The Murray River
The Murray is the World’s 16th-longest river at 2,520 kilometres. It is fed by several rivers including the Darling and Murrumbidgee on it’s journey from the Australian Alps before flowing through South Australia to the Southern Ocean. It sits as one of the backbones of the Murray-Darling Basin, draining most of inland Victoria, NSW, and southern Queensland from the western side of the Dividing Range
First Nations People
The rich waters of the Murray region around Mildura have long been home to First Nations people which included the Paakantyi and Latje Latje tribes. It is believed the name Mildura has been translated to mean ‘red earth and dust’ in Latje Latje language.
The diet of the First Nation inhabitants included Murray Cod, Golden Perch, shell-fish, emu eggs, wallabies and small marsupials. Archaeological studies uncovered the first known use of ochre in the world, and have enabled further understanding of ancient cultures.
Nowadays the Mungo National Park and World Heritage Willandra Lakes (est. 1981) systems are home to some of the oldest know human remains not only in Australia but the world.
To read more about First Nations History click here
Agricultural Development
Rural development through irrigation along the River Murray had become an accepted practice in the 1880s. However, as the variability of rivers in the British colonies was beginning to be appreciated, the searing drought of 1902 brought strong protests from the rural areas, demanding the urgent creation of water storages and distribution facilities so that farmers could thrive.
Soon arguments were raging in NSW, Victoria and South Australia about who owned the Murray. This could not be simply resolved. Separation of the colonies (NSW, Victoria and SA) had left NSW in legal possession of the river, but Victoria had seen the potential of irrigation and set about taking what it needed. SA sought to keep the river at a level that would allow good navigation and consequently opposed moves upstream that might reduce the river’s flow. Doesn’t this all sound very familiar?
A Royal Commission report in the early 1900s recommended joint control of the Murray by the three states concerned, with the Commonwealth playing a supporting role. That is what has eventuated to this day, and the debate of the success or otherwise of this often play a role in the 2019 various elections.
To read more about the history of the Murray River and its tributaries, click here
Wentworth
Wentworth sits on the lands of the Barkandji First Nations people, who called the Darling River Barka. There has been continuous Aboriginal occupation of the region since it was first settled by Aboriginal people. Radiocarbon dates, usually of shell middens, occur in every time period. The junction of the Darling and Murray Rivers is an important meeting place for First Nations people.
In 1829 an exploration to discover an inland sea began from Sydney. Although no inland sea was found, Captain Charles Sturt, entered the headwaters of a wide river which he named the Darling. A Government expedition then sent Sturt to trace the Murrumbidgee River. During this, he entered a mighty river which he named the Murray. In 1830, while navigating the Murray, he came across a river junction which he was convinced was the Darling.
Drovers taking cattle overland from NSW to Adelaide along the Murray arrived at the Darling/Murray junction in 1838. Others followed what became known as the Sydney/Adelaide ‘highway’, and the river junction became an established camp site. The settlement was later referred to as the “Darling Junction”.
A number of squatters established reign over the land along the Darling and Murray Rivers, expanding westwards from the Murrumbidgee. With the arrival of the river steamers in 1853, the small settlement found itself as an administrative and commercial centre for the untapped wealth of the vast Outback. For many years Sydney was the only port in NSW to handle more cargo than Wentworth. The steamers brought a new sophistication to the rugged river towns. The town proper was approved in 1859 and was named after the NSW explorer/politician.
By 1929 a series of locks and weirs, to assist navigation and pumping, had been completed on the Murray River.
In the early 1900’s the first irrigation settlement in NSW was started at Curlwaa, seven kilometres east of Wentworth. Irrigation breathed new life into the district which led to pastoral properties being divided into smaller allotments or “blocks”, and enabled the production of fruits and vegetables of high quality.
Wentworth continues to be an important centre for the surrounding landholders. It is a town steeped in history and as a tourist area of great diversity.
Mildura
Many Aboriginal people lived around the site of Mildura because of the abundant food. Prominent tribes included the Latjilatji and Jarijari.
The first British arrived in 1857 and brought sheep to graze the rich pastures. A major drought in Victoria from 1877 to 1884 prompted Alfred Deakin, then a minister in the State Government and chairman of a Royal Commission on water supply, to visit the irrigation areas of California. There he met George and William Chaffey. In 1886, Canadian-American irrigator George Chaffey came to Australia and selected a derelict sheep station known as Mildura as the site for his first irrigation settlement, signing an agreement with the Victorian government to spend at least £300,000 on permanent improvements in the next twenty years. After much political wrangling, the settlement of Mildura was established in 1887.
The Post Office opened on 23 January 1888.
Massive irrigation works from the late 1880s were the basis of a vast fruit industry, including drying and preserving. However, the early reliance on river boats was overtaken by the railway connection to Melbourne, 475 km away, in 1903. By the 1930s Mildura and the surrounding area produced more than half of all Australia’s dried fruit.
The region’s diverse cultural and economic identity was firmly established following the arrival of the soldier settlers and the post-war (WWI) migrants from Italy, Ireland, Greece, England and the former Yugoslavia etc who brought with them traditional cultivation skills that helped to make Mildura the important food bowl it is today.
Mildura was soon the main town of the district. Suburbs and new satellite towns sprang up. In 1937 it officially became a city. Today, Mildura is a bright, thriving regional centre, and the surrounding Sunraysia district has a population of over 50,000.
Curlwaa
In 1911 the Mildura Co-operative branch was to be opened, and the settler’s representative agreed that a name seperate from Wentworth was necessary if the local produce was to be branded. Three names were submitted: – Valetta, Orana and Curlwa. The latter, a First Nations name for native peach indigenous to the area, was chosen, having the advantage of being unique.
The legal settlement became Wentworth Irrigation Area (Curlwaa). It is not recorded who slipped in the second “A”.