Boomahnoomoonah is a locality in the

Shire of Moira Moira Shire Council is a Local Government Area in the Northern Victoria Region of Victoria, Australia. Located in the north-east part of the state, it covers an area of . As at June 2021 the population was 30,018. It includes the towns of Cobra ...

local government area A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a State (administrative division), state, province, divi ...

. On Boomahnoomoonah Road, approximately 12 km southeast of

Yarrawonga, Victoria Yarrawonga is a town in the Shire of Moira local government area in the Australian state of Victoria. The town is situated on the south bank of the Murray River, the border between Victoria and New South Wales, and is located approximately ...

, it was once a small town having its own school, church and post office. Comprising medium to large farms the area is predominantly agricultural, focusing on dairying as well as sheep and cattle grazing. Some viticulture is also practised. "Boomahnoomoonah" is the longest single-word place name in Victoria.

Early history

The

Victorian Aborigines Aboriginal Victorians, the Aboriginal Australians of Victoria, Australia, occupied the land for tens of thousands of years prior to European settlement. Aboriginal people have lived a semi-nomadic existence of fishing, hunting and gathering, a ...

are the

traditional owners Native title is the designation given to the common law doctrine of Aboriginal title in Australia, which is the recognition by Australian law that Indigenous Australians (both Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander people) have rights ...

of the land; in particular the Bangerang people, a family group of the

Yorta Yorta The Yorta Yorta, also known as Jotijota, are an Aboriginal Australian people who have traditionally inhabited the area surrounding the junction of the Goulburn and Murray Rivers in present-day north-eastern Victoria and southern New South Wales ...

people who occupied a large area along the

Murray river The Murray River (in South Australia: River Murray) (Ngarrindjeri: ''Millewa'', Yorta Yorta: ''Tongala'') is a river in Southeastern Australia. It is Australia's longest river at extent. Its tributaries include five of the next six longest r ...

. A former postmistress claimed that the town's name was "aboriginal for 'big water'", but other local areas also share similar meanings for their names. The early exploration of the area was conducted by

Hamilton Hume Hamilton Hume (19 June 1797 – 19 April 1873) was an early explorer of the present-day Australian states of New South Wales and Victoria. In 1824, along with William Hovell, Hume participated in an expedition that first took an overland route ...

and

William Hovell William Hilton Hovell (26 April 1786 – 9 November 1875) was an English explorer of Australia. With Hamilton Hume, he made an 1824 overland expedition from Sydney to Port Phillip (near the site of present-day Melbourne), and later explored the ...

during the first half of the 19th century.

Squatters Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there ...

soon moved into the area and vast stations for grazing sheep and cattle were quickly established. During the 1860s the Victorian Land Acts allowed for the subdivision of large holdings and a provision for Selectors to take up small allotments at minimal cost. This saw an increase in the population of the area. The names of some early Selectors include Edward Lewis who took up 272 acres, Daniel Doherty who occupied 191 acres and the Woods family who selected over 500 acres. In March 1881 a post office was opened to service local residents but closed in February 1939. Around the same time the Boomahnoomoonah State School accepted its first students and operated at various times up until the 1950s when it closed permanently. St Oswald's Church of England began services in May 1890 and continued to serve the community until its closure in 2012 due to poor numbers (a congregation of 6–7) and the dilapidated state of the church itself.

Later history

During the early 1900s the provision of irrigation was improved which in turn encouraged the growth of local dairy farms. At this time the town had its own cricket club and was relatively competitive in the local district. The area continued to grow up until the mid-1960s when advances in agricultural methods reduced the need for manual workers and the area gradually reverted to larger holdings. Lack of employment opportunities and an aging local population saw many, if not all, local amenities removed in deference to the larger district towns.Small towns and settlements of the Moira Shire: Draft context report. CPG Australia, Shepparton, 2012

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * Charnstrom, Joyce & Symes, Jacye (1993). Wilby walkabout 1873–1933. Benalla Secondary College, enalla, Vic* St Oswald's Church of England (Boomahnoomoonah, Vic.) - 1890-1990: A centenary souvenir. St Oswald's Church arrawonga(1990) {{authority control Towns in Victoria (state) Shire of Moira