Wahgunyah is a town in northeastern Victoria,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. The town is on the southern bank of the Murray River, opposite Corowa, New South Wales, in the

Shire of Indigo The Shire of Indigo, a local government area (LGA) in the Hume region of Victoria, Australia, lies in the north-east part of the state. It covers an area of and in June 2018 had a population of 16,490. It includes the towns of Beechworth, Ch ...

. Wahgunyah is north east of the state capital, Melbourne and west of Albury/ Wodonga. At the , Wahgunyah had a population of 1,098. The name is believed to be an

aboriginal Aborigine, aborigine or aboriginal may refer to: *Aborigines (mythology), in Roman mythology * Indigenous peoples, general term for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area *One of several groups of indigenous peoples, see ...

phrase meaning the resting place of crows.

History

The Wahgunyah cattle run was leased by John Foord and John Crisp in 1841. The township was established by Foord in 1856 and became important before the arrival of the railway in 1879 as the furthest upstream port on the Murray. The Post Office opened on 1 July 1858 and a school opened the same year.

All Saints Estate All Saints Estate Winery is a family owned wine company based in Wahgunyah, Victoria, Australia. All Saints was built in 1864 by Scotsmen George Sutherland Smith and John Banks. The castle building was based on one of the Queen's castles - The ...

winery to the north of town was established in 1864 by Scottish emigrants

George Sutherland Smith George Sutherland Smith (1830 – 18 August 1903) was a Scotsman who migrated to Australia, a builder and paddle-steamer captain who turned to winemaking, with considerable success, founding the All Saints winery in the Rutherglen region of Victo ...

and John Banks and its extensive cellar building was, at least in part, modelled on the

Castle of Mey The Castle of Mey (also known for a time as Barrogill Castle) is located in Caithness, on the north coast of Scotland, about west of John o' Groats. In fine weather there are views from the castle north to the Orkney Islands. History The lands ...

near Smith and Banks's home town

Caithness Caithness ( gd, Gallaibh ; sco, Caitnes; non, Katanes) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. Caithness has a land boundary with the historic county of Sutherland to the west and is otherwise bounded by ...

The town today

The main factory of Nestlé’s breakfast cereal arm Uncle Tobys is on the outskirts of Wahgunyah.

Sports and Recreation

The town has had an

Australian rules football 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 ...

team since 1877 and Wahgunyah's first recorded match was against Corowa and was a return match against Corowa Football Club on Saturday, 16 June 1877, played "on the hill" in Corowa, with Wahgunyah winning the first encounter. Throughout 1877, there was talk of the Wahgunyah and Corowa Football Club's merging to form one stronger club and be called Border United Football Club. This merger actually took place and their first match as Border United was played against the Rutherglen Football Club in August 1877 and was captained by Jacob Levin. The Border United team wore pink and white colours. Border United FC remained in place until 1905, when they both entered stand alone teams in the Corowa District Football Association in 1906. Wahgunyah have won the following seven senior football premierships in the

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, initially formed in 1909. The netball competition commenced in 1972 in line with the football fixture ...

- 1948, 1949, 1968, 1997, 1998, 2002, 2004. Wahgunyah played in the

Chiltern & District Football Association The Chiltern & District Football Association was first established in 1912 from the following Australian Rules Football clubs - Barnawartha, Chiltern, Chiltern Valley, Christmastown, Southern and Wodonga, in North Eastern Victoria, Australia and w ...

between 1920 & 1921, 1923 - 1929, 1931 - 1937, 1950, 1953 - 1956, winning senior football premierships in 1955 and 1956. At present (2021) compete in the

Tallangatta & District Football League The Tallangatta and District Football League (TDFL) is an Australian rules football competition in north-east Victoria and the southern border area of Riverina region of the New South Wales. The clubs compete across four competitions, two of ...

after having been in the

until 2007.

References

External links

Wahgunyah Football / Netball Club
Towns in Victoria (Australia) Towns in Upper Hume Shire of Indigo Populated places on the Murray River {{Hume-geo-stub