The Taggerty River, a minor inland
perennial river
A perennial stream is a stream that has continuous flow of surface water throughout the year in at least parts of its catchment during seasons of normal rainfall, Water Supply Paper 494. as opposed to one whose flow is intermittent. In the abse ...
of the
Goulburn
Goulburn ( ) is a regional city in the Southern Tablelands of the Australian state of New South Wales, approximately south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Canberra. It was proclaimed as Australia's first inland city through letters pate ...
Broken catchment, part of the
Murray-Darling basin, is located in the lower
South Eastern Highlands bioregion
A bioregion is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a biogeographic realm, but larger than an ecoregion or an ecosystem, in the World Wide Fund for Nature classification scheme. There is also an attempt to use the ...
and
Northern Country/North Central regions of the
Australian 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 ...
. The headwaters of the Taggerty River rise on the northwestern slopes of the Yarra Ranges, below
Lake Mountain and descend to flow into the
Steavenson River near .
Location and features
The river rises below Lake Mountain on the northwestern slopes of the Yarra Ranges, part of the
Great Dividing Range, within the
Yarra Ranges National Park
Yarra Ranges National Park is located in the Central Highlands of Australia's southeastern state Victoria, 107 km northeast of Melbourne. Established in 1995 and managed by the statutory authority Parks Victoria, the park features a carbon-ri ...
. The flows generally west, through rugged national park as the river descends, joined by one minor tributary, before reaching its
confluence with the Steavenson River near the settlement of Marysville. The river descends over its
course.
[
Much of the ]catchment area
In human geography, a catchment area is the area from which a location, such as a city, service or institution, attracts a population that uses its services and economic opportunities. Catchment areas may be defined based on from where people are ...
of the river was destroyed by the Black Saturday bushfires
The Black Saturday bushfires were a series of bushfires that either ignited or were already burning across the Australian state of Victoria on and around Saturday, 7 February 2009, and were among Australia's all-time worst bushfire disasters. T ...
that passed through the area on 7 February 2009, destroying almost all of the man made infrastructure and causing extensive damage to the forest in the area.
Etymology
The river derives its name from the Aboriginal Taungurong
The Taungurung people, also spelt ''Daung Wurrung'', are an Aboriginal people who are one of the Kulin nations in present-day Victoria, Australia. They consist of nine clans whose traditional language is the Taungurung language.
Their Country ...
word ''taggarty''. It is recorded that Aborigines used to gather a blue pigment or clay on the banks of the Taggerty River and use the stain on their bodies.[
It is believed that the lower reaches of the Steavenson River, from the confluence of the Taggerty River with the Steavenson River, at the locale of Vic Oak, until the river mouth near Buxton, may have been initially named as the Taggerty River, until the Steavenson was officially named.]
See also
*
References
Goulburn Broken catchment
Rivers of Hume (region)
Tributaries of the Goulburn River
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