The banks of the Murray are sandy and broad as they wind around the city of Mildura in Victoria’s far north-west. They are beloved by locals and visitors – and were also the feature of a recent, much maligned tourism campaign, fronted by actor Shane Jacobson and surf life-savers, likening the inland river city to the far north Queensland coast.
The $390,000 campaign, which bills Mildura as “tropical north Victoria”, has been widely panned by locals since it launched a year ago. But it’s not the first time the city has taken the loud and brash approach to putting itself on the cultural map in the last few years. American rock band Kings of Leon played there in 2022, then earlier this year Lenny Kravitz announced he would take in the Murray on his national tour.
