Red Cliffs is a town in

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

in the

Sunraysia Sunraysia is a region located in northwestern Victoria and southwestern New South Wales in Australia. The region is renowned for its sunshine, intensive horticulture including grapes and oranges. Its main centre is Mildura, Victoria. The are ...

region. It is located on the

Calder Highway Calder Highway is a rural highway in Australia, linking Mildura and the Victoria/New South Wales border to Bendigo, in North Central Victoria. South of Bendigo, where the former highway has been upgraded to freeway-standard, Calder Freeway li ...

, 16 km south of

Mildura Mildura ( ) is a regional city in north-west Victoria, Australia. Located on the Victorian side of the Murray River, Mildura had a population of 34,565 at the 2021 census. When nearby Wentworth, Irymple, Nichols Point, Merbein and Red ...

and 544 km north-west of

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

. At the , Red Cliffs had a population of 5,060. The main industry is the growing of grapes and citrus. Red Cliffs takes its name from the 70 m cliffs 4.5 km east of the town that have a red/orange colour.

History

Following the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, over 700 soldiers settled in the town, and began work on establishing the vineyards which would become the town's chief industry. The post office opened on 4 August 1920. The town and surrounding irrigation district was officially opened in 1921, and had its centenary celebration over the Melbourne Cup weekend in 2021. The Red Cliffs Magistrates' Court closed on 1 January 1990. In April 2022 Red Cliffs celebrated its centenary, postponed from November 2021 due to the pandemic.

Culture

Schools

Red Cliffs has three primary schools, Red Cliffs Primary School, Red Cliffs East Primary School and St. Joseph's Primary School and one secondary school,

Red Cliffs Secondary College Red Cliffs Secondary College (RCSC) is a State school, public Mixed-sex education, co-educational Secondary school, high school in Red Cliffs, Victoria, Red Cliffs, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. It is the only Victorian state gover ...

Sport

The town has an

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

team competing in the

Sunraysia Football League The Sunraysia Football and Netball League, also known simply as the SFNL is an Australian rules league in the Sunraysia district of north-west Victoria (Australia), Victoria and south-west New South Wales. History Australian Rules football ...

. Golfers play at the course of the Red Cliffs Golf Club on 22nd Street. The town also has its own cricket association, the RCCA. The association has 2 grades and includes teams from the Sunraysia, Millewa and central Mallee areas.

Big Lizzie

Red Cliffs features a permanent public exhibit called Big Lizzie, a large tractor.

Frank Bottrill Frank Bottrill (1 April 1871 – 7 January 1953) was an Australian blacksmith and inventor, known for his giant "Big Lizzie" traction engine, thought to be at one time the largest in the world. It had a unique variant of the Dreadnaught Wheel d ...

was the designer, builder and operator of "Big Lizzie". One of its features was the use of the Bottrill

Dreadnaught wheel A dreadnaught wheel is a wheel with articulated rails attached at the rim to provide a firm footing for the wheel to roll over. These wheels have also been known as "endless railway wheels" when fitted to road locomotives, and were commonly fitt ...

which he designed, and which he also fitted to other machines. Bottrill was inspired by his experiences in the 1800s witnessing the suffering of

camel A camel (from and () from Ancient Semitic: ''gāmāl'') is an even-toed ungulate in the genus ''Camelus'' that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. Camels have long been domesticated and, as livestock, they provid ...

s carrying heavy loads. The wheel was designed to work in sandy soils. The design was effective but was later superseded by the

caterpillar track Continuous track or tracked treads are a system of vehicle propulsion used in tracked vehicles, running on a continuous band of treads or track plates driven by two or more wheels. The large surface area of the tracks distributes the w ...

. When it was built, "Big Lizzie" was the biggest tractor in Australia, and thought to be the biggest in the world, at high by wide, and weighing 45 tons. It had two trailers also fitted with Bottrill wheels. The tractor received an Engineering Heritage Marker from

Engineers Australia Engineers Australia (EA), known formally as the Institution of Engineers, Australia, is an Australian professional body and Non-profit organization, not-for-profit organisation whose purpose is to advance the science and practice of engineerin ...

as part of its Engineering Heritage Recognition Program. The machine was purchased for the town by the Big Lizzie Preservation Committee with help from Red Cliff's service clubs, transported from Glendenning Station (near Balmoral Village), and brought to an operating condition in time for the town's golden jubilee in October 1971.

Lunarfest

The Red Cliffs Lunarfest was held every March to celebrate the end of the grape harvest. The event included a street parade, musical performances, street market, bicycle race and an evening outdoor film screening. It was organised by the Red Cliffs Rotary Club.

References

External links

Big Lizzie trailer
with a load of two steam engines, State Library of Victoria {{authority control Towns in Victoria (state) Wine regions of Victoria (state) Populated places on the Murray River Mallee (Victoria)