Riverina - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Riverina
is an agricultural region of south-western New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

(NSW), Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. The Riverina is distinguished from other Australian regions by the combination of flat plains, warm to hot climate and an ample supply of water for irrigation

Irrigation

Irrigation may be defined as the science of artificial application of water to the land or soil. It is used to assist in the growing of agricultural crops, maintenance of landscapes, and revegetation of disturbed soils in dry areas and during periods of inadequate rainfall...

. 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

Victoria (Australia)

Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....

and on the east by the Great Dividing Range

Great Dividing Range

The Great Dividing Range, or the Eastern Highlands, is Australia's most substantial mountain range and the third longest in the world. The range stretches more than 3,500 km from Dauan Island off the northeastern tip of Queensland, running the entire length of the eastern coastline through...

, the Riverina covers those areas of New South Wales in the Murray

Murray River

The Murray River is Australia's longest river. At in length, the Murray rises in the Australian Alps, draining the western side of Australia's highest mountains and, for most of its length, meanders across Australia's inland plains, forming the border between New South Wales and Victoria as it...

and Murrumbidgee

Murrumbidgee River

The Murrumbidgee River is a major river in the state of New South Wales, Australia, and the Australian Capital Territory . A major tributary of the Murray River, the Murrumbidgee flows in a west-northwesterly direction from the foot of Peppercorn Hill in the Fiery Range of the Snowy Mountains,...

drainage zones to their confluence in the west.

Home to Aboriginal

Indigenous Australians

Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....

groups for over 40,000 years, the Riverina was originally settled by Europeans

European ethnic groups

The ethnic groups in Europe are the various ethnic groups that reside in the nations of Europe. European ethnology is the field of anthropology focusing on Europe....

in the mid-19th century as a pastoral

Grazing

Grazing generally describes a type of feeding, in which a herbivore feeds on plants , and also on other multicellular autotrophs...

region providing beef

Beef

Beef is the culinary name for meat from bovines, especially domestic cattle. Beef can be harvested from cows, bulls, heifers or steers. It is one of the principal meats used in the cuisine of the Middle East , Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Europe and the United States, and is also important in...

and wool

Wool

Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and certain other animals, including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, vicuña, alpaca, camel from animals in the camel family, and angora from rabbits....

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

Rice

Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies...

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 Australia

Federation of Australia

The Federation of Australia was the process by which the six separate British self-governing colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia formed one nation...

n colonies.

Major population and service centres in the Riverina include the cities of Wagga Wagga

Wagga Wagga, New South Wales

Wagga Wagga is a city in New South Wales, Australia. Straddling the Murrumbidgee River, and with an urban population of 46,735 people, Wagga Wagga is the state's largest inland city, as well as an important agricultural, military, and transport hub of Australia...

, Albury

Albury, New South Wales

Albury is a major regional city in New South Wales, Australia, located on the Hume Highway on the northern side of the Murray River. It is located wholly within the boundaries of the City of Albury Local Government Area...

and Griffith

Griffith, New South Wales

Griffith is a city in south-western New South Wales, Australia. It is also the seat of the City of Griffith local government area. Like the Australian capital, Canberra and the nearby town of Leeton, Griffith was designed by Walter Burley Griffin. Griffith was named after Sir Arthur Griffith the...

. Albury and Wagga Wagga are home to campuses of Charles Sturt University

Charles Sturt University

Charles Sturt University is an Australian multi-campus university located in New South Wales, Victoria, and the Australian Capital Territory. It has campuses at Bathurst, Canberra, Albury-Wodonga, Dubbo, Goulburn, Orange, Wagga Wagga and Burlington, Ontario...

, the only local provider of higher education

Higher education

Higher, post-secondary, tertiary, or third level education refers to the stage of learning that occurs at universities, academies, colleges, seminaries, and institutes of technology...

for the region. Wagga Wagga is home to two major Australian Defence Force

Australian Defence Force

The Australian Defence Force is the military organisation responsible for the defence of Australia. It consists of the Royal Australian Navy , Australian Army, Royal Australian Air Force and a number of 'tri-service' units...

establishments.

Geography

The delineation of the Riverina region by government agencies and other bodies varies, but in common usage it generally comprises the agricultural and pastoral

Grazing

Grazing generally describes a type of feeding, in which a herbivore feeds on plants , and also on other multicellular autotrophs...

areas of New South Wales, west of the Great Dividing Range

Great Dividing Range

and in the drainage basin

Drainage basin

A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...

of the snow-fed Murray

Murray River

and Murrumbidgee River

Murrumbidgee River

s. The northern boundary beyond the Riverina is determined by the Lachlan River

Lachlan River

- Course :The river rises in the central highland of New South Wales, part of the Great Dividing Range, 13 km east of Gunning. Its major headwaters, the Carcoar River, the Belubula River and the Abercrombie River converge near the town of Cowra. Minor tributaries include the Morongla Creek...

catchment area and is referred to as the Central West

Central West, New South Wales

The Central West region refers to the area west of the Blue Mountains, New South Wales, Australia. It has an area of 63,262 square kilometers....

. Along the Murray to the south, the Riverina borders the state of Victoria

Victoria (Australia)

. West of the confluence

Confluence (geography)

In geography, a confluence is the meeting of two or more bodies of water. It usually refers to the point where two streams flow together, merging into a single stream...

of the Murray and Murrumbidgee is the beginning of the more arid Far West region.

In general, the Riverina is an alluvial plain

Plain

In geography, a plain is land with relatively low relief, that is flat or gently rolling. Prairies and steppes are types of plains, and the archetype for a plain is often thought of as a grassland, but plains in their natural state may also be covered in shrublands, woodland and forest, or...

formed by deposition carried from the Great Dividing Range

Great Dividing Range

by streams between 30,000 to 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 200 metres (656.2 ft) above sea level. The western Riverina consists largely of featureless saltbush plain.

Landform and hydrology

The geology

Geology

Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...

of the Riverina comprises several troughs

Trough (geology)

In geology, a trough generally refers to a linear structural depression that extends laterally over a distance, while being less steep than a trench.A trough can be a narrow basin or a geologic rift....

and sedimentary basin

Sedimentary basin

The term sedimentary basin is used to refer to any geographical feature exhibiting subsidence and consequent infilling by sedimentation. As the sediments are buried, they are subjected to increasing pressure and begin the process of lithification...

s. 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

Lachlan Fold Belt

The Lachlan Fold Belt or Lachlan Orogen is a geological subdivision of the east part of Australia. It is a zone of folded and faulted rocks of similar age. It dominates New South Wales and Victoria, also extending into Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and Queensland. It was formed in...

. There is potential for the Riverina to host several mineral

Mineral

A mineral is a naturally occurring solid chemical substance formed through biogeochemical processes, having characteristic chemical composition, highly ordered atomic structure, and specific physical properties. By comparison, a rock is an aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids and does not...

deposit types including coal

Coal

Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...

, petroleum

Petroleum

Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...

, coal seam methane

Methane

Methane is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . It is the simplest alkane, the principal component of natural gas, and probably the most abundant organic compound on earth. The relative abundance of methane makes it an attractive fuel...

, gypsum

Gypsum

Gypsum is a very soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula CaSO4·2H2O. It is found in alabaster, a decorative stone used in Ancient Egypt. It is the second softest mineral on the Mohs Hardness Scale...

, orogenic gold, Cobar

Cobar, New South Wales

-Notable people:*Nik Kosef, former rugby league player for the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles, 1996 premiership player, NSW & Australia representative*Ernie Toshack, cricketer, member of Bradman's Invincibles* Jemma Heather, state representative 4 times....

style polymetal

Polymetal

Primarily used in chemistry or mining, polymetal or polymetallic refers to a substance composed of a combination of different metals. When the substance contains only two metals the term bimetal is sometimes preferred .* A polymetallic ore is...

lic 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

Soil salination

Soil salinity is the salt content in the soil.- Causes of soil salinity :Salt-affected soils are caused by excess accumulation of salts, typically most pronounced at the soil surface. Salts can be transported to the soil surface by capillary transport from a salt laden water table and then...

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

Murray-Darling Basin

The Murray-Darling basin is a large geographical area in the interior of southeastern Australia, whose name is derived from its two major rivers, the Murray River and the Darling River. It drains one-seventh of the Australian land mass, and is currently by far the most significant agricultural...

. Rivers and streams in the Riverina generally flow east to west. As well as the Murray, Murrumbidgee and Lachlan, other streams include Billabong Creek

Billabong Creek

Billabong Creek is a creek in the Riverina region in New South Wales, Australia. The creek is part of the Murray-Darling River system. It is held to be the longest creek in New South Wales....

and the Edward River

Edward River

The Edward River is a river in the south west Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. The river is an anabranch of the Murray River, the longest river in Australia....

, an anabranch

Anabranch

An anabranch is a section of a river or stream that diverts from the main channel or stem of the watercourse and rejoins the main stem downstream. Local anabranches can be the result of small islands in the watercourse...

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

Irrigation

Climate

The Bureau of Meteorology classify the Riverina in the Hot Dry Zone (with cooler winters) climatic zone. Places in this zone can be very hot in the summer months while in the winter, nights can be very cold. Mean daily maximum temperatures in the Riverina range from 31 °C (87.8 °F) in January and 12.4 °C (54.3 °F) in July in Wagga Wagga

Wagga Wagga, New South Wales

to 33.2 °C (91.8 °F) in January and 14.8 °C (58.6 °F) in July in Hillston

Hillston, New South Wales

Hillston is a township in western New South Wales, Australia, in Carrathool Shire, built on the banks of the Lachlan River. It was founded in 1863 and at the 2006 census had a population of 1,054.-History:...

.

Rainfall levels in the Riverina are generally low with the median annual rainfall over most of the region between 250–500 mm (9.8–19.7 in), rising to between 500–800 mm (19.7–31.5 in) on the eastern fringe. Rain generally falls in the winter in the southern Riverina and around Hay while in the north rainfall patterns are fairly consistent throughout the year. Corowa

Corowa, New South Wales

Corowa is a town in the state of New South Wales in Australia. It is on the bank of the Murray River, the border between New South Wales and Victoria, opposite the Victorian town of Wahgunyah. Corowa is the administrative centre of Corowa Shire...

