Riverina
The Riverina
is an agricultural region of south-western New South Wales, Australia. The Riverina is distinguished from other Australian regions by the combination of flat plains, a climate with significant seasonal variation and an ample supply of water for irrigation. This combination has allowed the Riverina to develop into one of the most productive and agriculturally diverse areas of Australia. Bordered on the south by the state of Victoria and on the east by the Great Dividing Range, the Riverina covers those areas of New South Wales in the Murray and Murrumbidgee drainage zones to their confluence in the west.
Home to Aboriginal groups including the Wiradjuri people for over 40,000 years, the Riverina was colonised by Europeans in the mid-19th century as a pastoral region providing beef and wool to markets in Australia and beyond. In the 20th century, the development of major irrigation areas in the Murray and Murrumbidgee valleys has led to the introduction of crops such as rice and wine grapes. The Riverina has strong cultural ties to Victoria, and the region was the source of much of the impetus behind the federation of Australian colonies.
Major population and service centres in the Riverina include the cities of Wagga Wagga, Leeton, Griffith and Albury. Wagga Wagga is home to a campus of Charles Sturt University and two major Australian Defence Force establishments. La Trobe University has a campus in Wodonga, Victoria.
Geography
Government agencies and other bodies
The delineation of the Riverina region varies by government agency or body. Common official boundaries include the Australian Bureau of Statistics' Statistical Area Level 4 Riverina region, Australian Electoral Commission's Federal Election Boundary called Riverina, Natural Resource Management Regions Riverina region, Regional Development Australia's Riverina region and Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia's Riverina region.Common usage
In common usage the Riverina generally comprises the agricultural and pastoral areas of New South Wales, west of the Great Dividing Range and in the drainage basin of the snow-fed Murray and Murrumbidgee Rivers. The northern boundary beyond the Riverina is determined by the Lachlan River catchment area and is referred to as the Central West. Along the Murray to the south, the Riverina borders the state of Victoria. West of the confluence of the Murray and Murrumbidgee is the beginning of the more arid Far West region.In general, the Riverina is an alluvial plain formed by deposition carried from the Great Dividing Range by streams between 30,000 and 15,000 years ago. The terrain includes rolling hills to the east but then becomes flatter to the west with most of that plain reaching less than above sea level. The western Riverina consists largely of featureless saltbush plain.
Landform and hydrology
The geology of the Riverina comprises several troughs and sedimentary basins. The western Riverina is presumed to be a continuation of the Ballarat and Bendigo geological zone while eastern sections are underlain by western portions of the Lachlan Fold Belt. There is potential for the Riverina to host several mineral deposit types including coal, petroleum, coal seam methane, gypsum, orogenic gold, Cobar style polymetallic systems, heavy mineral sands and possibly diamonds in these fold belt rocks and basins. Riverina soils are generally sandy along the river channels, with more saline grey and brown clays found on rarely flooded areas on the perimeter of the floodplain. As the Murrumbidgee passes downstream, the water and soil become more saline.The Riverina is drained by the large Murray-Darling Basin. Rivers and streams in the Riverina generally flow east to west. As well as the Murray, Murrumbidgee and Lachlan, other streams include Billabong Creek and the Edward River, an anabranch of the Murray. Much of the water carried by these streams is diverted. In 2001–2002, 52% of the Murray and Murrumbidgee water runoff was diverted, 77% of which was used for irrigation.
Climate
The Bureau of Meteorology classifies the Riverina in the Hot Dry Zone climatic zone. Places in this zone can be very hot in the summer months while in the winter, nights can be considerably cold with cool to mild days. Mean daily maximum temperatures in the Riverina range from in January and in July in Wagga Wagga to in January and in July in Hillston. Under the Köppen climate classification, the region predominantly falls in the hot-summer Mediterranean climate zone, although areas in the west of the region would feature the semi-arid climate and those in the east would have a humid subtropical climate, though still with Mediterranean climate tendencies when it comes to the rainfall pattern.Rainfall levels in the Riverina are generally low with the median annual rainfall over most of the region between, rising to between on the eastern fringe. Because the region is situated on the upwind side of the Great Dividing Range, winter would receive the most rainfall in the year, with areas in the southern Riverina, having the wettest winters, while in the north rainfall patterns are fairly consistent throughout the year. Corowa, in the south eastern Riverina has an average rainfall of per year while mean annual rainfall at Hay is. Drought in 2006 saw the lowest ever recorded rainfall in towns such as Lockhart, Tarcutta and Narrandera.
