Barmera is a town in the

Riverland The Riverland is a region of South Australia. It covers an area of along the River Murray from where it flows into South Australia from New South Wales and Victoria downstream to Blanchetown. The major town centres are Renmark, Berri, Loxt ...

region of

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

. It is on the Sturt Highway A20, 220 kilometres north-east of

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 ...

, the capital of the state of

. It is primarily an agricultural and

viticultural Viticulture (from the Latin word for ''vine'') or winegrowing (wine growing) is the cultivation and harvesting of grapes. It is a branch of the science of horticulture. While the native territory of ''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine, ran ...

town and is located on Lake Bonney Riverland, a freshwater lake. The population was 1,914 in 2011.

History

The original inhabitants were the Barmerara Meru clan of the

Ngawadj The Ngawait, also spelt Ngawadj and other variations, and also known as Eritark and other names, were an Aboriginal Australian people of the mid-Riverland region, spanning the Murray River in South Australia. They have sometimes been referred to ...

people. It is not known where the name "Barmera" comes from but it is suspected that it means "water place" or "land dwellers", being a word from the local Aboriginal group. Others postulate it comes from Barmeedjie, the name of the tribe that lived to the north of the Murray River prior to European settlement. Lake Bonney was first seen by Charles Bonney and Joseph Hawdon in 1838 drove cattle along 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 ...

. The land however, was settled in 1859 with the establishment of Overland Corner Hotel. It was a popular area with drovers that drove sheep from

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 ...

into

. A police station was also built to prevent and stop arguments between the aboriginal people and settlers. An irrigation system was established in the town in 1921. The town became gazetted. An influx of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

veterans settled with promises of irrigated land from the government. A railway station was opened in 1928 and the town was proclaimed in the same year. In

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

an internment camp was established south of Barmera in Loveday and was one of the largest World War II camps in Australia.

Heritage listings

Barmera has a number of heritage-listed sites, including: * 2-4 Barwell Avenue: Bonney Theatre * 2 Fowles Street: Barmera Irrigation Office * North Lake Road: Napper's Accommodation House Ruins

Climate and geography

Barmera exists in a

semi-arid A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi- ...

location, north of

Goyder's Line Goyder's Line is a line that runs roughly east–west across South Australia and, in effect, joins places with an average annual rainfall of . North of Goyder's Line, annual rainfall is usually too low to support cropping, with the land being sui ...

. Barmera is surrounded by mallee scrub. It is 29 metres above sea level. Barmera has a dry climate with hot summers and warm days and cold frosty nights in winter with seasonal temperatures a few degrees above

's temperatures and similar to those of Berri. The weather patterns are similar to those of Berri. It receives less than 250 mm of rain per annum. Rain patterns shift from year to year over a nineteen-year cycle. Floods in 2022 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-12-05/sa-woman-builds-own-flood-levee-is-not-entitled-to-assistance/101732922

Present day

Lake Bonney has sandy beaches, a jetty, fishing and sailing. Every Easter, a sailing regatta is held on Lake Bonney and a country music festival is held every June. Riverland Field Days are held in September a Show is held in March. The town is home to the sporting teams Barmera/Monash Roos Football Club and the Barmera United Soccer Club. Barmera is in the

Berri Barmera Council Berri Barmera Council is a local government area in the Riverland region of South Australia. It includes the towns of Barmera, Berri, Cobdogla, Glossop, Katarapko, Loveday and Winkie, and parts of Monash and Overland Corner. History The ...

local government area, the

South Australian House of Assembly The House of Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. The other is the South Australian Legislative Council, Legislative Council. It sits in Parliament House, Adelaide, Parliament House in the st ...

electoral district of Chaffey An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated ...

and the

Australian House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Senate. Its composition and powers are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. The term of members o ...

Division of Barker The Division of Barker is an Australian Electoral Division in the south-east of South Australia. The division was established on 2 October 1903, when South Australia's original single multi-member division was split into seven single-member div ...

References

External links