, in the south eastern Riverina has an average rainfall of 539.4 millimetres (21.2 in) per year while mean annual rainfall at Hay

Hay, New South Wales

Hay is a town in the western Riverina region of south western New South Wales , Australia. It is the administrative centre of Hay Shire Local Government Area and the centre of a prosperous and productive agricultural district on the wide Hay Plains....

is 367.2 millimetres (14.5 in). Drought

Drought in Australia

Drought in Australia is defined as rainfall over a three month period being in the lowest decile of what has been recorded for that region in the past. This definition takes into account that drought is a relative term and rainfall deficiencies need to be compared to typical rainfall patterns...

in 2006 has seen the lowest ever recorded rainfall in towns such as Lockhart

Lockhart, New South Wales

Lockhart is a town and a Local Government Area in the Riverina Region of New South Wales, Australia. It is the location of the Lockhart Shire Council offices. At the 2006 census, Lockhart had a population of 837 people.-History:...

, Tarcutta

Tarcutta, New South Wales

Tarcutta is a small town located 438 km south-west of Sydney, three kilometres east of the Hume Highway, in New South Wales, Australia. It was proclaimed as a village on 28 October 1890...

and Narrandera

Narrandera, New South Wales

-Transport:Narrandera is well served for transport. The Sturt Highway and the Newell Highways cross, just south of Narrandera. Greyhound buses pass daily - note that the destination can be listed as Jillenbah....

Riverina bioregion

The New South Wales Parks and Wildlife Service

National Parks and Wildlife Service (New South Wales)

The National Parks and Wildlife Service is part of the Office of Environment and Heritage - the main government conservation agency in New South Wales, Australia....

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 ecosystem

Ecosystem

An ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving , physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight....

s. 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

Ivanhoe, New South Wales

Ivanhoe is a small township on the Cobb Highway between the Lachlan and Darling rivers in New South Wales, Australia. It is located within the Central Darling Shire local government area. Ivanhoe functions as a service centre for the surrounding area. The township is...

in the Murray Darling Depression Bioregion south to Bendigo

Bendigo, Victoria

Bendigo is a major regional city in the state of Victoria, Australia, located very close to the geographical centre of the state and approximately north west of the state capital Melbourne. It is the second largest inland city and fourth most populous city in the state. The estimated urban...

, and from Narrandera

Narrandera, New South Wales

in the east to Balranald

Balranald, New South Wales

Balranald is a town and local government area in the Riverina district of New South Wales, Australia. At the 2006 census the population was 1,216....

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

Southeast Australia temperate savanna

The Southeast Australia temperate savanna ecoregion is a large area of grassland dotted with eucalyptus trees running north-south across central New South Wales, Australia.-Location and description:...

ecoregion

Ecoregion

An ecoregion , sometimes called a bioregion, is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than an ecozone and larger than an ecosystem. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of land or water, and contain characteristic, geographically distinct assemblages of natural...

that covers the western plains of New South Wales.

River channels in the region support River Red Gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) and River Cooba (Acacia stenophylla
Acacia stenophylla
Acacia stenophylla is a fast-growing tree that grows 4-10m tall. It is native to Australia and is widely planted in landscapes in the Southwest USA. It is not listed as a threatened species. It has medium salt and frost tolerance. The average minimum annual rainfall that the tree needs is around...

) communities. Nearby higher areas contain Black Box (Eucalyptus largiflorens
Eucalyptus largiflorens
Eucalyptus largiflorens, or Black Box, is a species of Eucalyptus which is endemic to Australia. It is a tree grows up to 20 metres in height...

) woodlands and a salt-tolerant grass, saltbush and daisy understorey. Yellow Box (Eucalyptus melliodora
Eucalyptus melliodora
Eucalyptus melliodora, commonly known as Yellow Box, is a medium sized to occasionally tall eucalypt. The bark is variable ranging from smooth with an irregular, short stocking, to covering most of the trunk, fibrous, dense or loosely held, grey, yellow or red-brown, occasionally very coarse,...

) and Grey Box (Eucalyptus microcarpa
Eucalyptus microcarpa
Eucalyptus microcarpa, or Grey Box, is a species of Eucalyptus which is endemic to Australia.It is a spreading tree which has fibrous grey bark on the trunk and lower branches, but has smooth, grey-brown bark on its upper branches The flower buds have conical caps and the flowers themselves,...

) occur along with Cypress Pine (Callitris glaucophylla) on areas rarely subjected to flooding. The area away from the rivers often consists of treeless plains, consisting of various saltbush (Atriplex
Atriplex
Atriplex is a plant genus of 100-200 species, known by the common names of saltbush and orache . The genus is quite variable and widely distributed. It includes many desert and seashore plants and halophytes, as well as plants of moist environments...

) species, Cotton Bush (Maireana aphylla
Maireana aphylla
Maireana aphylla, also known as Cotton Bush or Leafless Bluebush, is a leafless shrub which is endemic to Australia. It is usually rounded in form and grows to around 1.5 metres in height....

) and varieties of Danthonia
Danthonia
Danthonia is a genus of grass species. Grasses of this genus are sometimes referred to as oatgrass, but that common name is not restricted to this genus.Species include:*Danthonia alpina Vest*Danthonia cachemyriana Jaub. & Spach...

and Austrostipa
Austrostipa
Austrostipa is a genus of grass, with about 70 species.The genus includes Australasian species formerly included in the genus Stipa.Species include:*Austrostipa crinita...

native grasslands.

Significant mammals endemic to forests in the bioregion include various species of glider, such as Sugar Gliders (Petaurus breviceps), Feathertail Gliders (Acrobates pygmaeus) and Squirrel Gliders (Petaurus norfolcensis) as well as Koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus) A wide variety of birdlife makes its home in wetlands in the Riverina, including many migratory

Bird migration

Bird migration is the regular seasonal journey undertaken by many species of birds. Bird movements include those made in response to changes in food availability, habitat or weather. Sometimes, journeys are not termed "true migration" because they are irregular or in only one direction...

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

Aboriginal

Indigenous Australians

people are thought to have inhabited the Riverina for at least 40,000 years. The Wiradjuri

Wiradjuri

The Wiradjuri are an Indigenous Australian group of central New South Wales.In the 21st century, major Wiradjuri groups live in Condobolin, Peak Hill, Narrandera and Griffith...

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

Nari-Nari

The Nari-Nari are an Indigenous Australian group in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. The Nari-Nari are believed by historians to have formed in the Balranald area on the lower Murrumbidgee River, from the amalgamation of a number of groups in neighbouring areas such as the...

on the western plains where the towns of Hay

Hay, New South Wales

and Balranald

Balranald, New South Wales

Balranald is a town and local government area in the Riverina district of New South Wales, Australia. At the 2006 census the population was 1,216....

would later be founded, the Mudi-Mudi, Gurendji and the Yida-Yida. Along both sides of the Murray River lived the Yorta Yorta people

Yorta Yorta people

The Yorta Yorta people are the Indigenous Australians who traditionally lived around the junction of the Goulburn and Murray Rivers in present-day northeast Victoria....

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

Yorta Yorta people

The Yorta Yorta people are the Indigenous Australians who traditionally lived around the junction of the Goulburn and Murray Rivers in present-day northeast Victoria....

, Baraba-Baraba, Wemba-Wemba

Wemba-Wemba

The Wemba-Wemba are an Indigenous Australian group in north-Western Victoria and south-western New South Wales, Australia, including in the Mallee and the Riverina regions. They are also known as the Wamba-wamba....

, Wadi-Wadi and Dadi-Dadi 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

Murray Cod

The Murray cod is a large Australian predatory freshwater fish of the Maccullochella genus and the Percichthyidae family. Although the species is a called cod in the vernacular, it is not related to the northern hemisphere marine cod species...

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

Monaro, New South Wales

Monaro is the name of a region in the south of New South Wales, Australia. A small area of Victoria near Snowy River National Park is geographically part of the Monaro, whilst the Australian Capital Territory is frequently considered part of the region: most towns have very close links with...

groups in the Bogong moth

Bogong moth

The Bogong moth is a temperate species of night-flying moth notable for appearing in large numbers around major public buildings in Canberra, the capital city of Australia, during spring as it migrates to the High Plains. The moth's name 'Bogong' is the same as the mountain ranges on the High...

feasts in the alpine country to the east.

Exploration and pastoral settlement

The first European explorer in the Riverina was John Oxley

John Oxley

John Joseph William Molesworth Oxley was an explorer and surveyor of Australia in the early period of English colonisation.October 1802 he was engaged in coastal survey work including an expedition to Western Port in 1804-05...

in 1817 following the Lachlan River

Lachlan River

to what is now the town of Booligal

Booligal, New South Wales

Booligal is a village in the Riverina area of western New South Wales , Australia. It is located on the Cobb Highway, on the Lachlan River north of Hay...

. Oxley was followed by Charles Sturt

Charles Sturt

Captain Charles Napier Sturt was an English explorer of Australia, and part of the European Exploration of Australia. He led several expeditions into the interior of the continent, starting from both Sydney and later from Adelaide. His expeditions traced several of the westward-flowing rivers,...

, who followed the Murrumbidgee downstream to Lake Alexandrina

Lake Alexandrina (South Australia)

Lake Alexandrina is a lake in South Australia adjacent to the coast of the Southern Ocean, about 100 kilometres south-east of Adelaide.-Name:The lake was named after Princess Alexandrina, niece and successor of King William IV of Great Britain and Ireland...

in South Australia

South Australia

South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...

between 1828–1831 and Major Thomas Mitchell in 1836 on his way to the Wimmera

Wimmera

The Wimmera is a region in the west of the Australian state of Victoria.It 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...

