Travelling down the Newell Highway, NSW, on our way to Lake Mulwala on the Murray River, we stopped at Grong Grong for smoko, where a couple in a motorhome came up to say hello. They were patients of Denyse in her surgery days. Amazing whom you meet on the road.
Our GPS took us via Berrigan, a very pleasant and quiet drive through country scenery, to Mulwala’s Lakeside Caravan Park where we based ourselves for a few days. The Woolman family purchased this park last year and are spending big bucks redeveloping it up to 4.5-star standard. It lies across the road from the lake, where there is a launching ramp, picnic area and toilets, plus a walking and exercise track, but more on the park later.

LAKE MULWALA
Lake Mulwala is at the junction of the Murray and Ovens rivers and provides irrigation water to the surrounding areas. It is popular for fishing, waterskiing and recreation. We were shown photos of huge Murray cod around 30kg caught here. The flooded trees provide nesting hollows for a variety of birds, and in the evening we saw many cockatoos returning to their homes in the hollows.
There is a small shopping centre about 1km from Lakeside with a large supermarket that has petrol discount vouchers and gives a seniors’ discount on Tuesdays. Opposite the shops is a pleasant waterfront picnic area with another launching ramp, a children’s playground, barbecues and very friendly ducks and cockatoos. Continue on a little further and you cross the bridge into Yarrawonga on the Vic side, a much larger township with all services.

MULWALA AREA
Mulwala itself has many attractions including golf courses, magnificent clubs, restaurants, scenic flights in an open plane or kite flying. Visit Richglen Olive Grove or take the kids to Linley Park, where you will find Asian water buffalo, emus, llamas, wombats, kangaroos and many other animals. A waterski park lies just up the road.

The caravan park office has booklets on the attractions, plus a fishing licence if you do not have one (the fines are large).
It’s worth exploring the area to the east by driving up the NSW side of the Murray to Albury-Wodonga and back via the Vic side.

ALBURY-WODONGA
It is only 94km from Mulwala to Albury, via Corowa, and the road follows the lake for some time before reaching Corowa. Stop and explore this historic town – the “birthplace of Federation”, with a beautiful setting on the Murray – before continuing on to Albury.

Albury is in NSW, and when you cross the river into Vic, you are in Wodonga. These are both large centres on the Murray. Denyse and I prefer quieter places, so we turned around to come back via the wine-growing area of Rutherglen on the Vic side of the river. We found Rutherglen itself a fascinating old town, full of history and vineyards. Visit the information centre and check some of the local wines and produce in this historic building. Leave your vehicle in the car park, walk up the main street and take in the ambience.
For lunch we visited the famous Parker Pie shop, where we had a couple of the most delicious pies we have tasted. What a treat!

LAKESIDE CARAVAN PARK
The Woolman family spent many years running and owning various parks along the Murray. Last year they sold all their parks to the Aspen chain, but have since purchased Lakeside at Mulwala and Parkgate Resort in the Grampians.
Lakeside currently has a swimming pool, tennis court, basketball hoop, children’s playground, a large jumping pillow, and new barbecues. The Woolmans added a stylish building containing a camp kitchen with full facilities, and a large games room with free computer games and plasma TV, table tennis and other games.

A separate room contains a theatrette with free pay TV. Films will be shown here as well as sports programmes, which should be very popular for football finals.

Some new cabins have been added and old ones demolished. The tourist and annual sites used to be mixed together, but the owners are in the process of relocating the annual vans to one side of the park and the tourist RV sites to the other (touring RVers will certainly appreciate this arrangement). There are currently around 12 powered caravan sites, but by the time you read this the tourist section will contain 40 grassed sites with new concrete slabs. All sites will have power, water and sullage.

The amenities block is clean and there is a laundry at the rear. There is also a dump point. A new block of ensuite-type amenities has arrived and will be available for the new van sites, while the old amenities block is being refurbished. The current swimming pool will be covered and heated, and a new, larger swimming pool will be constructed.

Gavin and Evan Woolman told us that most of this should be completed around August/September 2009. It certainly is good to see a park operator developing more touring RV sites in this economic climate rather than replacing them with cabins or annuals.