu The emu () (''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is the second-tallest living bird after its ratite relative the ostrich. It is endemic to Australia where it is the largest native bird and the only extant member of the genus ''Dromaius''. The emu' ...

wedge-tailed eagle The wedge-tailed eagle (''Aquila audax'') is the largest bird of prey in the continent of Australia. It is also found in southern New Guinea to the north and is distributed as far south as the state of Tasmania. Adults of this species have lon ...

s, and both western grey and

red kangaroo The red kangaroo (''Osphranter rufus'') is the largest of all kangaroos, the largest terrestrial mammal native to Australia, and the largest extant marsupial. It is found across mainland Australia, except for the more fertile areas, such as sou ...

s are present.

Important Bird Area

Most of the park lies within the

Murray-Sunset, Hattah and Annuello Important Bird Area The Murray-Sunset, Hattah and Annuello Important Bird Area comprises 7004 km2 of mallee habitat in the Mallee region of north-western Victoria, Australia. Description The IBA encompasses several protected areas with blocks of contiguous ...

(IBA), so identified by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...

because it contains mallee habitat supporting a suite of

threatened Threatened species are any species (including animals, plants and fungi) which are vulnerable to endangerment in the near future. Species that are threatened are sometimes characterised by the population dynamics measure of ''critical depensat ...

mallee bird species, including the

malleefowl The malleefowl (''Leipoa ocellata'') is a stocky ground-dwelling Australian bird about the size of a domestic chicken (to which it is distantly related). It is notable for the large nesting mounds constructed by the males and lack of parental ca ...

black-eared miner The black-eared miner (''Manorina melanotis'') is an endangered honeyeater endemic to mallee woodland in south-eastern Australia. Taxonomy ''Manorina melanotis'' was identified by Francis Erasmus Wilson in 1911. It is closely related to the mu ...

and

mallee emu-wren The mallee emu-wren (''Stipiturus mallee'') is a species of bird in the Australasian wren family, Maluridae. It is endemic to Australia. Its natural habitat is temperate grassland. It is threatened because of habitat loss. Taxonomy and systema ...

Attractions

The park is attractive to bushwalkers as the nearest semi-arid region to Melbourne. Walks include circuits of Lake Crosbie and Lake Kenyon, and the three-day Sunset walking track. Groundwater is scarce, and hikers generally rely on water tanks maintained by rangers. The Pink Lakes are medium-sized salt lakes. In late summer a red pigment, carotene, is secreted from the alga ''Dunaliella salina'' and gives a distinct pink colour to the lakes.

References

External links