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

Murrumbidgee District

The Murrumbidgee District was a district used in New South Wales in the nineteenth century to refer to the land between the Murrumbidgee River and Murray River, that is now mostly known as the Riverina region...

. Moulamein

Moulamein, New South Wales

Moulamein is a small town in New South Wales, Australia, in the Wakool Shire. At the 2006 census, Moulamein had a population of 349 people. Moulamein is the oldest town in the Riverina....

, in the western Riverina, appears to make legitimate claims as the oldest town in the Riverina, and indeed to being older than Melbourne

Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

. The settlers often came into conflict with the indigenous inhabitants. In the Narrandera

Narrandera, New South Wales

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

Cattle

Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...

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

Victorian gold rush

The Victorian gold rush was a period in the history of Victoria, Australia approximately between 1851 and the late 1860s. In 10 years the Australian population nearly tripled.- Overview :During this era Victoria dominated the world's gold output...

. 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

Barossa Valley

The Barossa Valley is a major wine-producing region and tourist destination of South Australia, located 60 km northeast of Adelaide. It is the valley formed by the North Para River, and the Barossa Valley Way is the main road through the valley, connecting the main towns on the valley floor of...

travelled upstream to settle in the eastern Riverina. Because of their religious distinctiveness as Lutherans

Lutheranism

Lutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the theology of Martin Luther, a German reformer. Luther's efforts to reform the theology and practice of the church launched the Protestant Reformation...

, they preferred to form clustered German settlements

German settlements in the Riverina

In Australia, a number of German settlements in the Riverina were established in the late nineteenth century. The settlements were populated by Germans migrating both from established German settlements in South Australia and directly from Germany...

. In 1867 and 1868 several land parcels were taken up in the Jindera

Jindera, New South Wales

Jindera is a town in the southern Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. The town is situated north of the regional centre of Albury, in the Greater Hume Shire Local government area...

area. 56 German farmers, in 1869, took six weeks to travel six hundred miles in covered wagons to establish the town of Walla Walla

Walla Walla, New South Wales

Walla Walla is a town in Greater Hume Shire Council in New South Wales, Australia. It is about north of Albury-Wodonga and south of Wagga Wagga.Walla Walla had a population of 581 people in 2006 and has the largest Lutheran church in New South Wales....

.
Nearby Holbrook

Holbrook, New South Wales

Holbrook is a small town in Southern New South Wales, Australia. It is on the Hume Highway, 356 km North-East of Melbourne and 491 km south-west of Sydney between Tarcutta and Albury. The town is in the Greater Hume Shire Council area which was established in May 2004 from the merger of...

was originally named Germantown after these settlers until changing its name in 1914 as a result of tensions caused by World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

.

The name "Riverine", coined from the Entre Ríos Province

Entre Ríos Province

Entre Ríos is a northeastern province of Argentina, located in the Mesopotamia region. It borders the provinces of Buenos Aires , Corrientes and Santa Fe , and Uruguay in the east....

(between two rivers) 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

John Dunmore Lang

John Dunmore Lang , Australian Presbyterian clergyman, writer, politician and activist, was the first prominent advocate of an independent Australian nation and of Australian republicanism.-Background and Family:...

who translated it from the Spanish.

Dunmore Lang was also involved with the short lived Riverina secession

Secession

Secession is the act of withdrawing from an organization, union, or especially a political entity. Threats of secession also can be a strategy for achieving more limited goals.-Secession theory:...

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

Squatting (pastoral)

In Australian history, a squatter was one who occupied a large tract of Crown land in order to graze livestock. Initially often having no legal rights to the land, they gained its usage by being the first Europeans in the area....

" pastoralists enjoyed. With the movement strongest in Deniliquin and Albury

Albury, New South Wales

, Dunmore Lang, unrelated squatter and parliamentarian Gideon Lang

Gideon Lang

Gideon Scott Lang was a Scottish born Australian pastoralist who was a key figure in the pioneer settlement of Victoria, the Riverina and the Darling Downs regions....

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

Governors of New South Wales

The Governor of New South Wales is the state viceregal representative of the Australian monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, who is equally shared with 15 other sovereign nations in a form of personal union, as well as with the eleven other jurisdictions of Australia, and resides predominantly in her...

, Sir John Young

John Young, 1st Baron Lisgar

John Young, 1st Baron Lisgar, Bt, GCB, GCMG, PC was the second Governor General of Canada, in office from 1869 to 1872.-Biography:...

and the Colonial Secretary

Secretary of State for the Colonies

The Secretary of State for the Colonies or Colonial Secretary was the British Cabinet minister in charge of managing the United Kingdom's various colonial dependencies....

, Edward Cardwell

Edward Cardwell, 1st Viscount Cardwell

Edward Cardwell, 1st Viscount Cardwell PC, PC , FRS was a prominent British politician in the Peelite and Liberal parties during the middle of the 19th century...

. 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 tariff

Tariff

A tariff may be either tax on imports or exports , or a list or schedule of prices for such things as rail service, bus routes, and electrical usage ....

s and rail links.

Riverboats and railways

From 1853, the Riverina was linked to markets through a series of riverboat

Riverboat

A riverboat is a ship built boat designed for inland navigation on lakes, rivers, and artificial waterways. They are generally equipped and outfitted as work boats in one of the carrying trades, for freight or people transport, including luxury units constructed for entertainment enterprises, such...

s along the Murray and Murrumbidgee to the river ports of Mannum

Mannum, South Australia

Mannum is an historic town on the west bank of the Murray River in South Australia, east of Adelaide. At the 2006 census, Mannum had a population of 2,042. Mannum headquarters the Mid Murray Council, and is situated in both the State Electoral District of Schubert and the federal Division of...

and Goolwa

Goolwa, South Australia

Goolwa is a historic river port on the Murray River near the Murray Mouth in South Australia, and joined by a bridge to Hindmarsh Island. The name "Goolwa" means "elbow" in Ngarrindjeri, the local Aboriginal language....

in South Australia

South Australia

and from 1864, to Echuca

Echuca, Victoria

Echuca is a town located on the banks of the Murray River and Campaspe river in Victoria, Australia. The Border town Moama is on the northern side of the Murray river in New South Wales. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Shire of Campaspe...

connected by rail to Melbourne

Melbourne

. Riverboats reached as far upstream as Gundagai

Gundagai, New South Wales

Gundagai is a town in New South Wales, Australia. Although a small town, Gundagai is a popular topic for writers and has become a representative icon of a typical Australian country town...

and Albury

Albury, New South Wales

and towns such as Darlington Point

Darlington Point, New South Wales

Darlington Point is a small town on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River in the Riverina district of western New South Wales, Australia. It is part of the Murrumbidgee Shire local government area. The township centre is four kilometres from the Sturt Highway, along Kidman Way. ...

, Narrandera and Moulamein became important river ports. The riverboat era peaked in the twenty years from 1870–1890, declining with the coming of the railway and finally ending with the disruption to the workforce caused by World War I.

From Melbourne, broad gauge

Broad gauge

Broad-gauge railways use a track gauge greater than the standard gauge of .- List :For list see: List of broad gauges, by gauge and country- History :...

railway lines opened to Deniliquin in 1876 and west to Moulamein

Moulamein, New South Wales

Moulamein is a small town in New South Wales, Australia, in the Wakool Shire. At the 2006 census, Moulamein had a population of 349 people. Moulamein is the oldest town in the Riverina....

and Balranald

Balranald, New South Wales

Balranald is a town and local government area in the Riverina district of New South Wales, Australia. At the 2006 census the population was 1,216....

in 1926. The Moulamein–Balranald section closed in the 1980s. The main northeast line reached Wodonga

Wodonga, Victoria

Wodonga is a small city on the Victorian side of the border with New South Wales, north-east of Melbourne, Australia. Adjacent to Wodonga across the border is the New South Wales city of Albury. Wodonga is located wholly within the boundaries of the City of Wodonga LGA...

in 1873, and was connected to Albury at a break-of-gauge

Break-of-gauge

With railways, a break-of-gauge occurs where a line of one gauge meets a line of a different gauge. Trains and rolling stock cannot run through without some form of conversion between gauges, and freight and passengers must otherwise be transloaded...

in 1883, and the Melbourne-Shepparton railway line was extended to Tocumwal

Tocumwal, New South Wales

Tocumwal is a town in the southern Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia in the Berrigan Shire Local Government Area, near the Victorian border. The town is situated on the banks of the Murray River, north of the city of Melbourne. The Newell Highway, part of the main road route between...

in 1908.

The number of cross border railways expanded with the passing of the 1922 Border Railways Act

1922 Border Railways Act

The 1922 Border Railways Acts, were Acts passed by the Parliaments of both Victoria and New South Wales, which authorised the construction of cross border railways in the Riverina region of Australia. Despite being located in New South Wales, the region was closer economically to Victoria and its...

, with the Benalla - Yarrawonga branch line

Oaklands railway line, Victoria

The Oaklands railway line is a freight only railway line in north eastern Victoria, Australia. The line branches from the main North East railway at Benalla station until it connects with the New South Wales railway network at Oaklands, New South Wales....

extended to Oaklands

Oaklands, New South Wales

Oaklands is a town in the Riverina district of southern New South Wales, Australia. The town is located 615 kilometres south west of the state capital, Sydney and 105 kilometres north west of Albury. Oaklands is in the Urana Shire Local government area and at the 2006 census, had a population of...

in 1938, both lines meeting standard gauge lines that were subsequently closed. Victorian Railways

Victorian Railways

The Victorian Railways operated railways in the Australian state of Victoria from 1859 to 1983. The first railways in Victoria were private companies, but when these companies failed or defaulted, the Victorian Railways was established to take over their operations...

commenced construction of a railway from Robinvale

Robinvale, Victoria

Robinvale is a town on the south bank of the Murray River in northern Victoria, Australia. It is connected by a bridge to Euston on the other side of the river in New South Wales. At the 2006 census, Robinvale had a population of 2214.-History:...

to Koorakee and Lette in New South Wales in 1924, but this railway was never completed. The Murray River bridge between Robinvale and Euston

Euston, New South Wales

Euston is a small town on the banks of the Murray River, southern New South Wales, Australia in Balranald Shire. The twin town of Robinvale is on the other side of the river in the state of Victoria. At the 2006 census, Euston had a population of 462 people. Until the irrigation development at...

was instead converted to a road bridge, which will be demolished when the new road bridge currently under construction is completed. A branch line was built from Kerang to Murrabit

Murrabit, Victoria

Murrabit is a town in north east Victoria, Australia. The town is located on the Murray River, from the state capital, Melbourne and from Swan Hill...

in 1924 and Stony Crossing

Stony Crossing, New South Wales

Stony Crossing is a locality in the south western part of the Riverina. It is situated by road, about 22 kilometres south east from Kyalite and 35 kilometres north west from Swan Hill....

