The annual races draw a crowdCredit: Nicholas Rowlands
1. RACES
ONE day every year, the people of this little town on the Murray River, west of Echuca, welcome back their friends and relatives from far and wide. Come lunchtime next Saturday, they will be down the racecourse at the annual Gunbower races. There is so much catching up it can take several hours walking from one end of the marquee to the other. There may not be many Gunbowerites but they are a strong community and know how to have fun. The bar at the races is a square counter under a corrugated-iron roof and is always busy. The members' stand is a shed where the women's committee serves lunch (Gunbowerites are excellent cooks). There are also the usual opportunities to lose money, such as trackside TAB and bookies, and punters can live the high life with private marquees.
Saturday, October 1, gates open 10.30am, Racecourse Road, entry $15; call Gary for transport or marquee packages, 5482 2487.
The Gunbower hotel.Credit: Richard Cornish
2. FAMILY HOTEL
THE owners of the Gunbower Family Hotel were concerned their town was dying. Richard and Helen McGillivray were worried that if the pub went, then so would one of the town's last bastions of social contact. So they bought the 1940s brick pub by the banks of Gunbower Creek and did the place up. Now, it is a family-friendly hotel that serves some of the best pub food in regional Victoria. They make sensational duck spring rolls, chargrilled lamb, Italian pork sausage and some of the best steaks in Australia. In winter, red-gum logs blaze in the fireplaces and, in summer, there is often a band playing out back. The pub is now renowned across the state for its food, wine and seriously fun nights at the bar, with some patrons travelling hundreds of kilometres for lost weekends in Gunbower.
18-20 Murray Valley Highway, 5487 1214, daily 11.30am-close, rooms from $35 a person.
The river's never far away.Credit: Nicholas Rowlands
3. BEST STEAK
THE owner of the pub raises a nice little herd of British beef cattle on his farm just out of town. Raised on grass, they are butchered at his brother's abattoir a few kilometres away in what would have to be an unusually picturesque slaughterhouse under the shade of old river red gums. Here, the carcasses dry-age for up to a month. Steaks from these can be bought from the brothers' mum at her butcher shop in town.
G & G McGillivray, Main Street, 5487 1220, Mon-Fri 8am-5pm, Sat 8am-11am.
4. ANSETT HOUSE
WHEN aviation pioneer Reg Ansett wanted time off, he flew into Gunbower and spent long weekends in his little bungalow by the banks of Kow Swamp. Erected in the 1950s, this modest building is a remarkable period piece reflecting modern American architectural influences - think of a Brady Bunch-style fireplace and wood-lined bedrooms and '50s light fittings. There is also a lakeside spa, native menagerie and barbecue.
For bookings, phone Marita on 5456 7528. Price on application.
5. TORRUMBARRY WEIR
IF IT wasn't for the weirs and locks regulating the Murray River, it would alternate between a flood and a small stream meandering through a narrow gorge in the river flats. Torrumbarry Weir is about 15 kilometres east of Gunbower and was built in 1923. The lock remains but the weir was rebuilt in the 1990s. Watching the water flow over the weir's gates is mesmerising - as is looking out for anything flapping its way up the fish ladder. There is good camping about one kilometre upstream from the lock. You have to love riverine engineering to get to this place.
Torrumbarry Weir Road, Torrumbarry.
6. GUNBOWER ISLAND
IT stretches 50 kilometres from Gunbower to Koondrook, covers 22,000 hectares, is the largest inland island in Australia and is our answer to the bayous of the US's deep south. Gunbower Island sits between the Murray and the meandering Gunbower Creek, an anabranch of the Murray. Much of the island is covered in river red-gum forest, itself a patchwork of dry oxbow lakes, lagoons and wetlands packed with bird life. It is a camping, boating, birdwatching sort of place. About one-quarter of the island has been cleared for farmland. Old sheds and houses dot the country and the narrow, winding roads are lined with massive and ancient river red gums, their gnarled limbs creating shaded avenues.
Sign up for the Traveller Deals newsletter
Get exclusive travel deals delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up now.