The Wimmera River, an inland intermittent river of the

Wimmera The Wimmera is a region of the Australian state of Victoria. The district is located within parts of the Loddon Mallee and the Grampians regions; and covers the dryland farming area south of the range of Mallee scrub, east of the South Aust ...

catchment, is located in the

Grampians The Grampian Mountains (''Am Monadh'' in Gaelic) is one of the three major mountain ranges in Scotland, that together occupy about half of Scotland. The other two ranges are the Northwest Highlands and the Southern Uplands. The Grampian rang ...

and Wimmera regions of the

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 ...

n state of

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 ...

. Rising in the

Pyrenees The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to C ...

, on the northern slopes of the

Great Dividing Range The Great Dividing Range, also known as the East Australian Cordillera or the Eastern Highlands, is a cordillera system in eastern Australia consisting of an expansive collection of mountain ranges, plateaus and rolling hills, that runs rough ...

, the Wimmera River flows generally north by west and drains into

Lake Hindmarsh Lake Hindmarsh, an ephemeral lake located in the Wimmera region of western Victoria, Australia, is the state's largest natural freshwater lake. The nearest towns are Jeparit to the south and Rainbow to the north. After more than a decade of dro ...

(

Wergaia The Wergaia or Werrigia people are an Aboriginal Australian group in the Mallee and Wimmera regions of north-Western Victoria, made up of a number of clans. The people were also known as the Maligundidj (in the Wotjobaluk language) which mea ...

: ''Gurru'') and

Lake Albacutya Lake Albacutya (Wergaia: ''Ngelbakutya'') is an ephemeral lake located in Albacutya within the Wimmera region of Victoria, Australia. It is one of a series of terminal lakes on the Wimmera River, which form the largest land-locked drainage syst ...

(

: ''Ngelbakutya''), a series of

ephemeral Ephemerality (from the Greek word , meaning 'lasting only one day') is the concept of things being transitory, existing only briefly. Academically, the term ephemeral constitutionally describes a diverse assortment of things and experiences, fr ...

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

s that, whilst they do not directly empty into a defined watercourse, form part of 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 ...

catchment of the Murray-Darling basin.

Course and features

The Wimmera River rises in the Great Dividing Range below , between and , and flows generally north and west, through , , and , also forming the eastern boundary of the

Little Desert National Park The Little Desert National Park is a national park in the Wimmera Mallee region of Victoria, Australia. The national park is situated near Dimboola, approximately west of Melbourne and extends from the Wimmera River in the east to the South ...

. It is joined by fourteen minor tributaries, including the Mackenzie River, before reaching its

mouth In animal anatomy, the mouth, also known as the oral cavity, or in Latin cavum oris, is the opening through which many animals take in food and issue vocal sounds. It is also the cavity lying at the upper end of the alimentary canal, bounded on ...

, near Jeparit. The river descends over its course. On the rare occasions that Lake Hindmarsh overflows, water flows via Outlet Creek (

:''Krumelak'') to

. In most years the flow of the river does not reach those terminal lakes, and the watercourse itself contracts into a series of pools. On average, the lake fills once in twenty years. The inflow of saline

groundwater Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidate ...

into the lower reaches of the river in recent years has severely affected its water quality, making the water more salty than sea water in several locations. The river is crossed by the

Pyrenees Highway Pyrenees Highway is a rural highway in western Victoria, Australia, linking Glenelg Highway in Glenthompson to Calder Highway in Elphinstone. It intersects with the region's major road freight route, Western Highway in Ararat, in addition ...

near its source, the

Henty Highway Henty Highway is a rural highway in western Victoria, Australia. It is primarily a north-south route, consisting of a mix of dual-lane, single-carriageway country highway and four-lane arterial road within some of the larger towns along the ro ...

south of Horsham, and the Western Highway west of Horsham and, again, west of Dimboola. The Wimmera has a feature typical of desert drainage patterns in that it has

distributaries A distributary, or a distributary channel, is a stream that branches off and flows away from a main stream channel. Distributaries are a common feature of river deltas. The phenomenon is known as river bifurcation. The opposite of a distributar ...

, the Dunmunkle Creek and the

Yarriambiack Creek The Yarriambiack Creek, an inland intermittent watercourse of the Wimmera catchment, is located in the Wimmera region of the Australian state of Victoria. Rising on the northern slopes of the Great Dividing Range, the Yarriambiack Creek flows g ...

, which divert water away from the Wimmera at times of high flow or flood.

Pipeline

The health of the Wimmera River was expected to improve following the Wimmera-Mallee pipeline project that was completed in 2008. The project involved replacing old, inefficient stock-water supply and irrigation infrastructure, with a pipeline system. Prior to the project's completion, up to 90 percent of water extracted from the Wimmera River was lost through evaporation and seepage. The Wimmera-Mallee Pipeline system was expected to be many times more efficient and meant that there would be much less water extracted from the Wimmera River. That was anticipated to reduce the quantities of water taken from the river and cause an increase in environmental flows in the river system.

Horsham flooding

Western Highway crossing the Wimmera River at Horsham

The Wimmera River at Horsham has been subject to periodic flooding, with peaks recorded as follows:

Etymology

In the

indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention *Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band *Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...

Djadjawurrung Dja Dja Wurrung (Pronounced Ja-Ja-war-rung), also known as the Djaara or Jajowrong people and Loddon River tribe, are an Aboriginal Australian people who are the Traditional owners of lands including the watersheds of the Loddon and Avoca rive ...

and

Jardwadjali The Jardwadjali (Yartwatjali), also known as the Jaadwa, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of Victoria, whose traditional lands occupy the lands in the upper Wimmera River watershed east to Gariwerd (Grampians) and west to Lake Bri ...

languages the river is named ''Walla-walla'', with no defined meaning; and ''Wamara'', possibly meaning '' woomera'' or "throwing stick". In the Jardwadjali language the river is named ''Bunnut'', with the Bernett people a clan of the Jardwadjali people; and ''Barbarton'', with ''bar'' meaning "river" and the Barbardinbalug were a Jardwadjali clan centred on the Wimmera River. In the Djadjawurrung language the river is named ''Culcatok'', with no defined meaning. In the Djabwurrung, Jardwadjali, and

languages, the river is named ''Billiwhin'', with no defined meaning. In the Wergaia language the river has several names including ''Wudjum-bial'', with ''bial'' meaning red gum; ''Barengi-djul'', with ''bareng'' meaning "river" and ''djul'' meaning waterbags; ''Yaigir'', with no defined meaning; ''Wudiyedi'', with no defined meaning; ''Guri-beb'', with ''beb'' meaning

white gum White gum is a common name of a great many ''Eucalyptus'' species, all of which have smooth white bark. Species that have "White gum" as a common name include: * '' Corymbia aparrerinja'' (also known as ghost gum, desert white gum and Dallachy's G ...

; ''Giridji-gal'', with a meaning that "a dog was always there"; ''Wadidirabul'', with no defined meaning. In the Djabwurrung language the river has several names including ''Bar'' and ''Barkar'', with ''bar'' meaning "river"; and ''Tarnorrer'' and ''Maripmunninnera'', both with no defined meaning. In an undefined local indigenous language, the river is named ''Barrh', with no defined meaning. The colonial name of the river is derived from the name of the pastoral run. Gold was discovered in the river in 1866.

References

External links