The Mallee is a sub-region of
Loddon Mallee
The Loddon Mallee is an economic rural region located in the north-western part of Victoria, Australia. Occupying more than a quarter of the state, it stretches from Greater Melbourne to the northernmost point of Victoria, sharing a border w ...
covering the most north-westerly part 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
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
and is bounded by the
South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...
n and
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 ...
borders. Definitions of the south-eastern boundary vary, however, all are based on the historic Victorian distribution of
mallee eucalypts. These trees dominate the surviving native vegetation through most of Mallee, (except for swamps and areas along waterways). Its biggest settlements are
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 ...
and
Swan Hill
Swan Hill is a List of cities in Australia, city in the northwest of Victoria, Australia on the Murray Valley Highway and on the south bank of the Murray River, downstream from the junction of the Loddon River, Victoria, Loddon River. At the , ...
.
At the
2011 census, the four
local government areas
A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a state, province, division, or territory.
The ph ...
(LGAs) that are usually thought to define the district had a combined population of 88,178. The area of these same four LGAs is .

An area of South Australia immediately to the west of the Victorian Mallee region, also once covered with mallee scrub, is commonly referred to as the "
Murray Mallee
The Murray Mallee is a cereal, grain-growing and sheep-farming area in the east of the Australian state of South Australia. The name is not formally designated but is widely used to refer to an area of approximately bounded by the Murray Rive ...
" or "the Mallee".
Geography and climate

The Mallee is, for all practical purposes, completely flat and very low-lying: in fact, for long geological periods the whole region was inundated by the
ocean
The ocean is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of Earth. The ocean is conventionally divided into large bodies of water, which are also referred to as ''oceans'' (the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian Ocean, Indian, Southern Ocean ...
. Most of the Mallee consists of
sand
Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is usually defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural ...
dunes that have been deposited as a result of movement of sand from the interior of Australia during arid glacial periods of the
Quaternary
The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), as well as the current and most recent of the twelve periods of the ...
. The soils are generally very infertile and sandy: the better ones on more stabilised sand dunes in the east are slightly loamy and pink to light brown and have been able to support
wheat
Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...
and
barley
Barley (), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains; it was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent around 9000 BC, giving it nonshattering spikele ...
growing as a result of the development of
superphosphate
Superphosphate is a chemical fertiliser first synthesised in the 1840s by reacting bones with sulfuric acid. The process was subsequently improved by reacting phosphate coprolites with sulfuric acid. Subsequently, other phosphate-rich deposits suc ...
and other
fertiliser
A fertilizer or fertiliser is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrition, plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from Liming (soil), liming materials or other non- ...
s. In the west, the soils are unconsolidated sands, much less alkaline than in the east, and not generally able to support any grain cropping.
The Mallee has no surface drainage: the native vegetation has so high a rooting density that the rainfall of most years is easily absorbed and the porous sandy soils mean that any excess in an exceptionally wet year will recharge
groundwater
Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and Pore space in soil, soil pore spaces and in the fractures of stratum, rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available fresh water in the world is groundwater. A unit ...
supplies which tend to be highly saline. Flow from the
Wimmera River
The Wimmera River, an inland intermittent river of the Wimmera catchment, is located in the Grampians and Wimmera regions of the Australian state of Victoria. Rising in the Pyrenees, on the northern slopes of the Great Dividing Range, the Wimm ...
to the south supplies
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 dr ...
and, very occasionally (in 1918, 1956 and 1975), overflows to the north. 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 ...
is, thus, the only source of
fresh water
Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salt (chemistry), salts and other total dissolved solids. The term excludes seawater and brackish water, but it does include ...
for the region and is consequently overburdened by intensive
irrigation
Irrigation (also referred to as watering of plants) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has bee ...
. As of 2019, 61% of the area utilizes
drip irrigation
Drip irrigation or trickle irrigation is a type of micro-irrigation system that has the potential to save water and nutrients by allowing water to drip slowly to the roots of plants, either from above the soil surface or buried below the surfac ...
.
The climate of the Mallee is the hottest and driest in Victoria owing to its inland location. Rainfall is usually only produced by the most vigorous frontal systems or by occasional penetration of tropical air in the summer. Average annual rainfall shows a well-defined north–south gradient: Mildura averages only per year but Hopetoun in the south receives around . Variability, however, is quite high : in 1973 the Mallee averaged as much as but in 1982 only . Temperatures in summer are generally very hot: during the
Early 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave
Early may refer to:
Places in the United States
* Early, Iowa, a city
* Early, Texas, a city
* Early Branch, a stream in Missouri
* Early County, Georgia
* Fort Early, Georgia, an early 19th century fort
Music
* Early B, stage name of Jamaican d ...
, Hopetoun reached and the average maxima in January and February are . In July, maximum temperatures average , but minima average and
frost
Frost is a thin layer of ice on a solid surface, which forms from water vapor that deposits onto a freezing surface. Frost forms when the air contains more water vapor than it can normally hold at a specific temperature. The process is simila ...
s are very common.
