Sunraysia is a region located in northwestern
Victoria and southwestern
New South Wales
New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...
in
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
. The region is renowned for its sunshine, intensive
horticulture
Horticulture (from ) is the art and science of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, trees, shrubs and ornamental plants. Horticulture is commonly associated with the more professional and technical aspects of plant cultivation on a smaller and mo ...
including grapes and oranges. Its main centre is
Mildura, Victoria
Mildura ( ) is a regional city in north-west Victoria, Australia. Located on the Victorian side of the Murray River, Mildura had a population of 34,565 at the 2021 census. When nearby Wentworth, Irymple, Nichols Point, Merbein and Red ...
.
The area of Victoria to the west of Sunraysia is known as the
Millewa, the main distinction being that Sunraysia is the irrigated area and the Millewa is the dryland cropping area.
Sunraysia is mostly contained in the
Murray Darling wine region.
Sunraysia is sometimes incorrectly referred to as an
economic
An economy is an area of the Production (economics), production, Distribution (economics), distribution and trade, as well as Consumption (economics), consumption of Goods (economics), goods and Service (economics), services. In general, it is ...
region
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...
.
Etymology
The name ''Sunraysia'' derives from a contest that entrepreneur
Jack De Garis held in 1919, as part of a promotion on behalf of the Australian Dried Fruits Association. The public were invited to submit a name to describe the dried fruits grown in the Mildura area. The winning name was ''Sun-Raysed'', which was modified as ''Sunraysia'' to describe the district as a whole. In 1920, De Garis started a newspaper in Mildura called the ''
Sunraysia Daily'', helping to establish the name.
Pest Free Area
The Greater Sunraysia district forms part of the Fruit Fly Free Exclusion Zone, a Pest Free Area (PFA) that was created in 2007 located between north-west Victoria and south-west New South Wales. It is renowned for the production of high value horticultural crops including citrus, table grapes and stone fruit. The PFA is aligned to this production area to provide greater
fruit fly control measures. The
Victorian Department of Environment and Primary Industries (DEPI) and
New South Wales Department of Primary Industries (DPI) have implemented stringent legislative controls on the movement of host fruit and vegetables into the PFA to keep it free from the
Queensland fruit fly (QFF) and maintain high value markets, which are worth millions of dollars to local industries. The PFA enables commercial horticultural products to be marketed without postharvest chemical treatments for QFF. The PFA follows the course of the
Murray River
The Murray River (in South Australia: River Murray; Ngarrindjeri language, Ngarrindjeri: ''Millewa'', Yorta Yorta language, Yorta Yorta: ''Dhungala'' or ''Tongala'') is a river in Southeastern Australia. It is List of rivers of Australia, Aust ...
from
Kerang to and the
Darling River from Wentworth to
Pooncarie.
Major settlements
In addition to Mildura, the other major settlements in the district are
Robinvale,
Irymple,
Red Cliffs,
Merbein,
Wentworth,
Dareton and
Buronga-
Gol Gol.
Education facilities
The Mildura campuses of
Sunraysia Institute of TAFE (SuniTAFE) and
La Trobe University
La Trobe University is a public university, public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. Its main campus is located in the suburb of Bundoora, Victoria, Bundoora. The university was established in 1 ...
are located on Benetook Ave between 11th and 14th Streets. SuniTAFE has an additional site in Cardross. The Coomealla Campus of
TAFE NSW is in Dareton.
Media
The main newspaper that services the region is the ''
Sunraysia Daily'', and is published on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. Sunraysia was also serviced by two free papers; the ''Sunraysia Life'' and the ''Mildura Weekly'' were published on Fridays. The ''Mildura Independent'' was another free weekly, published on Sundays from 1982 to 2007. ''My Mildura'' was a free monthly magazine. There are also a number of paid weeklies covering smaller areas within Sunraysia.
Local radio stations include
ABC Mildura Swan Hill,
RIVER1467 (1467AM 3ML),
Triple M 97.9,
Hit 99.5, and Hot FM.
Television stations in Sunraysia include
ABC Victoria,
Channel Nine Mildura (part of the WIN Television network), and
7 Mildura.
Gallery
Image:Fruit Fly exclusion zone.jpg, Fruit disposal bins and warning signs along the Calder Highway, approaching Mildura.
Image:Silo Merrinee.jpg, Storage silo at Merrinee, Victoria.
See also
*
Geography of Victoria
*
Mallee
*
Millewa
*
Regions of Victoria
The regions of Victoria vary according to the different ways that the Australian states and territories of Australia, state of Victoria (Australia), Victoria is divided into distinct geographic regions. The most commonly used regions are those ...
*
Regions of New South Wales
*
Riverina
The Riverina ()
is an agricultural list of regions in Australia, region of south-western New South Wales, Australia. The Riverina is distinguished from other Australian regions by the combination of flat plains, a climate with significant seaso ...
Notes
References
{{coord, 34, 12, 22.17, S, 142, 08, 08.61, E, display=title, region:AU_type:city_source:GNS-enwiki
Regions of New South Wales
Regions of Victoria (state)
Mildura