(originally called Poonboon) in 1928 under an agreement with New South Wales. No passenger services were carried on the section beyond Murrabit after 1932 and it was closed about 1943.

Standard gauge

The standard gauge is a widely-used track gauge . Approximately 60% of the world's existing railway lines are built to this gauge...

rail services from Sydney came with the extension of the Main Southern railway line

Main Southern railway line, New South Wales

The Main Southern Railway is a major railway in New South Wales, Australia. It runs through the Southern Highlands, Southern Tablelands, South West Slopes and the Riverina regions.- Description of route :...

to Cootamundra

Cootamundra, New South Wales

Cootamundra is a town and Local Government Area in the South West Slopes region of New South Wales, Australia and within the Riverina. At the 2006 census, Cootamundra had a population of 5,566. It is located on the Olympic Highway at the point where it crosses the Muttama Creek, between Junee and...

and Junee

Junee, New South Wales

Junee is a medium sized town in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. The town's prosperity and mixed services economy is based on a combination of agriculture, rail transport, light industry and government services, and in particular correctional services...

in 1878 and the construction of the Murrumbidgee River Rail Bridge in 1881 allowed the line to be extended past Wagga Wagga to Henty

Henty, New South Wales

Henty is a town on the Olympic Highway almost midway between Albury and Wagga Wagga in New South Wales, Australia. Henty is situated on the border of the South West Slopes and the Riverina districts. At the 2006 census, Henty had a population of 863 people....

and Albury

Albury, New South Wales

later that year. A branch line was constructed to Temora

Temora, New South Wales

Temora is a town located in north east part of the Riverina area of New South Wales, south-west of the state capital, Sydney. At the 2006 census the population of Temora was 4,086.-History:...

in 1893 and extended to Barellan

Barellan, New South Wales

Barellan is a small village in Narrandera Shire in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. On Census night 2006, Barellan had a population of 366 people...

in 1908, Griffith

Griffith, New South Wales

in 1916 and Hillston

Hillston, New South Wales

in 1923. Further south, a branch line was completed from Junee

Junee, New South Wales

to Narrandera in 1881 and extended to Hay

Hay, New South Wales

by 1882. Another branch pushed south from Narrandera toward the Victorian border reaching Jerilderie

Jerilderie, New South Wales

Jerilderie is a town of 768 people in the southern Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. It is the only town in the Jerilderie Shire Local Government Area....

in 1884 and the Murray at Tocumwal

Tocumwal, New South Wales

in 1898.

Bushrangers

Transport links assisted the development of the Riverina economy, at the same time areas of the region found themselves under threat from robbery and murder by various bushranger

Bushranger

Bushrangers, or bush rangers, originally referred to runaway convicts in the early years of the British settlement of Australia who had the survival skills necessary to use the Australian bush as a refuge to hide from the authorities...

s. Between 1862 and 1865, the eastern Riverina between Wagga Wagga and Albury saw the depredations of Dan "Mad Dog" Morgan

Dan Morgan (bushranger)

John Fuller was an Australian bushranger.Fuller was born in Appin, New South Wales, Australia around 1830 to George Fuller and Mary Owen. He was their illigitimate son and from the ages of 2 to 17 he lived with an adoptive father, John Roberts...

. Having previously been convicted of armed robbery, Morgan came to the attention to authorities in the Riverina when he bailed up a police magistrate, Henry Baylis, near Urana

Urana, New South Wales

Urana is a small town in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia.Urana is located between Lockhart and Jerilderie, about 578 kilometres southwest of Sydney. To the west lies Lake Urana and the Lake Urana Nature Reserve. To the east lies a smaller lake, Lake Uranagang.Urana in the major...

in 1863. In 1864, Morgan bailed up Round Hill station

Sheep station

A sheep station is a large property in Australia or New Zealand whose main activity is the raising of sheep for their wool and meat. In Australia, sheep stations are usually in the south-east or south-west of the country. In New Zealand the Merinos are usually in the high country of the South...

, a large sheep farm near Morven

Morven, New South Wales

Morven is a small village about 7 kilometres west of Culcairn in the eastern Riverina district of New South Wales, Australia. At the 2006 census, Morven had a population of 464 people.-History:Morven commenced its existence as a Cobb and Co Staging Post...

, killing a station hand. Later that year, the bushranger shot dead a policeman in cold blood near Tumbarumba

Tumbarumba, New South Wales

Tumbarumba is a small town in New South Wales, Australia, about 500 km southwest of Sydney. Tumbarumba is located within the Riverina region and more specifically on the South West Slopes at the western edge of the Snowy Mountains. At the 2006 Census of Population and Housing, people lived...

. The reward placed on his head reached £1,000 before, in April 1865, he was shot dead near Wangaratta, Victoria

Wangaratta, Victoria

Wangaratta is a cathedral city of almost 17,000 people in the northeast of Victoria, Australia, about from Melbourne along the Hume Highway, with Benalla to the southwest, and Albury-Wodonga to the northeast. It is located at the junction of the Ovens and King rivers which flow from the...

.
The infamous Australian bushranger, Ned Kelly

Ned Kelly

Edward "Ned" Kelly was an Irish Australian bushranger. He is considered by some to be merely a cold-blooded cop killer — others, however, consider him to be a folk hero and symbol of Irish Australian resistance against the Anglo-Australian ruling class.Kelly was born in Victoria to an Irish...

, made possibly his most daring raid in the Riverina, at Jerilderie

Jerilderie, New South Wales

Jerilderie is a town of 768 people in the southern Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. It is the only town in the Jerilderie Shire Local Government Area....

in 1879. After riding overland from north east Victoria, Kelly and his gang in a brazen move captured two local policemen and stole their uniforms. Impersonating the police, they then proceeded to rob the Bank of New South Wales and held the town captive for several days. While in Jerilderie, he sought to have his manifesto published, the famous Jerilderie letter, a rambling 8,000 word condemnation of the colonial administration in Victoria and specifically the treatment of the Irish

Irish Australian

Irish Australians have played a long and enduring part in Australia's history. Many came to Australia in the eighteenth century as settlers or as convicts, and contributed to Australia's development in many different areas....

. Being unable to find the local newspaper editor, he left the letter with a member of the bank staff and returned to Victoria £2,000 richer.

Riverina and Federation

The close geographic and cultural ties between the Riverina and northern Victoria, combined with continuing frustration with inter colonial tariffs, made the Riverina a fertile area for ideas for uniting the various colonies in an Australian federation

Federation of Australia

. This would see the southern Riverina in particular take a leading role in bringing about federation.

Prior to federation, the various Australian colonies could, and often did, charge tariff

Tariff

A tariff may be either tax on imports or exports , or a list or schedule of prices for such things as rail service, bus routes, and electrical usage ....

s on goods from the other colonies, ostensibly for the protection

Protectionism

Protectionism is the economic policy of restraining trade between states through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, restrictive quotas, and a variety of other government regulations designed to allow "fair competition" between imports and goods and services produced domestically.This...

of their domestic manufacturing industries, mainly based in the larger cities such as Sydney and Melbourne. For a border community such as the southern Riverina, these tariffs were a sore burden, making goods purchased from Melbourne, the closest large city, more expensive and reducing the competitiveness of these towns supplying the Melbourne and Adelaide markets. In addition, crossing the border on the Murray River was a tiresome experience as each border crossing had customs posts inspecting goods and luggage to ensure all duty was paid and to reduce smuggling, a popular activity. Another item of concern was the lack of adequate river crossings. Along the Riverina the Murray was—and remains—part of New South Wales, who had no interest in assisting border residents to access goods and services in Victoria that may otherwise have been sourced from Sydney.

In the early 1890s, for mainly patriotic reasons, the Australian Natives Association

Australian Natives Association

The Australian Natives' Association , a mutual society was founded in Melbourne, Australia in April 1871. The Association played a leading role in the movement for Australian federation in the last 20 years of the 19th century. In 1900 it had a membership of 17,000, mainly in Victoria.The ANA...

helped establish the Federation League, a society dedicated to the creation of a federal nation. Following a series of addresses by the future Prime Minister

Prime Minister of Australia

The Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia is the highest minister of the Crown, leader of the Cabinet and Head of Her Majesty's Australian Government, holding office on commission from the Governor-General of Australia. The office of Prime Minister is, in practice, the most powerful...

, Edmund Barton

Edmund Barton

Sir Edmund Barton, GCMG, KC , Australian politician and judge, was the first Prime Minister of Australia and a founding justice of the High Court of Australia....

to large crowds, some 15 League branches were established in the towns along the southern border. One of these towns, Corowa, was the location for the first conference of the Australian Federation League in 1893. At this conference, Dr John Quick

John Quick (politician)

Sir John Quick , Australian politician and author, was the federal Member of Parliament for Bendigo from 1901 to 1913 and a leading delegate to the constitutional conventions of the 1890s.-Early life:...

, a delegate from Bendigo, proposed a resolution calling for the colonial legislatures to pass an act providing for the election of representatives to a convention to develop a federal constitution

Constitution

A constitution is a set of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organization is governed. These rules together make up, i.e. constitute, what the entity is...

