Murrumbidgee River

History

The Murrumbidgee River runs through the traditional lands of the Ngarigo, Ngunnawal, Wiradjuri, Nari Nari and Muthi Muthi Aboriginal peoples.

Exploration

The Murrumbidgee River was known to Europeans before they first recorded it. In 1820 the explorer Charles Throsby informed the Governor of New South Wales that he anticipated finding "a considerable river of salt water (except at very wet seasons), called by the natives Mur-rum-big-gee". In the expedition journal, Throsby wrote as a marginal note: "This river or stream is called by the natives Yeal-am-bid-gie ...". The river he had stumbled upon was in fact the Molonglo River, Throsby reached the actual river in April 1821.

In 1823, Brigade-Major John Ovens and Captain Mark Currie reached the upper Murrumbidgee when exploring south of Lake George. In 1829, Charles Sturt and his party rowed down the lower half of the Murrumbidgee River in a stoutly built, large row-boat, from Narrandera to the Murray River, and then down the Murray River to the sea. They rowed back upstream, against the current to their starting point. Sturt's description of their passage through the junction of the Murrumbidgee and Murray Rivers is dramatic. His description of wild strong currents in the Murrumbidgee—in the middle of summer (14 January 1830), when flows are declining and close to the seasonal summer/autumn minimum, is in contrast to the reduced flow seen at the junction today in mid-summer:

The men looked anxiously out ahead; for the singular change in the river had impressed on them an idea, that we were approaching its termination ... We were carried at a fearful rate down its gloomy and contracted banks ... At 3 p.m., Hopkinson called out that we were approaching a junction, and in less than a minute afterwards, we were hurried into a broad and noble river ... such was the force with which we had been shot out of the Morumbidgee, that we were carried nearly to the bank opposite its embouchure, whilst we continued to gaze in silent astonishment on the capacious channel [of the Murray River] we had entered ...

The Murrumbidgee basin was opened to settlement in the 1830s and soon became an important farming area.

Ernest Favenc, when writing on Australian exploration, commented on the relatively tardy European discovery of the river and that the river retained a name used by Indigenous Australians:

Here we may remark on the tenacity with which the Murrumbidgee River long eluded the eye of the white man. It is scarcely probable that Meehan and Hume, who on this occasion were within comparatively easy reach of the head waters, could have seen a new inland river at that time without mentioning the fact, but there is no record traceable anywhere as to the date of its discovery, or the name of its finder. When in 1823 Captain Currie and Major Ovens were led along its bank on to the beautiful Maneroo country by Joseph Wild, the stream was then familiar to the early settlers and called the Morumbidgee. Even in 1821, when Hume found the Yass Plains, almost on its bank, he makes no special mention of the river. From all this we may deduce the extremely probable fact that the position of the river was shown to some stockrider by a native, who also confided the aboriginal name, and so it gradually worked the knowledge of its identity into general belief. This theory is the more feasible as the river has retained its native name. If a white man of any known position had made the discovery, it would at once have received the name of some person holding official sway.

Navigation

The river was once used as a transport route, with paddle steamers navigating the river as far as Gundagai. The river trade declined with the coming of the railways. Paddle steamers last used the Murrumbidgee in the 1930s. To allow the steamers and towed barges to pass, there were opening bridges at Hay, Balranald, and Carathool

Floods

The river has risen above 7 metres (23 ft) at Gundagai nine times between 1852 and 2010, an average of just under once every eleven years. Since 1925, flooding has been minor with the exception of floods in 1974 and in December 2010, when the river rose to 10.2 metres (33 ft) at Gundagai. In the 1852 disaster, the river rose to just over 12.2 m (40 ft). The following year the river again rose to just over 12.5 m (41 ft). The construction of Burrinjuck Dam from 1907 has significantly reduced flooding but, despite the dam, there were major floods in 1925, 1950, 1974 and 2012.

The most notable flood was in 1852 when the town of Gundagai was swept away and 89 people, a third of the town's population, were killed. The town was rebuilt on higher ground.

In 1925, four people died and the flooding lasted for eight days.

The reduction in floods has consequences for wildlife, particularly birds and trees. There has been a decline in bird populations and black box flood plain eucalypt forest trees are starting to lose their crowns.

Major flooding occurred during March 2012 along the Murrumbidgee River including Wagga Wagga, where the river peaked at 10.56 metres (34.6 ft) on 6 March 2012. This peak was 0.18 metres (0.59 ft) below the 1974 flood level of 10.74 metres (35.2 ft).

Wetlands

Major wetlands along the Murrumbidgee or associated with the Murrumbidgee catchment include:

• Lowbidgee Floodplain, 2,000 square kilometres (772 sq mi) between Maude and Balranald
• Mid-Murrumbidgee Wetlands along the river from Narrandera to Carathool
• Fivebough and Tuckerbil Swamps
• Tomneys Plain
• Micalong Swamp
• Lake George
• Yaouk Swamp
• Black Swamp & Coopers Swamp
• Big Badja Swamp

Tributaries

The Murrumbidgee River has about 90 named tributaries in total; 24 rivers, and numerous creeks and gullies. The ordering of the basin, from source to mouth, of the major tributaries is:

Population centres

• Tharwa
• Canberra particularly Tuggeranong
• Jugiong
• Gundagai
• Wantabadgery
• Wagga Wagga
• Narrandera
• Yanco
• Leeton
• Darlington Point
• Hay
• Balranald

River crossings

The list below notes past and present bridges that cross over the Murrumbidgee River. There were numerous other crossings before the bridges were constructed and many of these still exist today.

Downstream from Wagga Wagga

Wagga Wagga to Burrinjuck

Upstream from Burrinjuck

Images

Distances along the river

• Gundagai to Wagga Wagga – 138 km (86 mi)
• Wagga Wagga to Yarragundy – 37 km (23 mi)
• Yarragundy to Yiorkibitto – 77 km (48 mi)
• Yiorkibitto to Grong Grong – 58 km (36 mi)
• Grong Grong to Narrandera – 21 km (13 mi)
• Narrandera to Yanco or Bedithera – 18 km (11 mi)
• Yanco to Yanco Station – 29 km (18 mi)
• Yanco to Gogeldrie – 21 km (13 mi)
• Gogeldrie to Tubbo – 24 km (15 mi)
• Tubbo to Cararburry – 55 km (34 mi)
• Cararbury to Carrathool – 66 km (41 mi)
• Carrathool to Burrabogie – 56 km (35 mi)
• Burrabogie to Illilliwa – 42 km (26 mi)
• Illilliwa to Hay – 22 km (14 mi)
• Hay to Toogambie – 63 km (39 mi)
• Toogambie to Maude – 40 km (25 mi)
• Maude to Lachlan Junction – 71 km (44 mi)
• Lachlan Junction to Balranald – 137 km (85 mi)
• Balranald to Canally – 42 km (26 mi)
• Canally to Weimby, Murray Junction – 61 km (38 mi)
• Total distance from Gundagai to Murrumbidgee Junction – 1,078 km (670 mi)