Murchison is a small riverside rural village located on the
Goulburn River
The Goulburn River, a major inland perennial river of the Goulburn Broken catchment, part of the Murray-Darling basin, is located in the alpine, Northern Country/North Central, and Southern Riverina regions of the Australian state of Victoria. ...
in
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seychelle ...
, Australia. Murchison is located 167 kilometres from
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
and is just to the west of the
Goulburn Valley Highway
Goulburn Valley Highway is a highway located in Victoria, Australia. The section north of the Hume Freeway is part of the Melbourne to Brisbane National Highway (together with Hume Freeway) and is the main link between these two cities as well a ...
between
Shepparton
Shepparton () ( Yortayorta: ''Kanny-goopna'') is a city located on the floodplain of the Goulburn River in northern Victoria, Australia, approximately north-northeast of Melbourne. As of the 2021 census, the estimated population of Shepparton, ...
and
Nagambie
Nagambie is a town in the Goulburn Valley region of Victoria, Australia. The city is on the Goulburn Valley Freeway north of Seymour and in the Shire of Strathbogie. As of , Nagambie had a population of 2,254.
History
The Nagambie Region is w ...
. The surrounding countryside contains orchards, vineyards and dairy farms and also
HM Prison Dhurringile
HM Prison Dhurringile is a minimum security prison located in Dhurringile, Victoria, Australia. Situated 160 km north of Melbourne near Murchison, it is based around the historic Dhurringile estate.
Facilities
The Dhurringile mansion ...
. At the , Murchison had a population of 925.
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]
History
Pre-twentieth century
The Ngooraialum tribe were the Aboriginal inhabitants of the area. The first explorer to enter the Goulburn Valley
The Goulburn Valley is a sub-region, part of the Hume region of the Australian state of Victoria. The sub-region consists of those areas in the catchment of the Goulburn River and other nearby streams, and is part of the Murray-Darling Basin. T ...
was Thomas Mitchell who crossed the Goulburn River at Mitchellstown. The first Europeans to visit what would become the site where the drovers Joseph Hawdon
Joseph Hawdon (14 November 1813 – 12 April 1871) was a pioneer settler and overlander of Australia, and pioneer and politician of New Zealand.
Early life
Hawdon was born at Wackerfield, Durham, England, the son of John Hawdon. At the suggest ...
and Charles Bonney
Charles Bonney (31 October 1813 – 15 March 1897) was a pioneer and politician in Australia.
Early life
Bonney was the youngest son of the Rev. George Bonney, a fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge, and his wife Susanna, née Knight. He was born ...
who drove cattle between Mitchellstown and Adelaide
Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
.
Squatters started settling the area in 1840 with a school being established that year and a police station in 1841. The aboriginal protectorate was also transferred from Mitchellstown to Murchison in 1840 and closed in 1850.
French vigneron
A winemaker or vintner is a person engaged in winemaking. They are generally employed by winery, wineries or :Wine companies, wine companies, where their work includes:
*Cooperating with viticulture, viticulturists
*Monitoring the maturity of grape ...
Ludovic Marie settled in Murchison in 1850 and established vineyards. He also set up a hotel and punt service over the Goulburn for gold miners travelling between Bendigo
Bendigo ( ) is a city in Victoria, Australia, located in the Bendigo Valley near the geographical centre of the state and approximately north-west of Melbourne, the state capital.
As of 2019, Bendigo had an urban population of 100,991, makin ...
and Beechworth
Beechworth is a well-preserved historical town located in the north-east of Victoria, Australia, famous for its major growth during the gold rush days of the mid-1850s. At the , Beechworth had a population of 3,859.
Beechworth's many histor ...
. A township was established in 1854 with the town being named after Captain John Murchison, an early settler.
The town grew rapidly, with a post office opening on 19 January 1855 (replacing an earlier office at Warranga), a flour mill in 1858 and a Presbyterian church and school in 1859. Small selectors started settling the area after 1870. A bridge was built over the Goulburn to replace the punt service in 1871, with a newspaper, courthouse and mechanics' institute being established in 1870.
The town grew further in 1875 with the arrival of the first paddle steamer
A paddle steamer is a steamship or steamboat powered by a steam engine that drives paddle wheels to propel the craft through the water. In antiquity, paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses wer ...
. At that time, Murchison had six hotels, a number of general stores, two flour mills including the highly intact Days Mill and Farm at Murchison South, and numerous stores and services. In 1878, Murchison became the base for operations against Ned Kelly
Edward Kelly (December 1854 – 11 November 1880) was an Australian bushranger, outlaw, gang leader and convicted police-murderer. One of the last bushrangers, he is known for wearing a suit of bulletproof armour during his final shootout wi ...
and his gang. The railway reached Murchison East in 1880 and a second station named Murchison was opened on the line to Rushworth in 1890.