In his 1939 paper on the physiography of North-Western Victoria, E.S. Hills stated that: "the chief factors involved in the distinction between the Mallee and the country south and east of it are precipitation, evaporation, rock type, porosity of the superficial deposits, drainage away from high areas and supply of water from streams that rise in regions of higher rainfall."
Population
At the 2011 census, the Mallee had a population of 81,544, most of which live close to the Murray River in the district's two cities, Mildura and Swan Hill. These and other settlements within the municipalities based on these centres contain over two-thirds of the region's population.
Ouyen
Ouyen is a town in Victoria, Australia, located in the Rural City of Mildura at the junction of the Calder Highway and Mallee Highway, south of Mildura, and northwest of Melbourne. At the 2016 census, the town had a population of 1,045.
Hi ...
and
Murrayville are the main settlements of the central Mallee, while
Kerang
Kerang is a town on the Loddon River in north-central Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. It is the commercial centre to an irrigation district based on livestock, horticulture, cytisus proliferus, lucerne and grain. It is located no ...
,
Cohuna
Cohuna is a town situated north of Melbourne, on the Murray Valley Highway, in northern Victoria, Australia. At the , Cohuna had a population of 2,415.
History
A post office opened in the area on 18 September 1875, known as Mologa until 1876, ...
,
Hopetoun and
Birchip
Birchip is a town in the Mallee region of Victoria, Australia on the Sunraysia Highway north of Donald. The town is located in the Shire of Buloke local government area. At the , Birchip had a population of 694, down from the 2016 figure of 7 ...
are the major towns in the south.
:
Economic development
The Mallee is a primarily agricultural region: apart from possible mineral sands in the west and
salt
In common usage, salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl). When used in food, especially in granulated form, it is more formally called table salt. In the form of a natural crystalline mineral, salt is also known as r ...
from certain ephemeral lakes there are no mineral deposits of value and industry is generally on a small scale and confined to food processing.
Wheat
Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...
and
barley
Barley (), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains; it was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent around 9000 BC, giving it nonshattering spikele ...
are widely grown on the less infertile soils in the southeast of the region, but
fertilizer
A fertilizer or fertiliser is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from liming materials or other non-nutrient soil amendments. Man ...
s, especially
superphosphate
Superphosphate is a chemical fertiliser first synthesised in the 1840s by reacting bones with sulfuric acid. The process was subsequently improved by reacting phosphate coprolites with sulfuric acid. Subsequently, other phosphate-rich deposits suc ...
are essential for success and yields only a quarter of those in most of
Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
or
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...
- in drought years, they can be as little as ''one twentieth'' of European wheat yields.
Fruit
In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants (angiosperms) that is formed from the ovary after flowering.
Fruits are the means by which angiosperms disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particular have long propaga ...
growing along the Murray River exceeds grain crops as the Mallee's major source of revenue.
Oranges
The orange, also called sweet orange to distinguish it from the bitter orange (''Citrus × aurantium''), is the fruit of a tree in the family Rutaceae. Botanically, this is the hybrid ''Citrus'' × ''sinensis'', between the pomelo (''Citrus m ...
and
grape
A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters.
The cultivation of grapes began approximately 8,0 ...
s are particularly important and the region produces a large part of Victoria's
wine
Wine is an alcoholic drink made from Fermentation in winemaking, fermented fruit. Yeast in winemaking, Yeast consumes the sugar in the fruit and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Wine is most often made f ...
though most of it is inexpensive cask wines. Dairying on irrigated pastures is important in the south of the region, but is threatened by its high water demand and the extreme scarcity of water in the Murray-Darling Basin.
Tourism is also significant industry. Mildura and Swan Hill contain a number of tourism focused businesses, including a number of specially built attractions and festivals. The Murray itself is also a major attraction, many people coming to the district for
fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment (Freshwater ecosystem, freshwater or Marine ecosystem, marine), but may also be caught from Fish stocking, stocked Body of water, ...
and to stay on
houseboat
A houseboat is a boat that has been designed or modified to be used primarily for regular dwelling. Most houseboats are not motorized, as they are usually moored or kept stationary, fixed at a Berth (moorings), berth, and often tethered to ...
s. The many Mallee national parks -
Wyperfeld,
Hattah-Kulkyne and
Murray Sunset National Parks, wilderness parks, state forests, and other parks over the river are also major drawcards.
Associated groups
The
Wergaia
The Wergaia or Werrigia people are an Aboriginal Australian group in the Mallee (Victoria), Mallee and Wimmera regions of north-Western Victoria (Australia), Victoria, made up of a number of clans. The people were also known as the Maligundidj ( ...
people are an
Aboriginal Australian group in the
Wimmera
The Victorian government's Wimmera Southern Mallee subregion is part of the Grampians region in western Victoria. It includes most of what is considered the Wimmera, and part of the southern Mallee region. The subregion is based on the social ...
and Mallee regions. The people were also known as the ''Maligundidj'' (in the
Wotjobaluk
The Wotjobaluk are an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of Victoria. They are closely related to the Wergaia people.
