The Murray River actually begins in the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales, starting south of Mt Round in the Alpine national park.
It then travels in a northerly direction, past west of Thredbo and Mt Kosciuszko, before veering west to the twin towns of Albury and Wodonga on the New South Wales-Victoria border.
From there the Murray River flows roughly northwestward along the border through the Victorian towns of Echuca, Swan Hill and Mildura.
Largest wine region
From Mildura it crosses west into South Australia where the Upper Murray region is called Riverland.
Riverland is a land of fruit trees and vineyards, and is Australia's largest wine-producing region if not, arguably, as well known as the Barossa, also in South Australia, or the Hunter in New South Wales.
Vineyards and wineries
There are a number of large winemakers in Riverland whose labels -- such as Angove's, Berri, and Renmano -- are popular throughout the country. While a number of Riverland wineries involve themselves in volume wine production and sales through the packaging of wine casks, they also produce fine bottled table wines.
Angove's at Renmark in the heart of Riverland is a vast processing facility over 4.5 hectares and capable of processig more than 18,000 tones of grapes each vintage. Its Nanya vineyard, about 5 kilometres north of the Riverland town of Paringa, covers around 480 hectares under vines.
- Renmark is 252 kilometres northeast of Adelaide. Take the Sturt Highway through the Barossa Valley and on to Kingston-on-Murray where you'll find Banrock Station. Leave the highway at Barmera and swing through Glossop and Berri before rejoining the Sturt to Renmark.
Merged wineries
The Renmano and Berri Estate wineries, two of the largest in Australia, are located, repectively, at Renmark and Glossop, just west of Berri. They were merged with Thomas Hardy Wines in 1992. Both Renmano and Berrie Estate are open for wine tasting and cellar door sales.
Banrock Station Wine and Wetland Centre at Kingston-on-Murray, also part of the Hardy group, is involved in an eco-wine program of extensive wetland restoration.
Other wineries in the region include Bonneyview, County Hamley, Kingston Estate, Lubiana and Wein Valley Estates.
The Lower Murray
The Murray River then heads south through the Lower Murray region, emptying into Lake Alexandrina southeast of Adelaide and thence into the Southern Ocean.
Next page: Murray River Activities and Attractions
