Barmah is a town in the state of
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India
* Victoria (state), a state of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital
* Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...
, Australia.
Barmah has the distinction of being located north of the border with the state of
New South Wales
New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...
. New South Wales is north of Victoria, with the border being the westward-flowing
Murray River
The Murray River (in South Australia: River Murray; Ngarrindjeri language, Ngarrindjeri: ''Millewa'', Yorta Yorta language, Yorta Yorta: ''Dhungala'' or ''Tongala'') is a river in Southeastern Australia. It is List of rivers of Australia, Aust ...
. However, just downstream of Barmah the Murray winds to the south and east for a short distance before resuming its westward course. The land within this length of river results in a small part of New South Wales being to the south of the Victorian town.
Barmah is near the largest
river red gum
''Eucalyptus camaldulensis'', commonly known as river red gum, is a flowering plant in the family Myrtaceae, and is endemic to Australia. It is a tree with smooth white or cream-coloured bark, lance-shaped or curved adult leaves, flower buds in ...
forest in the world. The
Barmah National Park
The Barmah National Park, formerly Barmah State Park, is a national park located in the Hume (region), Hume region of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victoria (Australia), Victoria. The park is located adjacent to th ...
is on the
floodplain
A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river. Floodplains stretch from the banks of a river channel to the base of the enclosing valley, and experience flooding during periods of high Discharge (hydrolog ...
of the Murray River, and when it floods is an important breeding ground for
Murray cod
The Murray cod (''Maccullochella peelii'') is a large Australian predatory freshwater fish of the genus '' Maccullochella'' in the family Percichthyidae.Dianne J. Bray & Vanessa J. Thompson (2011Murray Cod, Maccullochella peelii Fishes of Au ...
. The flood is enhanced by the geological features of the riverbed, as the channel narrows at an area known as the ''Barmah choke''.
The Barmah Forest is listed under the
Ramsar Convention
The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of Ramsar site, Ramsar sites (wetlands). It is also known as the Convention on We ...
for wetlands and, with various state forests in New South Wales, has been identified as an
Important Bird Area
An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations.
IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...
. It is rich in bird species and is the breeding ground for the
superb parrot
The superb parrot (''Polytelis swainsonii''), also known as Barraband's parrot, Barraband's parakeet, or green leek parrot, is a parrot native to south-eastern Australia. It is a dimorphic species and one of three species in the genus ''Polytel ...
, a species listed as
vulnerable on the
IUCN Red List
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological ...
.
History
The Barmah area was first settled in 1856 by
Joseph Waldo Rice who established the Murray Fishing Company to supply fish for the gold mining region of
Bendigo, Victoria
Bendigo ( ) is an Australian city in north-central Victoria (Australia), Victoria. The city is located in the Bendigo Valley near the geographical centre of the state and approximately north-west of Melbourne, the state capital.
As of 2022, ...
. Barmah was, for a time beginning in the early 1880s, a prosperous centre, whose chief industry was sawmilling. There were two major sawmills; that of
Robert Barbour on the N.S.W. side of the river, and James MacIntosh's and E. Whitely's on the Victorian side. Much of the timber was exported to India for piles and railway sleepers until a government prohibition of the export of redgum, which forced closure of the Barmah mills. Trade picked up later, with the expansion of the railway network and a new sawmill was opened by R. Evans, who shipped the sawn timber to
Echuca
Echuca ( ) is a town on the banks of the Murray River and Campaspe River in Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. The border town of Moama is adjacent on the northern side of the Murray River in New South Wales. Echuca is the administrative cen ...
on his steamboat, the ''Edwards''.
A Barmah Post Office opened on 16 September 1876 and was renamed Barmah East in 1907, closing in 1951. Barmah Township Post Office opened on 2 May 1902.
One virus peculiar to Barmah is the Barmah forest virus infection which is transmitted from animals to humans by mosquito bite. A way to avoid this virus is to protect yourself from mosquitoes bite in Barmah.
Population
At the , Barmah had a population of 229.
87.8% of people were born in Australia and 90.8% of people only spoke English at home.
Ancient geography
The geography at Barmah is explained by a geological event that occurred 25,000 years ago, when an
uplift of land along the
Cadell Fault
The Cadell Fault is a north-south trending intra-plate Fault (geology), geological fault in the Riverina area of New South Wales and Victoria (Australia), Victoria, in Australia. It straddles the Murray River and, in quite recent geological tim ...
forced the Murray River onto a new course for 500 km. The river had to force its way through the Barmah choke
taking over the
Goulburn River
The Goulburn River, a major inland perennial river of the Goulburn Broken catchment, part of the Murray-Darling basin, is located in the Alpine, Northern Country/North Central, and Southern Riverina regions of the Australian state of Victor ...
in the process.
[''The Australian Financial Review'', 28 April 2006, p81] The uplifted land that led to these changes is noticeable as a continuous, low, earthen embankment along the road leading into Barmah from the west, which may appear to the untrained eye as man-made.
See also
*
Ulupna Island
References
External links
Australian Places - Barmah
{{authority control
Towns in Victoria (state)
Shire of Moira
Populated places on the Murray River
Goulburn River
Ramsar sites in Australia