Euston is a small town on the banks of the

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 ...

, in far south-western

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 ...

, Australia. It is in the

Balranald Shire Balranald Shire is a Local government in Australia, local government area in the Riverina area of western New South Wales, Australia on the Sturt Highway. It is the location of World Heritage listed Mungo National Park. It includes the towns of ...

. The twin town of Robinvale is on the other side of the river, in the state of Victoria. At the , Euston had a population of 822 people. Until the irrigation development at Robinvale, Euston was the main town in the area. A post office opened on 1 May 1852, closed in 1853, then reopened in 1856.

History

For tens of thousands of years before European colonisation, a number of Aboriginal clans inhabited the area around Euston, principally the Kureinji people. There are many remnants of Aboriginal occupation and use of the land, including scar trees, fire hearths, flaked stone artefacts, burial sites and

midden A midden is an old dump for domestic waste. It may consist of animal bones, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and ecofacts associated with past human oc ...

s. In 1830, the exploring party led by

Charles Sturt Charles Napier Sturt (28 April 1795 – 16 June 1869) was a British officer and explorer of Australia, and part of the European land exploration of Australia, European exploration of Australia. He led several expeditions into the interior of the ...

became the first Europeans to traverse the general country. In 1876, the settlement at Euston was described in the following terms:

Euston is a crossing-place for sheep and cattle. There is a Custom-house officer here, though I should judge that his avocations were not of an extremely onerous nature, and the township also possesses a post and telegraph office. If the building can be taken as a type of the township, Euston has not a long life before it. The walls appear as if rent apart by an earthquake. The hotels and about a dozen small houses constitute the remainder of the township.

Euston and Robinvale are home to a large Italian population from the southern province of

Calabria Calabria is a Regions of Italy, region in Southern Italy. It is a peninsula bordered by the region Basilicata to the north, the Ionian Sea to the east, the Strait of Messina to the southwest, which separates it from Sicily, and the Tyrrhenian S ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. Euston has the Euston Sports and Recreation Club and the Euston Pub. The town used to field an

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

team, which competed in the Millewa Football League, but they were forced to merge with Robinvale due to lack of players, in part caused by the establishment of a Robinvale

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

club. Euston is a gateway to the Murray River and Sunraysia district, known for its fishing, including the

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 ...

and other native species, but now threatened by the European carp.

Climate

Euston has a

cold semi-arid climate Cold is the presence of low temperature, especially in the atmosphere. In common usage, cold is often a subjective perception. A lower bound to temperature is absolute zero, defined as 0.00K on the Kelvin scale, an absolute thermodynamic ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

''BSk''), slightly cooler than

Mildura Mildura ( ) is a regional city in north-west Victoria, Australia. Located on the Victorian side of the Murray River, Mildura had a population of 34,565 at the 2021 census. When nearby Wentworth, Irymple, Nichols Point, Merbein and Red ...

due to its southern latitude. Although largely uniform, rainfall peaks somewhat in the cooler months of the year. Rainfall records are found as early as 1877, while those of temperature from 1907 with both terminating at 1970. Extreme temperature records were only kept for maxima, and in these records a reading of was registered on 13 January 1939.

References

External links

Euston Railway Siding
{{authority control Towns in New South Wales Populated places on the Murray River Balranald Shire