. This has been seen as the turning point in the push for Federation. The momentum generated from this point lead to a series of conventions and elections and finally, the inauguration of a federal constitution

Constitution of Australia

The Constitution of Australia is the supreme law under which the Australian Commonwealth Government operates. It consists of several documents. The most important is the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Australia...

on 1 January 1901.

Irrigation and closer settlement

Large scale irrigation commenced with the establishment of the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area

Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area

The Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area is geographically located within the Riverina area of New South Wales was created to control and divert the flow of local river and creek systems for the purpose of food production...

(MIA) in 1912 which diverted water from the Murrumbidgee River near Narrandera. The River Murray Waters Agreement of 1915 allowed 26 weir

Weir

A weir is a small overflow dam used to alter the flow characteristics of a river or stream. In most cases weirs take the form of a barrier across the river that causes water to pool behind the structure , but allows water to flow over the top...

s to be constructed with locks to provide permanent riverboat access to Echuca. When riverboat transport was no longer significant, the weirs supported irrigation. Irrigation in the region continued to develop with the construction of the Hume Dam between 1919 and 1931, the Burrinjuck Dam

Burrinjuck Dam

Burrinjuck Dam is a high, concrete gravity dam on the Murrumbidgee River approximately 60 km from Yass, New South Wales, Australia. The Yass and Goodradigbee Rivers flow into the dam. The dam divides the upper and lower catchment of the Murrumbidgee and is the headwater storage for the...

built in 1928 and Blowering Dam

Blowering Dam

Blowering Dam is on the Tumut River in Australia. It is part of the Snowy Mountains Scheme. Associated with the dam is the Blowering Power Station....

built in 1968.

Development and promotion of the MIA led to large scale settlement on land described by Oxley 100 years earlier as "country which, for barrenness and desolation, can I think, have no equal." Settlers came from a diverse range of backgrounds and nationalities. In particular, the Italian community prospered in the Area, owning nearly half of all the farms around Griffith by 1954.
Later, further irrigation was developed for areas in the Murray valley starting with the Wakool Irrigation District in 1932, then the Deniboota and Denimein Irrigation Districts in 1938, the Berriquin Irrigation District in 1939 and the Tullakool Irrigation Area in 1942. The Coleambally Irrigation Area, established in 1968, was the last of the major government-sponsored irrigation developments in New South Wales.

Agriculture

The high soil fertility and abundance of water in the Riverina floodplain has made the Riverina region one of the most productive farming regions in Australia with rice, wheat, maize

Maize

Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...

, canola

Canola

Canola refers to a cultivar of either Rapeseed or Field Mustard . Its seeds are used to produce edible oil suitable for consumption by humans and livestock. The oil is also suitable for use as biodiesel.Originally, Canola was bred naturally from rapeseed in Canada by Keith Downey and Baldur R...

, citrus

Citrus

Citrus is a common term and genus of flowering plants in the rue family, Rutaceae. Citrus is believed to have originated in the part of Southeast Asia bordered by Northeastern India, Myanmar and the Yunnan province of China...

and wine grapes being grown in the area. The Riverina contains many irrigation schemes including the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area

Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area

. 182000 hectares (449,731.4 acre) are under irrigation in the region.

For the first few decades following the 1830s, European pastoral activity focused in the main on cattle production but by the 1860s sheep were the predominant stock.

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the region's agricultural and horticultural production was worth more than A$

Australian dollar

The Australian dollar is the currency of the Commonwealth of Australia, including Christmas Island, Cocos Islands, and Norfolk Island, as well as the independent Pacific Island states of Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu...

1 billion. The region produces:

over 25% of the state's fruit and vegetables
90% of NSW citrus products
80% of NSW wine/grape production
livestock feedlots, sales and processing facilities
nearly 20% of all NSW crop production and two thirds of its total value.

In 1991–92 sheep and lamb numbers in the region were close to 7 million and there were 500,000 meat cattle.

Wool

Much of the dryland

Dryland farming

Dryland farming is an agricultural technique for non-irrigated cultivation of drylands.-Locations:Dryland farming is used in the Great Plains, the Palouse plateau of Eastern Washington, and other arid regions of North America, the Middle East and in other grain growing regions such as the steppes...

areas of the Riverina contain large sheep station

Sheep station

s, producing medium class wool

Wool classing

Wool classing is an occupation for which people are trained to produce uniform, predictable, low risk lines of wool. This is carried out by examining the characteristics of the wool in its raw state. The characteristics which a wool classer would examine are:Breed of the sheep: Shedding breeds will...

. The Peppin Merino

Peppin Merino

The Peppin Merino is a breed of Merino Sheep raised for its wool, mostly in Australia. So important is the Peppin Merino that sheep men throughout Australia often classify their sheep simply as being either Peppin, or non-Peppin.....

sheep was first bred in the area around Wanganella

Wanganella, New South Wales

Wanganella is a village community on the Billabong Creek in New South Wales, Australia. The settlement is on the Cobb Highway, located between Hay and Deniliquin . Wanganella is within the Conargo Shire Council local government area...

. As many as 70 percent of today’s Australian Merinos are said to be directly descended from the Peppin-developed sheep. The Riverina is home to many Merino studs and the saltbush plains are regarded as one of Australia's best wool growing regions.

Rice

The Riverina produces the vast majority of rice grown in Australia, particularly in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area

Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area

(MIA), but also around the Finley

Finley, New South Wales

Finley is a town in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. It is the largest town in the Berrigan Shire Local Government Area. At the 2006 census, Finley had a population of 2,054 people....

, Coleambally

Coleambally, New South Wales

Coleambally is a small town in the Riverina of New South Wales, Australia, in Murrumbidgee Shire.Coleambally is one of the newest towns in the state of New South Wales, officially opened in June 1968, with the Post Office opening on 1 April 1970...

and Deniliquin areas. The first commercial rice crops in the Riverina were grown in the Leeton and Yanco district in 1924, expanding to Wakool

Wakool, New South Wales

Wakool is a town in the western Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. Wakool is located in the Wakool Shire Local Government Area, south west of the state capital, Sydney and north-west of Melbourne. At the 2006 census, Wakool had a population of 213.Wakool Post Office opened on 1...

during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, the Denimein and Deniboota Irrigation Areas in the 1950s and Coleambally and Finley in the 1960s. In recent years, rice is also grown in the Hay, Carrathool

Carrathool, New South Wales

Carrathool is a village in the western Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia, located in the Carrathool Shire. In 2006, Carrathool had a population of 325 people. It is about north of the Sturt Highway between Darlington Point and Hay...

and Hillston

Hillston, New South Wales

areas.

Historically, well over one million tonnes of Australian rice has been produced each year and exported to over 70 countries, generating A$

Australian dollar

500 million in export income and supporting 63 towns in the Riverina and northern Victoria. More recently, drought has drastically reduced this quantity to less than 30,000 tonnes with resultant economic effects. Recent rains however will see this volume increase. The headquarters of Ricegrowers Limited

Ricegrowers Limited

Ricegrowers Limited, trading as SunRice, is claimed to be the "world's fifth largest ricefood exporter", and have historically been one of Australia's largest exporters of processed branded food products .SunRice's main production is still based in regional New South Wales, Australia, with a...

, who trade under the SunRice name, is located in Leeton, Australia's rice capital. Major rice mills are located in Leeton

Leeton, New South Wales

Leeton is a town in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. Leeton is situated approximately 550 km west of Sydney and 450 km north of Melbourne in the productive Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area. Leeton is administered by Leeton Shire Council...

, Coleambally and the largest rice mill in the southern hemisphere in Deniliquin.

Wine

The Riverina region is one of the most prosperous grape growing regions in Australia (particularly in Griffith), along with the Barossa Valley

Barossa Valley (wine)

The Barossa Valley is one of Australia's oldest wine regions. Located in South Australia, the Barossa Valley is about 56km northeast of the city of Adelaide...

in South Australia. The region grows 55% of wine grapes in New South Wales and 15% of the total grape production within Australia and 80% of wine/grape production of New South Wales; the region is Australia's largest producer of wine. Over 50% of the Riverina's wine production is exported. As a producer of specialist wine grapes, its wine style of international importance is Botrytised

Noble rot

Noble rot is the benevolent form of a grey fungus, Botrytis cinerea, affecting wine grapes. Infestation by Botrytis requires moist conditions, and if the weather stays wet, the malevolent form, "grey rot", can destroy crops of grapes...

Semillon

Sémillon

Sémillon is a golden-skinned grape used to make dry and sweet white wines, most notably in France and Australia.-History:The origin of the Sémillon grape is hard to determine. It is known that it first arrived in Australia in the early 19th century and by the 1820s the grape covered over 90 percent...

and the outstanding speciality made from these grapes is a "sauternes

Sauternes (wine)

Sauternes is a French sweet wine from the Sauternais region of the Graves section in Bordeaux. Sauternes is made from Sémillon, Sauvignon Blanc, and Muscadelle grapes that have been affected by Botrytis cinerea, also known as noble rot. This causes the grapes to become partially raisined,...

-style" dessert wine

Dessert wine

Dessert wines are sweet wines typically served with dessert.There is no simple definition of a dessert wine. In the UK, a dessert wine is considered to be any sweet wine drunk with a meal, as opposed to the white fortified wines drunk before the meal, and the red fortified wines drunk after it...

.

Irrigation made it possible to grow grapes for wine. The first grapes were planted at Hanwood

Hanwood, New South Wales

Hanwood is a town in the central Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. The town is located 5 kilometres south of Griffith, New South Wales and is in the City of Griffith Local Government Area...

in the spring of 1913 by John James McWilliam and his eldest son Jack who had come to the district from their winery in Junee. Irrigation was by carting of water until the irrigation channels were opened a few months later. The first grapes were picked in 1916 and sent to Junee for processing. Penfolds

Penfolds

Penfolds is an Australian wine producer, founded in 1844 by Christopher Rawson Penfold, an English physician who emigrated to Australia, and his wife, Mary Penfold...

established their winery in the region in 1919.

