A heated butterfly-shaped pool glistens a few steps from your room at Mildura’s latest boutique hotel, Kar-Rama. While the original layout of the 1960s-built motor inn remains, all the daggy stuff is gone. In its place is a paved stone frontage marking the property’s location on the town’s main drag, Deakin Avenue. The 34 air-conditioned rooms have floral wallpaper flourishes, king-sized beds and all-inclusive minibars. The Palm Springs-style poolside sunken lobby lounge is the place to be at golden hour.

Mildura has a dedicated “Feast Street” (aka Langtree Avenue) lined with restaurants of all kinds but there are also plenty of gems to be found elsewhere in town. Twenty Seven Cafe + Providore on Deakin is a chameleon that seamlessly transitions from day to night, dishing up the classics. Breakfast might be fluffy ricotta pancakes and a strong latte in the vine-covered alfresco area, lunch a Scotch fillet sandwich with steak-cut chips in the convivial dining room and dinner confit salmon with green pea purée followed by housemade cheesecake. Feel like something a little more upmarket? The hatted Stefano’s Restaurant, helmed by acclaimed chef and author Stefano de Pieri, is a Mildura institution, serving rustic, seasonally driven Italian set menus in the Grand Hotel’s intimate exposed-brick cellar.

Why travel to Trentham Estate by car when you could arrive by boat? This family-run winery is right on the Murray and offers tastings of everything from a crisp vermentino to an estate-grown shiraz at its cellar door. You can also take a glass and a ploughman’s platter outside onto the lawn or settle in at the river-view restaurant for a three-course feast, finishing with a fortified wine.

The artist behind Uluru’s dazzling Field of Light, British-born Bruce Munro, has brought his internationally famous lightscaping to Mildura. By day, Lock Island – in the middle of the Murray but accessible via a bridge – seems undisturbed. By night, its towering river red gums are illuminated for Trail of Lights. Less than two kilometres from town, the island appears dark on approach, save for some guiding lights. But as you move along and your eyes adjust, more than 12,500 fibreoptic light sculptures appear in the dense foliage, modulating their warm-white glow like fireflies. There are five walking tracks through the installation but let yourself wander and meditate, calmed by the fireflies dancing in the evening breeze and the gushing of the nearby weir.

A short drive from Mildura lies an otherworldly landscape that looks like a mini version of the Alps. These “snow”-capped hills and “icy” glaciers are actually made of salt and form the Mourquong harvest site for Murray River Salt, known for its naturally pink flakes. Feel the crunch underfoot and marvel at the stark contrast between the salt and the surrounding bronzed plains. The area isn’t open to the general public but you can book a tour with Discover Mildura.

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