Despite the very low elevation compared to other regions of the state known for colder winters, snow has been recorded on multiple occasions in Albury and Wagga Wagga, and on 24 July 1936 a flurry of snow was reported in Hay, which at just above sea level would make it the lowest altitude that snow has ever been observed to in New South Wales. In Narrandera it last snowed in June 1908, July 1901 and August 1899. The most recent occurrence of snow in the Riverina proper was at Junee in August 2019 – excluding the mountainous parts of the South West Slopes.
Riverina bioregion
One method of classification of boundaries for the Riverina is the Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia that defines the bioregion as an area comprising, with biogeographic sub-regions covering each of the Lachlan, Murrumbidgee, Murray Fans, Victorian Riverina, Robinvale Plains and Murray Scroll Belt.The NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service has divided New South Wales into 17 distinct bioregions. Bioregions are quite large areas of land that capture a geophysical pattern which is linked to fauna and flora ecosystems. The Riverina bioregion is an area of land that comprises part of the larger Riverina area but also extends into Victoria. It has been defined by the New South Wales Parks and Wildlife Service as extending from Ivanhoe in the Murray Darling Depression Bioregion south to Bendigo, and from Narrandera in the east to Balranald in the west. 74.03% of the bioregion is in New South Wales, the remainder in Victoria.
In another mapping the World Wildlife Fund has made this area part of the larger Southeast Australia temperate savanna ecoregion that covers the western plains of New South Wales.
River channels in the region support river red gum and River Cooba communities. Nearby higher areas contain black box woodlands and a salt-tolerant grass, saltbush and daisy understorey. Yellow box and grey box occur along with Cypress Pine on areas rarely subjected to flooding. The area away from the rivers often consists of treeless plains, consisting of various saltbush species, Cotton Bush and varieties of Danthonia and Austrostipa native grasslands.
Significant mammals endemic to forests in the bioregion include various species of glider, such as Sugar Gliders, Feathertail Gliders and Squirrel Gliders as well as Koalas A wide variety of birdlife makes its home in wetlands in the Riverina, including many migratory species. Competition from introduced species and the effect of clearing, grazing and pasture improvement has led to a decline in the diversity of native flora and fauna in the area.
History
people are thought to have inhabited the Riverina for at least 40,000 years. The Wiradjuri people were the original inhabitants of much of south western New South Wales including much of the Riverina region along the Murrumbidgee and Lachlan rivers. Other groups living along the Murrumbidgee included the Nari-Nari on the western plains where the town of Hay, the Muthi-Muthi along the Lowbidgee, Gurendji and the Yida-Yida of Oxley. Along both sides of the Murray River lived the Yorta Yorta people inhabiting the area of the Riverina as far east as the present day city of Albury and as far north as the Finley and Deniliquin districts. The Murray was also home to other groups such as the Bangerang, Baraba-Baraba, Wemba-Wemba, Wadi-Wadi, Dadi-Dadi and Paarkantji communities.The rivers played a leading role in the lifestyle of the Aboriginal people, acting as a source of food and a means of communication and trade. Murray cod and shellfish were gathered for food and bark canoes were used for travel along the rivers. Scars on many trees alongside the rivers are evidence of this extensive use of canoes. In the summer it is likely that the Bangerang and Wiradjuri joined the Monaro groups in the bogong moth feasts in the alpine country to the east.