Cities, towns and settlements

At the 2001 census

Census in Australia

The Australian census is administered once every five years by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The most recent census was conducted on 9 August 2011; the next will be conducted in 2016. Prior to the introduction of regular censuses in 1961, they had also been run in 1901, 1911, 1921, 1933,...

, the population of the Murray-Murrumbidgee (Statistical Region Sector), consisting almost entirely of the Riverina, was 255,881, 2.9% of whom are indigenous and 7.4% born outside Australia. Other than the United Kingdom and Ireland, the largest ethnic groups in the Riverina were Italians

Italian Australians

-Characteristics :The 2006 Census counted 199,124 persons who were born in Italy. However, 852,417 persons identified themselves as having Italian ancestry, either alone or in combination with another ancestry . Italian is the fifth most identified ancestry in Australia behind 'Australian',...

and Germans

German Australian

German religious refugees represented the first major wave of German settlement in Australia, arriving in South Australia in 1838. Some were active as missionaries and explorers in Australia from early in the 19th century, and German prospectors were well-represented in the 1850s gold rushes...

.

The Riverina includes three cities; Wagga Wagga

Wagga Wagga, New South Wales

, Albury

Albury-Wodonga

Albury-Wodonga is the broad settlement incorporating the twin Australian cities of Albury and Wodonga, which are separated geographically by the Murray River and politically by a state border: Albury on the north of the river is part of New South Wales while Wodonga on the south bank is in...

and Griffith

Griffith, New South Wales

. Other large towns include Leeton

Leeton, New South Wales

, Deniliquin, Cootamundra

Cootamundra, New South Wales

, Narrandera

Narrandera, New South Wales

, Junee

Junee, New South Wales

, and Hay

Hay, New South Wales

Wagga Wagga is the largest inland city in New South Wales and serves as an important employment, educational, cultural, social and entertainment centre for surrounding towns throughout the Riverina. Wagga Wagga's facilities are of metropolitan standards with shopping, cafes, recreational facilities and nightlife present within the city.

Albury offers similar facilities to Wagga Wagga to the far south of New South Wales and northern Victoria. The three largest centres in population in the region after Wagga Wagga and Albury are Griffith

Griffith, New South Wales

, Leeton

Leeton, New South Wales

and Deniliquin and they provide advanced services to the outlying farming regions.

Parts of the Riverina experienced substantial population growth in the late 1990s and early 2000s; in the five year period between 1996 and 2001, Griffith's population increased by 10.8%. Until recently Wagga Wagga's population was declining slowly and aging with strong growth in age groups 40 and over. This has now changed and Wagga Wagga has become one of Australia's leading examples of the "sponge" city phenomenon, attracting residents from smaller towns in the Riverina such as Urana

Urana, New South Wales

. In the year ended 30 June 2006, the population of Wagga Wagga grew by 1.3%, driven by its role as the regional centre for the Riverina and its hosting of a campus of Charles Sturt University

Charles Sturt University

and Australian Defence Force

Australian Defence Force

bases.

Politics

The Riverina is represented at the federal level in two divisions of the Australian House of Representatives

Australian House of Representatives

The House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the Parliament of Australia; it is the lower house; the upper house is the Senate. Members of Parliament serve for terms of approximately three years....

, the Division of Riverina

Division of Riverina

The Division of Riverina is an Australian Electoral Division in the state of New South Wales. It is located in south-west rural New South Wales, generally following the Murrumbidgee River valley. It includes the cities of Wagga Wagga and Griffith as well as the towns of Junee, West Wyalong, Tumut,...

, covering the Murrumbidgee valley; and the Division of Farrer

Division of Farrer

The Division of Farrer is an Australian Electoral Division in New South Wales. The division was created in 1949 and is named for William Farrer, agricultural scientist. It is located in the southern rural area of the state and includes Albury, Balranald, Deniliquin and Jerilderie. It has always...

, the area along the Murray River. In 2007, Riverina is held by the National Party

National Party of Australia

The National Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Traditionally representing graziers, farmers and rural voters generally, it began as the The Country Party, but adopted the name The National Country Party in 1975, changed to The National Party of Australia in 1982. The party is...

and Farrer by the Liberal Party

Liberal Party of Australia

The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...

, who, in coalition, are the official opposition parties. At the state level, the electoral districts of Albury, Burrinjuck, Murrumbidgee

Electoral district of Murrumbidgee

Murrumbidgee is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales, named after the Murrumbidgee River. It is represented by Adrian Piccoli of the National Party of Australia....

, Murray-Darling

Electoral district of Murray-Darling

Murray-Darling is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales. It is represented by John Williams of the National Party of Australia....

and Wagga Wagga

Electoral district of Wagga Wagga

Wagga Wagga is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales. It is represented by Daryl Maguire of the Liberal Party of Australia....

cover the Riverina region.

There are a range of Local Government authorities in the region, ranging from the cities of Wagga Wagga

City of Wagga Wagga

The Wagga Wagga City Council was formed from the amalgamation of City of Wagga Wagga with Mitchell and Kyeamba Shires in 1981. 22 December 2009, Wagga Wagga City Council announced that Phil Pinyon would be appointed as the General Manager of the Wagga Wagga City Council after Lyn Russell, who...

, Albury

City of Albury

The City of Albury is a Local Government Area in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. The LGA covers the entirety of the Albury urban area including the suburbs of Forrest Hill, Lavington, Thurgoona, Splitters Creek, Ettamogah, Bowna, Table Top and Wirlinga.The LGA is administered...

and Griffith

City of Griffith

The City of Griffith is a Local Government Area in south-western New South Wales, Australia. It is in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area and on Kidman Way....

to the very small (in population) shires of Urana, Conargo and Jerilderie. These Councils are arranged into three groupings known as Regional Organisation of Councils (ROC)s, Murray ROC, Riverina ROC and Riverina Eastern ROC covering the entire region.

Facilities and services

Higher education in the Riverina is provided by Charles Sturt University

Charles Sturt University

(CSU), with campuses serving the Riverina in Albury and Wagga Wagga. The university was established in 1989 with the amalgamation of the Albury and Wagga Wagga campuses of the Riverina-Murray Institute of Higher Education with the Mitchell College of Advanced Education in Bathurst

Bathurst, New South Wales

-CBD and suburbs:Bathurst's CBD is located on William, George, Howick, Russell, and Durham Streets. The CBD is approximately 25 hectares and surrounds two city blocks. Within this block layout is banking, government services, shopping centres, retail shops, a park* and monuments...

. CSU provides specialist services to the Riverina in areas such as viticulture

Viticulture

Viticulture is the science, production and study of grapes which deals with the series of events that occur in the vineyard. When the grapes are used for winemaking, it is also known as viniculture...

and winemaking.

Other educational facilities in the region include the Riverina Institute

Riverina Institute

Riverina Institute is the group of TAFE NSW campuses that operate in Riverina and Sunraysia regions of New South Wales, Australia. They offer a large variety of courses at their numerous campuses throughout the region...

of TAFE providing technical and vocational training at a number of campuses throughout the region. Most larger centres have public high schools and most smaller centres are serviced by a public primary school.

The health service in the Riverina is administered by Greater Southern Area Health Service

Greater Southern Area Health Service

Greater Southern Area Health Service, abbreviated GSAHS, was formed in January 2005 from the amalgamation of the former Greater Murray Area Health Service and Southern Area Health Service. It is a statutory body of the Government of New South Wales, operating under the NSW Department of Health,...

, formed on 1 January 2005 with the amalgamation of the Greater Murray Area Health Service, servicing the Riverina and Southern Area Health Service, servicing areas east of the Great Dividing Range

Great Dividing Range

and south of Wollongong

Wollongong, New South Wales

Wollongong is a seaside city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. It lies on the narrow coastal strip between the Illawarra Escarpment and the Pacific Ocean, 82 kilometres south of Sydney...

. Base Hospitals are located at Albury, Wagga Wagga and Griffith while Deniliquin, Hillston, Henty

Henty, New South Wales

and Narrandera

Narrandera, New South Wales

among others are home to regional hospitals.

Situated between the large cities of Melbourne

Melbourne

, Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

and Adelaide

Adelaide

Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...

, the Riverina is a transportation hub. Major transportation links in the region include the Hume Highway

Hume Highway

The Hume Highway/Hume Freeway is one of Australia's major inter-city highways, running for 880 km between Sydney and Melbourne. It is part of the Auslink National Network and is a vital link for road freight to transport goods to and from the two cities as well as serving Albury-Wodonga and...

, Newell Highway

Newell Highway

The Newell Highway is the longest highway in New South Wales, Australia. It runs parallel to the eastern coast about 400 kilometres inland, and is the main inland direct road link from Victoria to Queensland, bypassing the more congested coastal areas of New South Wales...

and Sturt Highway

Sturt Highway

The Sturt Highway is an Australian highway in New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia. It is part of the Auslink National network and is part of the main highway route between Sydney and Adelaide.-Route:...

; all part of the Australian National Highway

National Highway (Australia)

thumb|right|150px|The National Highway Shield in NSW, QLD, WA, NT & TAS.The National Highway is a system of roads connecting all the States and Territories of Australia, and is the major network of highways connecting Australia's largest and most important cities.The National Highway was...

. Other highways include the Riverina Highway

Riverina Highway

Riverina Highway is a highway in New South Wales, Australia.Westwards, the highway stretches from Hume Weir, immediately east of Albury to Deniliquin...

, Cobb Highway

Cobb Highway

The Cobb Highway is a State highway in western New South Wales, Australia. From north to south the Cobb Highway begins at its junction with the Barrier Highway near Wilcannia and runs south through the townships of Ivanhoe, Booligal, Hay and Deniliquin. It ends at Moama where the...

, Olympic Highway, Kidman Way

Kidman Way

The Kidman Way is an important highway in New South Wales , Australia, which is designated as State Highway 87. It is named after Sir Sidney Kidman, Australian cattle king and philanthropist who owned a large number of cattle stations along the path, many still owned by his descendants. It is an...

