MILDURA - Gateway to the Outback.-Part One

G'day, and welcome to this month's tour of my home town, Mildura and the Sunraysia region. This area is know as Sunraysia due to the amount of sunshine we receive. In fact this area receives more days of sunshine per year than Queensland's Gold Coast. Temperatures here in Summer are fairly warm with the average being around 95^oF during the day. The Winter's here are usually pretty mild with an average day time temperature of around 63^oF. Of course some days get a lot hotter in summer and at night in the winter it can get down as low as 28^oF. The climate is very similar to the Mediterranean and I have also heard it compared to California.

Mildura is a major regional center of Victoria, with a population of around 23,000. It is situated on the banks of the Murray River, not far from the junction of the Darling River, in the top north west corner of the state. The history of Mildura is as long and winding as the mighty Murray River itself. Mildura began its life as a desert area, a far cry from the lush green oasis you will find here today. In 1847 Frank Jenkins swam 900 head of cattle across the Murray from New South Wales and settled on a section of land know as Yerre Yerre. Thinking he was in South Australia he headed to Adelaide to take out a license. In the meantime Hugh Jamieson had been granted a license in Melbourne, Victoria. The station homestead was built and the property became known as Jamieson's Run. In 1850 Yerre Yerre was renamed Mildura.

In January 1885 the Victorian Irrigation Mission to America, headed by Alfred Deakin (who went on the become three times Prime Minister of Australia), arrived in San Francisco. They spoke to two Canadian brothers, George and William Benjamin (known as W.B.) Chaffey. The Chaffey brothers had already established successful Irrigation Colonies in Ontario and Etiwanda. On May 31st, 1887, an indenture was signed between the Australian Government and the Chaffey's and in August they took possession of 250,000 acres of land and began to build their irrigation colony. In 1903 W.B. Chaffey was elected President of the Shire of Mildura and went on to become the first Mayor of Mildura when it was declared a city in 1920.

Mildura is now a land of plenty. Many fine wines, both white and red, are produced from the red soils of this region. As well, grapes are grown for the table grape industry and to be dried and turned into sultanas. We also grow currents, oranges, mandarins, lemons, tangelos, apricots, almonds, pistachio nuts, asparagus, avocados and wheat in commercial quantities. But there is so much more to Mildura than irrigation and horticulture, and now with history out of the way we are ready to explore.

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