Murray Sunset National Park, Victoria: Size, attractions & pink lakes

Visit Murray Sunset National Park for red kangaroos, the pink lakes – Lake Hardy and Lake Crosbie. Murray Offroad Adventures runs day tours from Mildura, Victoria, that give tourists a better understanding of Mallee Country.

How big is Murray Sunset National Park?

Murray Sunset National Park is the biggest National Park in Victoria, covering 6,330 km². But few people visit it. This is partly because it’s in the somewhat off-radar north-western corner of the state, around 550km from Melbourne and 400kms from Adelaide. Mainly, though, it’s because the Murray Sunset National Park is largely unaccessible unless you have a 4WD vehicle.

Entry to the national park is via the Calder Highway. It was declared a national park in 1991, largely for its biodiversity and wilderness areas.

Murray Sunset National Park pink lakes

For visitors, the main attractions of Murray Sunset National Park are the pink lakes such as Lake Hardy and Lake Crosbie.

The pink lakes of the Murray Sunset National Park turn that colour during the late summer months. This is when algae secrete carotene, changing the water colour. Summer’s also when the lakes are at their driest, leaving heavily concentrated pink salt crusts over the black mud.

The best time to visit Murray Sunset National Park

The best time to visit Murray Sunset National for photographers wanting to capture Lake Hardy and Lake Crosbie is either early or late in the day. Alternatively, opt for a time when there’s significant cloud cover.

Avoid the summer months, when the Mildura weather makes the Murray Sunset National Park stiflingly hot.

The pink lakes of Murray Sunset National Park can be found just off the Mallee Highway, 60km west of Ouyen. On a road trip from Sydney to Adelaide or Sydney to Alice Springs, this makes for a short detour. A 13km gravel road, supposedly suitable in all weathers, but dicey after heavy rain, leads to the main camping areas at Lake Crosbie.

Murray Sunset National Park wildlife

The pink lakes may be the stars for visitors wielding cameras, but for those with binoculars, it’s all about the birdlife. Regularly found within the national park are red-lored whistlers, mallee emu-wrens, endangered malleefowl and regent parrots. Other wildlife on view includes emus and goannas

If you can get the vessels in down the four wheel drive tracks, the Murray River floodplains around Wallpolla, Lindsay and Mulcra Islands are good for canoeing, boating and fishing.

Murray Sunset National Park tours from Mildura

It is possible to go camping in the Murray Sunset National Park or explore in a hire car from Mildura. But for most visitors, a day tour from the Victorian city of Mildura is the way forward.

This is where Murray Offroad Adventures comes in. The company runs a series of tours to lesser-visited spots around Mildura. The six hour Murray Sunset National Park tour costs $150, and travels along the 4WD tracks in search of pink lakes and birdlife.

What’s impressive about these tours is the genuine understanding of the environment.

On the drive down, guides Peter and Jeanie Kelly tell the history of the area via a linked iPad and screen. They show how the coastline and Murray River course have shifted over the years, moved by faultlines. Each time the river hits a fault, it deviates north.

Australia’s Mallee Country

The Murray Sunset National Park is what much of north-western Victoria would look like without human intervention. Irrigation has turned Mildura into a giant food basket. But left untouched, this is Mallee Country – a transition zone between bush and outback. This is one of the few places in Australia where grey and red kangaroos can be found alongside each other.

Less than 300mm of rain falls each year on the Mallee, although periods of drought are usually broken by intense floods.

Walking on one of the lakes, it feels like clay underneath, and the blackened mallee stumps give a mildly post-apocalyptic look. Don’t feel sorry for the burned mallee trees, though – they have adapted very well to fires, with giant underground tubers that can quickly regrow when competitor species have been taken out by the fires.

The true magic moments, however, come when giant red kangaroos bound across the eyeline. The Murray Sunset National Park might not quite count as bush or outback, but when Skippy comes to play, the Mallee Country feels like true Australia.

Murray Offroad Adventures also runs a Hattah Lakes tour from Mildura to the neighbouring Hattah-Kulkyne National Park. The Murray Sunset National Park can be included on the Mildura to Adelaide leg of a Murray River road trip. Alternatively, you’ll pass through nearest town Ouyen on the drive from Sydney to Adelaide, or Melbourne to Mildura.

More Victoria travel

Buckley Falls in Geelong.

Fishing at Lake Tyers in East Gippsland.

Cranbourne Botanical Gardens in Melbourne

Terindah Estate winery on the Bellarine Peninsula.

Taste beers at the Nagambie Brewery or wines at the Mitchelton Estate in Nagambie.