Exploration and pastoral settlement
The first European explorer in the Riverina was John Oxley in 1817 following the Lachlan River to what is now the town of Booligal. Oxley was followed by Charles Sturt, who followed the Murrumbidgee downstream to Lake Alexandrina in South Australia between 1828 and 1831 and Major Thomas Mitchell in 1836 on his way to the Wimmera and the Western District.Pastoral settlement followed soon after, with grazing runs established along the Murray and Murrumbidgee as far west as Hay by 1839. At the time, the area was known as the Murrumbidgee District. "Cocketgedong" Station, between Jerilderie and Urana, was established in the 1840s by Messrs Brock & Hardie. A map, dated 1864, held by the State Library of Victoria shows them still in possession. At that time, there was little fencing and the sheep were brought back to camps each night by the shepherds. The camps named on the map include Stockyard Camp, Mick's Hill Camp, Columba Camp, The Gums Camp, Coonong Camp, and Sydney Gate Camp. Messrs Watt & Thomson, the owners of an adjoining property, "North Urana", subsequently purchased "Cocketgedong" from Brock & Hardie, giving them a total area of approximately 65,000 acres. In 1904 D & W Gibb, Wool Brokers in Melbourne, purchased "Cocketgedong" which comprised 45,000 acres freehold and approximately 20,000 acres Crown Leasehold. After World War I, the leasehold was resumed for Soldier Settlement blocks, leaving "Cocketgedong" with 36,000 acres and "North Urana" 9000 acres divided by several holdings. The latter part was sold in the early 1950s, leaving the approximate area originally taken up by Brock & Hardie, held by the D & W Gibb Estate. The Woolshed constructed in 1910 consisted of 20 stands, although by 1970 when it was demolished after a new Woolshed was constructed, only 10 stands were being used. The Estate of D & W Gibb sold "Cocketgedong in 1972. Moulamein, in the western Riverina, appears to make legitimate claims as the oldest town in the Riverina, and indeed to being older than Melbourne. The settlers often came into conflict with the indigenous inhabitants. In the Narrandera district, a battle took place between settlers and the local Narrungderra clan at a location now known as Massacre Island, reportedly leaving only one survivor.
Cattle raising was the major industry in the 1840s with sheep becoming predominant in the 1860s. At this time many Victorians settled in the Riverina to breed sheep and cattle to feed the miners taking part in the Victorian Gold Rush. The herds were considered inferior at first, but these pastures were good for stock, and the land which seemed a desert was actually good fattening country.
In the 1860s and 1870s, German settlers from the Barossa Valley travelled upstream to settle in the eastern Riverina. Because of their religious distinctiveness as Lutherans, they preferred to form clustered German settlements. In 1867 and 1868 several land parcels were taken up in the Jindera area. 56 German farmers, in 1869, took six weeks to travel six hundred miles in covered wagons to establish the town of Walla Walla.
Nearby Holbrook was originally named Germantown after these settlers until changing its name in 1914 as a result of tensions caused by World War I.
The name "Riverine", coined from the Entre Ríos Province in Argentina, South America, was in use as early as 1857: a long letter under the caption "Riverine Colony" appeared in the Albury Border Post of 24 January that year. The name was coined by Dunmore Lang who translated it from the Spanish.
Dunmore Lang was also involved with the short-lived Riverina secession movement which was active in the 1860s. The movement was inspired by the success of the Victorian and Queensland secession movements and motivated by a desire to draw more public funds to the region and maintain the favourable land tenure the "squatter" pastoralists enjoyed. With the movement strongest in Deniliquin and Albury, Dunmore Lang, squatter and parliamentarian Gideon Lang and other influential pastoralists joined with local newspaper editors, George Mott and David Jones in the campaign. This culminated in presenting petitions to the Governor of New South Wales, Sir John Young and the Colonial Secretary, Edward Cardwell. Soon after the movement fell apart due to the differences between the squatters on one side and the small farmers and townspeople on the other causing its objectives to become obscured by other associated issues such as inter-colonial tariffs and rail links.