The building of the Goulburn Weir
Goulburn Weir is a weir built between 1887 and early 1891 across the Goulburn River near Nagambie, Victoria, Australia. It was the first major diversion structure built for irrigation development in Australia. The weir also forms Lake Nagambie ...
for irrigation in 1887-90 meant that the Goulburn River was no longer navigable by paddle steamer, which led to Murchison declining in importance. The development of irrigation led to the growth of nearby towns, notably Shepparton. The Waranga Basin was developed in the early part of the twentieth century approximately 15 kilometres from the town.
Twentieth century
Approximately 4,000 Italian, Japanese and German prisoners of war
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held Captivity, captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610.
Belligerents hold priso ...
(POWs) were interned near the town between 1941 and 1947. Dhurringile Homestead, 11 kilometres to the north, was used as a POW camp for German officers while the Italians and Japanese were kept at an internment camp in the town. The prisoner of war camp employed 675 people with the Italians and Japanese prisoners working as fruitpickers. The German POWs were not used. After the camps closed in 1947, the internment camp became an Italian war memorial while Dhurringhile Homestead became a minimum security prison, HM Prison Dhurringile
HM Prison Dhurringile is a minimum security prison located in Dhurringile, Victoria, Australia. Situated 160 km north of Melbourne near Murchison, it is based around the historic Dhurringile estate.
Facilities
The Dhurringile mansion ...
.
The Italian National Ossario
The Italian National Ossario, also known as the Murchison Ossario, is an ossuary, war cemetery and war memorial in Murchison, a town in the Goulburn Valley region of Victoria, Australia. The ossario holds the remains of 130 Italians interned dur ...
is located at Murchison cemetery and holds the remains of 130 Italian soldiers and civilians who died while interned in Australia.
Murchison meteorite
On 28 September 1969 a meteorite
A meteorite is a solid piece of debris from an object, such as a comet, asteroid, or meteoroid, that originates in outer space and survives its passage through the atmosphere to reach the surface of a planet or Natural satellite, moon. When the ...
shower fell 2 kilometres south of Murchison. Many local residents collected samples of these meteorites reducing the chance of contamination. The rocks were analysed at the NASA Ames Research Center
The Ames Research Center (ARC), also known as NASA Ames, is a major NASA research center at Moffett Federal Airfield in California's Silicon Valley. It was founded in 1939 as the second National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) laborat ...
where they were discovered to contain the first convincing evidence of amino acids
Amino acids are organic compounds that contain both amino and carboxylic acid functional groups. Although hundreds of amino acids exist in nature, by far the most important are the alpha-amino acids, which comprise proteins. Only 22 alpha am ...
of extraterrestrial origin, supporting the Miller–Urey experiment
The Miller–Urey experiment (or Miller experiment) is a famous chemistry experiment that simulated the conditions thought at the time (1952) to be present in the atmosphere of the early, prebiotic Earth, in order to test the hypothesis of the ...
. The Murchison meteorite
The Murchison meteorite is a meteorite that fell in Australia in 1969 near Murchison, Victoria. It belongs to the carbonaceous chondrite class, a group of meteorites rich in organic compounds. Due to its mass (over ) and the fact that it was an ...
samples contained 90 different amino acids, only 19 of which are found on earth. The meteorite has been found to contain the oldest materials known to have reached earth. The Meteorite Park in the centre of Murchison celebrates this discovery.
Transport
Murchison East station is serviced by V/Line
V/Line is a statutory authority that operates regional passenger train and coach services in Victoria, Australia. It provides passenger train services on five commuter lines and eight long-distance routes from its major hub at Southern Cross ...
passenger trains on the Shepparton Line.
Sport
The town has an Australian Rules
Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...
football team competing in the Kyabram & District Football League
The Kyabram District Football League (KDL) is an Australian rules football league in Victoria. It is made up of 15 teams; the most recent additions include Dookie United in 2018 and Shepparton East in 2019. The KDL is made up of smaller country ...
. The first grade team won the 2013 league premiership.
Golfers play at the course of the Murchison Golf Club on Goulburn Valley Highway, Murchison East.
World Headbutting Champion Gianni Vazzoler resides in Murchison since winning his title in nearby Shepparton
Shepparton () ( Yortayorta: ''Kanny-goopna'') is a city located on the floodplain of the Goulburn River in northern Victoria, Australia, approximately north-northeast of Melbourne. As of the 2021 census, the estimated population of Shepparton, ...
in 2013 against Captain Redbeard.
References
Further reference
Murchison Victoria Tourism Website
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Towns in Victoria (Australia)
Towns in Goulburn Valley
City of Greater Shepparton