Moulamein is a small town in

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country b ...

, in the

Murray River Council The Murray River Council is a local government area in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. This area was formed in 2016 from the merger of Murray Shire with Wakool Shire. The combined area comprises and covers the northern bank ...

local government area. At the , Moulamein had a population of 484 . Moulamein is the oldest town in the

Riverina The Riverina is an agricultural region of south-western New South Wales, Australia. 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 irrigati ...

. The town is located between

Balranald Balranald is a town within the local government area of Balranald Shire, in the Riverina district of New South Wales, Australia. The town of Balranald is located where the Sturt Highway crosses the Murrumbidgee River in a remote, semi-deser ...

, Hay,

Deniliquin Deniliquin () is a town in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia, close to the border with Victoria. It is the largest town in the Edward River Council local government area. Deniliquin is located at the intersection of the Riveri ...

and

Swan Hill Swan Hill is a city in the northwest of Victoria, Australia on the Murray Valley Highway and on the south bank of the Murray River, downstream from the junction of the Loddon River. At , Swan Hill had a population of 11,508. Indigenous Pe ...

, at the junction of the Edward River and Billabong Creek. The name Moulamein is derived from a local Aboriginal word meaning "the meeting of the waters". The climate of this area is semi-arid, and the area is rich in birdlife such as waterfowl,

wedge-tailed eagle The wedge-tailed eagle (''Aquila audax'') is the largest bird of prey in the continent of Australia. It is also found in southern New Guinea to the north and is distributed as far south as the state of Tasmania. Adults of this species have lon ...

s and

emu The emu () (''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is the second-tallest living bird after its ratite relative the ostrich. It is endemic to Australia where it is the largest native bird and the only extant member of the genus ''Dromaius''. The em ...

s. This area also has many

kangaroo Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern gr ...

History

Some accounts of Moulamein’s history make unsourced statements such as: "settled as early as 1830". However it is highly unlikely the township was established as early as 1830 considering that this was about the time of

Charles Sturt Charles Napier Sturt (28 April 1795 – 16 June 1869) was a British officer and explorer of Australia, and part of the European exploration of Australia. He led several expeditions into the interior of the continent, starting from Sydney and la ...

’s exploration along the Murrumbidgee River just to the north of this region. In about 1842 Augustus Morris came to the Riverina seeking grazing land in association with the entrepreneur and speculator Benjamin Boyd. Morris took up pastoral runs on the Edward River and explored the country surrounding the site of present-day Moulamein. Morris was apparently the first European to describe the confluence of the Edward River and Billabong Creek as "The Moulamein". MoulameinWharf

Existing records of the Moulamein Court of Petty Sessions begin in 1847. In June 1848 a contract was let for a court-house and lock-up to be built at Moulamein (to be finished within six weeks). Moulamein Post Office opened on 1 October 1849 and the Clerk of Petty Sessions at Moulamein, Cornelius de Witt Jebb, applied for the position of postmaster. The post office closed in 1851 and was not reopened until 1859. Moulamein's court-house pre-dated the one at

Albury Albury () is a major regional city in New South Wales, Australia. It is located on the Hume Highway and the northern side of the Murray River. Albury is the seat of local government for the council area which also bears the city's name – the ...

, so prisoners were brought there to be tried from far-flung regions of the Riverina. Richard Edward Wright established the Moulamein Inn at the location in 1848 and was granted a licence for the hotel in February 1849. In November 1849 approval was granted for Moulamein to be laid out as a township. It was surveyed by Thomas Townsend in 1851 and its township status gazetted on 9 September that year. Moulamein's first court-house was demolished in 1860. During the period 1864 to 1866 George Ashcroft held the licence of the Traveller's Rest Hotel at Moulamein. In 1866 it was reported that Moulamein had a population of 100 persons. At that time the township had two hotels, a post-office and "some stores". A tender was accepted for a school to be built at Moulamein in June 1866.''The Western Riverina: A History of Its Development'' by James Jervis (''Royal Australian Historical Society Journal and Proceedings'' Vol. XXXVIII 1952), pp. 240 (citing ''Pastoral Times'', 23 June 1866).

Notes

External links

Moulamein Rail Siding
{{authority control Towns in the Riverina Towns in New South Wales River ports of Australia Murray River Council