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 and Wimmera regions of the Australian state of Victoria. 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 ...

, on the northern slopes of the Great Dividing Range, 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 d ...

( Wergaia: ''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 sy ...

( Wergaia: ''Ngelbakutya''), a series of ephemeral

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 lar ...

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 longe ...

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 Sout ...

. 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 t ...

, near Jeparit. The river descends over its

course Course may refer to: Directions or navigation * Course (navigation), the path of travel * Course (orienteering), a series of control points visited by orienteers during a competition, marked with red/white flags in the terrain, and corresponding ...

. On the rare occasions that Lake Hindmarsh overflows, water flows via Outlet Creek ( Wergaia:''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 unconsolidat ...

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 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 distributary ...

, the Dunmunkle Creek and the Yarriambiack Creek, 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

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 ri ...

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 B ...

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 Djab Wurrung (Djabwurrung, Tjapwurrung, Chaap Wuurong) is the extinct Aboriginal Australian language The Indigenous languages of Australia number in the hundreds, the precise number being quite uncertain, although there is a range of estim ...

, Jardwadjali, and Wergaia 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; ''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