The Wimmera is a relatively flat area where the bulk of Victoria’s cereal crops are grown, and is is fairly typical of inland Australia. The Mallee, in the extreme north west corner of the state, comprises mainly flat semi-arid sand plains. They give travellers the opportunity to taste the outback without leaving Victoria. The Wimmera is part of Victoria’s Western Districts.

The Wimmera covers the dryland farming area south of the range of Mallee scrub, east of the South Australia border and north of the Great Dividing Range. It can also be defined as the land within the social catchment of Horsham, its main settlement. Most of the Wimmera is very flat, with only the Grampians and Mount Arapiles rising above vast plains and the low plateaux that form the Great Divide in this part of Victoria. The Grampians are very rugged and tilted, with many sheer sandstone cliffs on their eastern sides, but gentle slopes on the west.

The climate is semi-arid to sub-humid, most rain falls in winter, though heavy summer falls can occur. Temperatures are hot in summer, but mornings can be cold in Winter.

The Mallee, to the north of the Wimmera, is, for all practical purposes, completely flat and very low-lying: in fact for long geological periods the whole region has been inundated by the ocean. 

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The soils are generally very infertile and sandy: the better ones on more stabilised sand dunes in the east are slightly loamy and pink to light brown and have been able to support wheat and barley growing as a result of the development of superphosphate and other fertilisers. The climate of the Mallee is the hottest and driest in Victoria owing to its inland location. Rainfall is usually only produced by the most vigorous frontal systems or by occasional penetration of tropical air in the summer.