, Irrigation Way

Irrigation Way

Irrigation Way is a major regional highway that runs approximately 88 kilometres through the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area in south western New South Wales, Australia. Irrigation Way runs through three Local Government Area's. It begins at the town of Narrandera on the Newell Highway and runs 30...

and Burley Griffin Way

Burley Griffin Way

Burley Griffin Way is a New South Wales state route, is located in south eastern Australia. Named after the American architect, Walter Burley Griffin, designer of the cities of Canberra and Griffith, the highway links the two cities via Yass and the Barton Highway.It provides a major link between...

.

CountryLink

CountryLink

CountryLink is the operator of passenger rail services in country New South Wales, Australia and into Queensland and Victoria. It is an operating brand of the Rail Corporation New South Wales, a government-owned entity...

, a division of the New South Wales Rail Corporation, provide rail services to Griffith, Albury and Wagga Wagga with connecting buses reaching smaller communities. V/Line

V/Line

V/Line is a not for profit regional passenger train and coach service in Victoria, Australia. It was created after the split-up of VicRail in 1983. V/Line is owned by the V/Line Corporation which is a Victorian State Government statutory authority...

provide services linking Griffith, Deniliquin and the towns along the Murray with public transport access to Melbourne.

The Riverina is host to two major Australian Defence Force

Australian Defence Force

training facilities. The Army Recruit Training Centre is located at Kapooka

Kapooka, New South Wales

Kapooka is a suburb in the south west of Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia.The suburb of Kapooka is home to the Department of Defence's Blamey Barracks from where the Army Recruit Training Centre conducts its operations....

, 9.5 kilometres (5.9 mi) south west of Wagga Wagga and RAAF Base Wagga

RAAF Base Wagga

RAAF Base Wagga is located in the New South Wales town of Wagga Wagga, in the suburb of Forest Hill.The RAAF no longer controls the airfield which, although still owned by the Commonwealth of Australia, is currently leased to the Wagga Wagga City Council...

is the home of the RAAF Ground Training Wing base. These bases along with a Royal Australian Navy Defence Communications Station play an integral role in the local economy.

Sports

The Riverina is well known for the quality and range of its sports activity and many famous sportsmen and women have hailed from the Riverina. These include:

Tennis champions Margaret Court and Evonne Goolagong Cawley
Evonne Goolagong
Evonne Fay Goolagong Cawley, AO, MBE is a former World No. 1 Australian female tennis player. She was one of the world's leading players in the 1970s and early 1980s, when she won 14 Grand Slam titles: seven in singles , six in women's doubles, and one in mixed doubles.-Early life:Goolagong is the...
Cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

ers Mark Taylor
Mark Taylor (cricketer)
Mark Anthony Taylor, AO is a former Australian cricket player and Test opening batsman from 1988–1999, as well as captain from 1994–1999, succeeding Allan Border...

, Geoff Lawson
Geoff Lawson (cricketer)
Geoffrey Francis Lawson, OAM is a former Australian cricketer and the former coach of the Pakistan cricket team....

and Michael Slater
Michael Slater
Michael Jonathon Slater is a former Australian cricketer who played in 74 Tests and 42 ODIs for the Australian cricket team from 1993 to 2001...
Rugby League
Rugby league
Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...

players Peter Sterling
Peter Sterling
Peter Maxwell John "Sterlo" Sterling OAM is an Australian rugby league commentator and former player. He was one of the all-time great halfbacks and a major contributor to Parramatta Eels' dominance of the New South Wales Rugby League premiership in the 1980s. Sterling played nineteen Tests for...

and Laurie Daley
Laurie Daley
Laurie Daley OA is an Australian rugby league football commentator and former player of Indigenous Australian descent. He represented Australia on 26 occasions and has since been named as one of the nation's finest players of the 20th century...

and the Mortimer brothers: Chris Mortimer
Chris Mortimer
Chris Mortimer is an Australian former professional rugby league player for the Canterbury Bulldogs, Penrith Panthers, New South Wales and for the Australian national side....

, Peter Mortimer
Peter Mortimer (rugby league)
Peter Mortimer is a former Australian professional rugby league player for the Canterbury Bulldogs and New South Wales....

and Steve Mortimer
Steve Mortimer
Steve Mortimer OAM, , nicknamed Turvey after Turvey Park in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, where he hailed from, is an Australian former rugby league halfback. Mortimer played a Canterbury-Bankstown club record 272 first grade games between 1976–88. Mortimer's two younger brothers Peter and Chris...
Australian rules football
Australian rules football
Australian rules football, officially known as Australian football, also called football, Aussie rules or footy is a sport played between two teams of 22 players on either...

ers Haydn Bunton Senior, Paul Kelly
Paul Kelly (footballer)
Paul Kelly is a former Australian rules footballer, winner of the Brownlow Medal and captain of the Sydney Swans for ten seasons. He was and still is known to Swans fans everywhere as "Captain Courageous"....

and Wayne Carey
Wayne Carey
Wayne Carey is a former Australian rules footballer who played with the North Melbourne and Adelaide Football Clubs in the Australian Football League ....
Jockeys Arthur "Scobie" Breasley
Scobie Breasley
Arthur Edward "Scobie" Breasley was an Australian jockey. He won the Caulfield Cup in Melbourne five times: 1942-45 consecutively on Tranquil Star, Skipton, Counsel and St Fairy; then on Peshawar in 1952...

and Roy Higgins
Roy Higgins
Roy Henry Higgins MBE is a former Australian jockey who rode in the late 1960s and the 1970s. He grew up in the southern New South Wales town of Deniliquin where he was apprenticed to local horse trainer Jim Watters...

.

The "Wagga Effect" is a term that has been used frequently in the Australian media to describe the disproportionately large number of elite sportsmen and women that originate from the town. It is speculated that the phenomenon may arise in rural areas where the population is large enough to sustain the presence of a large number of sporting codes, but small enough to ensure that talented individuals are exposed to adult-level competition at an earlier age.
Unusually for New South Wales, Australian rules football

Australian rules football

Australian rules football, officially known as Australian football, also called football, Aussie rules or footy is a sport played between two teams of 22 players on either...

is quite popular as the Riverina is south of the Barassi Line

Barassi Line

The Barassi Line was first suggested by Professor Ian Turner in his 1978 Ron Barassi Memorial Lecture to refer to a dividing line in Australia that divides areas where Australian rules is the dominant winter code of football from those where rugby football codes are most popular...

, and there are many clubs and leagues in the district, including the Riverina Football League

Riverina Football League

The Riverina Football Netball League is a semi-professional Australian rules football and netball competition containing nine clubs based in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. The league features three grades in the Australian rules football competition, these being seniors,...

, Farrer Football League

Farrer Football League

The Farrer Football Netball League is a semi-professional Australian rules football and netball competition containing eight clubs based in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. The league features three grades in the Australian rules football competition, these being seniors, reserves...

, Hume Football League

Hume Football League

The Hume Football League is an Australian rules football competition in the southern Riverina region of New South Wales, with clubs coming from a number of farming communities. Some players also come from the city of Albury, which is at the south of the area covered by the league...

, Northern Riverina Football League

Northern Riverina Football League

The Northern Riverina Football Netball League is an Australian rules football and netball competition containing seven clubs in the northern Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. The league features four grades in the Australian rules football competition, these being seniors, under 17s,...

and Coreen & District Football League

Coreen & District Football League

The Coreen & District Football League was an Australian rules football competition in the Coreen district of the Riverina in New South Wales. The league was disbanded at the end of the 2007 season after 98 years of competition...

. In addition, many clubs along the border play in Victorian leagues such as the Ovens & Murray Football League

Ovens & Murray Football League

The Ovens and Murray Football League, often referred to locally as the O&M, is a semi-professional Australian rules football league based around ten clubs in north-eastern Victoria and the southern Riverina region of New South Wales, and affiliated with the Victorian Country Football League...

, Murray Football League

Murray Football League

The Murray Football League is an Australian rules football league affiliated with the Victorian Country Football League.The league covers a large area of northern Victoria and southern New South Wales from Shepparton in the south to Deniliquin in the north.It covers much the same area as the...

, Picola & District Football League

Picola & District Football League

The Picola & District Football Netball League is an Australian rules football league affiliated with the Victorian Country Football League.The league covers a large area of northern Victoria and southern New South Wales from Shepparton in the south to Jerilderie in the north and consists of teams...

and the Golden Rivers Football League

Golden Rivers Football League

The Golden Rivers Football League is an Australian rules football organization with a long history. The League formed in 1919 as the Kerang and District Football Association. In 1946 the league was reestablished as the Kerang and District Football League...

.

In the northern part of the Riverina, Rugby League

Rugby league

Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...

and Rugby Union

Rugby union

Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

are both strong. Rugby League competitions in the district include Group 9

Group 9 Rugby League

Group 9 is a rugby league competition based around the surrounding areas of Wagga Wagga, New South Wales. The competition is played in five grades, these being the under 16s , the under 18s , women's league-tag, Reserve Grade and the XXXX Gold Group 9 First Grade.-History:Group 9 Rugby League was...

, Group 17

Group 17 Rugby League

Group 17 is a rugby league competition in the lower Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia, run under the auspices of the Country Rugby League.-Teams:The following clubs in Group 17 fielded teams in the 2006 First Grade competition:* Barellan Rams...

and Group 20 Rugby League

Group 20 Rugby League

Group 20 is a rugby league competition based around the surrounding areas of Leeton and Griffith in New South Wales. The competition is played in five grades, these being the under 16s , the under 18s , womens league-tag , Reserve Grade and the XXXX Gold First Grade.-Current Clubs:-...

. Teams from Corowa

Corowa, New South Wales

and Finley

Finley, New South Wales

play in the Goulburn Murray Rugby League. Rugby Union in the district is run by the ACT and Southern NSW Rugby Union

ACT and Southern NSW Rugby Union

The ACT and Southern NSW Rugby Union is the governing body for rugby union in the Australian Capital Territory and southern regions of New South Wales. The union is represented by one team in the Super 14 competition, the Brumbies...

