VA started Mildura at a time that BG and LKH were at war, and BG wanted to use the EJets to ruin Rex in the country, which as most of us knew then was going to just bleed money for VA. When the EJets were phased out Mildura was retained as a Boeing route with the idea that the ATR would eventually service it, but Melbourne airport/Airservices stymied VA attempts to put more ATRs out of Melbourne, due to how slow they were and problems fitting in with Melbourne traffic, this was while QLink was operating Q400s in Melbourne so no slow early Dash 8s. Unfortunately it was an attachment most days to the end of a crew/aircraft roster so it often ran late, on top of that the yield was very poor to keep numbers up. Fridays/Sunday afternoons relatively good loads, the rest of the week struggled for 50%.