, with clubs from Albury, Wagga Wagga, Temora

Temora, New South Wales

Temora is a town located in north east part of the Riverina area of New South Wales, south-west of the state capital, Sydney. At the 2006 census the population of Temora was 4,086.-History:...

and Hay competing in the Southern Inland Rugby Union.

Other popular sports in the Riverina include cycling

Cycling

Cycling, also called bicycling or biking, is the use of bicycles for transport, recreation, or for sport. Persons engaged in cycling are cyclists or bicyclists...

, bowls

Bowls

Bowls is a sport in which the objective is to roll slightly asymmetric balls so that they stop close to a smaller "jack" or "kitty". It is played on a pitch which may be flat or convex or uneven...

, cricket

Cricket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

, netball

Netball

Netball is a ball sport played between two teams of seven players. Its development, derived from early versions of basketball, began in England in the 1890s. By 1960 international playing rules had been standardised for the game, and the International Federation of Netball and Women's Basketball ...

, tennis

Tennis

Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...

and horse racing

Horse racing

Horse racing is an equestrian sport that has a long history. Archaeological records indicate that horse racing occurred in ancient Babylon, Syria, and Egypt. Both chariot and mounted horse racing were events in the ancient Greek Olympics by 648 BC...

. The Riverina is home to many racecourses and picnic race meetings

Picnic horse racing

Picnic horse racing, or more usually picnic races or more colloquially "the picnics" refer to amateur Thoroughbred horse racing meetings, predominantly in Australia. The meetings are organized by amateur clubs, the jockeys are amateur riders, or sometimes former professional jockeys...

are held regularly at places such as Corowa, Berrigan

Berrigan, New South Wales

Berrigan is a town located on the Riverina Highway in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. Berrigan is in the Berrigan Shire Local Government Area and is the location of the Berrigan Shire Council offices...

, Carrathool

Carrathool, New South Wales

, Tumut

Tumut, New South Wales

Tumut is a town in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia, situated on the banks of the Tumut River. Tumut is at the foothills of the Snowy Mountains and is referred to as the gateway to the Snowy Mountains Scheme...

and Lockhart

Lockhart, New South Wales

Culture

The Riverina was the setting for some of Australia's great artistic and literary works of the 19th and early 20th century. Most of these works reflected the rural lifestyle and agricultural pursuits common in the Riverina at that time and projected an image of Australia and Australians that would later change rapidly.

The writer Joseph Furphy

Joseph Furphy

Joseph Furphy , is widely regarded as the "Father of the Australian novel". He mostly wrote under the pseudonym Tom Collins, and is best known for his novel Such is Life , regarded as an Australian classic.-Biography:Furphy was born at Yering Station in Yering, Victoria...

worked as a bullocky

Bullocky

A bullocky is an Australian English term for the driver of a bullock team. Bullock drivers were also known as teamsters or carriers. The American term for a bullocky is a bullwhacker.-History:...

for 10 years in the area around Hay

Hay, New South Wales

from 1872. Later, using the pen name

Pen name

A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...

Tom Collins, Furphy wrote Such is Life
Such is Life
Such Is Life: Being Certain Extracts From The Diary of Tom Collins is a novel written by the Australian author Joseph Furphy in 1897, and published on 1 August 1903...

set in the Riverina during the drought

Drought

A drought is an extended period of months or years when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply. Generally, this occurs when a region receives consistently below average precipitation. It can have a substantial impact on the ecosystem and agriculture of the affected region...

and depression of the 1890s and drawing on his experiences as a bullocky. Although a slow seller, the novel was described as "fitted to become an Australian classic" by A.G. Stephens, the literary critic of The Bulletin

The Bulletin

The Bulletin was an Australian weekly magazine that was published in Sydney from 1880 until January 2008. It was influential in Australian culture and politics from about 1890 until World War I, the period when it was identified with the "Bulletin school" of Australian literature. Its influence...

.

Published in 1921, Around the Boree Log and Other Verses was written by Patrick Joseph Hartigan

Patrick Joseph Hartigan

Monsignor Patrick Joseph Hartigan was an Australian Roman Catholic priest, educator, author and poet.-Biography:...

, under the pen name John O'Brien. A Roman Catholic priest, after early stints at Thurgoona

Thurgoona, New South Wales

Thurgoona is an outer suburb of the regional city of Albury in southern New South Wales, Australia. The suburb is located in the City of Albury Local government area.It is the site of one of the campuses of Charles Sturt University...

and Berrigan

Berrigan, New South Wales

, in 1917 Hartigan was appointed as the parish priest of Narrandera

Narrandera, New South Wales

where he stayed until 1944. His poems recorded the everyday lives and mateship of the people of the Riverina. His friend and well known poet C. J. Dennis

C. J. Dennis

Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis, better known as C. J. Dennis, was an Australian poet known for his humorous poems, especially "The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke", published in the early 20th century...

hailed them in the Bulletin

The Bulletin

as in 'the direct Lawson

Henry Lawson

Henry Lawson was an Australian writer and poet. Along with his contemporary Banjo Paterson, Lawson is among the best-known Australian poets and fiction writers of the colonial period and is often called Australia's "greatest writer"...

-Paterson

Banjo Paterson

Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson, OBE was an Australian bush poet, journalist and author. He wrote many ballads and poems about Australian life, focusing particularly on the rural and outback areas, including the district around Binalong, New South Wales where he spent much of his childhood...

line mainly—unaffected talk about Australians, much as they would naturally talk about themselves'. Around the Boree Log ran to five editions and 18,000 copies by 1926.

The artist and key member of the Heidelberg School

Heidelberg School

The Heidelberg School was an Australian art movement of the late 19th century. The movement has latterly been described as Australian Impressionism....

, Tom Roberts

Tom Roberts

Thomas William Roberts , usually known simply as Tom, was a prominent Australian artist and a key member of the Heidelberg School.-Life:...

spent some time on a sheep station

Sheep station

near Brocklesby

Brocklesby, New South Wales

Brocklesby is a small village situated north-west of Albury and west of Holbrook in Greater Hume Shire Council in the Riverina area of New South Wales. Nearby neighbours are Walbundrie to the north and Howlong to the south.-Historical significance:Brocklesby village was once a main railway...

prior to and during the painting of his most celebrated artwork, Shearing the Rams
Shearing the Rams
Shearing the Rams is an 1890 painting by the Australian artist Tom Roberts. The painting depicts sheep shearers plying their trade in a timber shearing shed...

. The painting was criticised in its time for the depiction of strong manual labour rather than the common "high art" themes of the day. It is seen now as reflecting Australia's largest industry at the time and the work of ordinary Australians. The painting is now in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria

National Gallery of Victoria

The National Gallery of Victoria is an art gallery and museum in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is the oldest and the largest public art gallery in Australia. Since December 2003, NGV has operated across two sites...

.
Scots of the Riverina
Scots of the Riverina
Scots of the Riverina is an Australian bush poem by Henry Lawson. It is set in the Riverina, New South Wales in the town of Gundagai. It tells of a boy who leaves home at the start of the harvest to move to the city, an unheard of and unforgivable thing for a Scot to do in the early 1900's,...

, a poem written by one of Australia's most renowned writers, Henry Lawson

Henry Lawson

, is set in Gundagai

Gundagai, New South Wales

Gundagai is a town in New South Wales, Australia. Although a small town, Gundagai is a popular topic for writers and has become a representative icon of a typical Australian country town...

. The poem describes a father's anger at his son's desertion at harvest time and later his grief when the son dies in battle in World War I

World War I

. Hay and Hell and Booligal
Hay and Hell and Booligal
Hay and Hell and Booligal is a poem by the Australian bush poet Banjo Paterson. Paterson wrote the poem while working as a solicitor with the firm of Street & Paterson in Sydney. It was first published in The Bulletin on 25 April 1896...

, written by Banjo Paterson

Banjo Paterson

, is a humorous take on life on the flat western Riverina plan.

Today, major cultural institutions in the Riverina include the Museum of the Riverina

Museum of the Riverina

The Museum of the Riverina is a local history museum in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia. The Riverina is the region in south-western New South Wales in which Wagga Wagga is located. The museum was established by Wagga Wagga and District Historical Society in 1967 The Museum of the Riverina...

, the Riverina Theatre Company and the Wagga Wagga Art Gallery, all located in the regional centre of Wagga Wagga with outreach to the smaller towns. Many regional towns including Hay, Deniliquin and Gundagai house museums of significant regional interest. The HotHouse Theatre group, based in Albury takes live theatre to small towns throughout the Riverina. The tiny town of Morundah

Morundah, New South Wales

Morundah is a small town in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. The town is located on the Newell Highway and in the Urana Shire Local Government Area. The town consists of a hotel, some silos and a few houses....

holds an annual night at the opera, hosting performances by OzOpera and the Victorian Opera

Victorian Opera (Melbourne)

Victorian Opera is an opera company based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The company was founded in 2005 and commenced operations in January 2006 with funding from the Victorian government, and Richard Gill as Artistic Director...

. Popular music groups from the Riverina include one of Australia's most distinctive and popular bands of the '90s and 2000s, Spiderbait

Spiderbait

Spiderbait are an Australian alternative rock band formed in Finley in 1989 by bass guitarist Janet English, singer-drummer Mark Maher , and guitarist Damian Whitty. In 2004 the group's cover version of the 1930s Lead Belly song "Black Betty" reached number one on the ARIA Singles Chart...

who come from the southern Riverina town of Finley

Finley, New South Wales

External links

History of SunRice.

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Geography

Landform and hydrology

Climate

Riverina bioregion

History

Exploration and pastoral settlement

Riverboats and railways

Bushrangers

Riverina and Federation

Irrigation and closer settlement

Agriculture

Wool

Rice

Wine

Cities, towns and settlements

Politics

Facilities and services

Sports

Culture

See also

External links