Language
R. H. Mathews supplied a brief analysis of the Wotjobaluk language (now known as Wergaia), describing what ...
language) which means the people belonging to the
Mali (mallee) bushland, which covers part of their territory. This name has also been recorded as ''Malleegunditch''.
Region definitions
In the context of the
Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia
The Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia (IBRA) is a biogeography, biogeographic regionalisation of Australia developed by the Australian government's Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities ( ...
, the Mallee is spread over parts of both the
Murray Darling Depression and
Riverina
The Riverina ()
is an agricultural list of regions in Australia, region of south-western New South Wales, Australia. The Riverina is distinguished from other Australian regions by the combination of flat plains, a climate with significant seaso ...
bioregion
A bioregion is a geographical area, on land or at sea, defined not by administrative boundaries, but by distinct characteristics such as plant and animal species, ecological systems, soils and landforms, Human settlement, human settlements, and ...
s.
The Mallee is one of the nine districts in Victoria used for weather forecasting by the
Australian Bureau of Meteorology
The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM or BoM) is an executive agency of the Australian Government that is responsible for providing weather forecasts and meteorological services to Australia and neighbouring countries. It was established in 1906 unde ...
.
The
Victorian Department of Environment and Primary Industries defines the district as a region for agricultural production purposes encompassing the
Buloke
''Allocasuarina luehmannii'', commonly known as buloke or bull-oak, is a species of flowering plant in the family Casuarinaceae and is endemic to south-eastern continental Australia. It is a dioecious tree, that has its leaves reduced to scales ...
,
Gannawarra,
Mildura City and
Swan Hill City local government areas
A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a state, province, division, or territory.
The ph ...
.
[
Another common definition is that the Mallee is the part of Victoria dependent on ]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 ...
and Swan Hill
Swan Hill is a List of cities in Australia, city in the northwest of Victoria, Australia on the Murray Valley Highway and on the south bank of the Murray River, downstream from the junction of the Loddon River, Victoria, Loddon River. At the , ...
.
The Victoria State Government
The Victoria State Government, also referred to as the Victorian Government, is the executive government of the Australian state of Victoria.
As a parliamentary constitutional monarchy, the State Government was first formed in 1851 when Vic ...
has historically had many departmental regions combining the Mallee with the greater Bendigo
Bendigo ( ) is an Australian city in north-central 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, Bendigo has a popula ...
area, the current one being named the "Loddon Mallee" region. This region includes the Loddon River
The Loddon River, an inland river of the northcentral catchment, part of the Murray-Darling basin, is located in the lower Riverina bioregion and Central Highlands and Loddon Mallee regions of the Australian state of Victoria. The headwaters ...
catchment
A drainage basin is an area of land in which all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, th ...
and adjacent areas as well as the Mallee.[ This region is used by all state government departments, and often there is a central body for the region located in Bendigo. In 2005, there were attempts to push for a separate region in north-west Victoria in the belief that this would deliver more services to the district.
For tourism purposes, the term ''Wimmera Mallee'' is used to describe the ]Wimmera
The Victorian government's Wimmera Southern Mallee subregion is part of the Grampians region in western Victoria. It includes most of what is considered the Wimmera, and part of the southern Mallee region. The subregion is based on the social ...
district and a small part of the Mallee that is relatively close to Horsham. A separate tourism district known as ''Mildura Swan Hill'' covers the rural cities of Mildura and Swan Hill. The term ''Wimmera Mallee'' has also been used by the federal member for Mallee to describe their electorate, as the electorate covers both regions more-or-less in their entirety.
The Mallee is sometimes referred to as an economic
An economy is an area of the Production (economics), production, Distribution (economics), distribution and trade, as well as Consumption (economics), consumption of Goods (economics), goods and Service (economics), services. In general, it is ...
region
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...
, of the Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
n state
State most commonly refers to:
* State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory
**Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country
**Nation state, a ...
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 ...
. The district is located entirely within the Victorian government's "Loddon Mallee region".
People in the central Mallee sometimes believe that "the Mallee" only includes the dryland farming portion of the region.
See also
* Geography of Victoria
Victoria is the southernmost mainland state of Australia. With an area of , it is Australia's sixth largest state/territory, comparable in size to the island of Great Britain or the U.S. state of Utah. It is bound to the northwest by South ...
* '' Mallee Boy''
* Millewa
The Millewa is a region of north western Victoria (Australia), Victoria in Australia.
History
The County of Millewa was proclaimed in the area in the nineteenth century. In the 1960s the then dryland farming areas of Nangiloc, Victoria, Nangiloc a ...
* Regions of Victoria
The regions of Victoria vary according to the different ways that the Australian states and territories of Australia, state of Victoria (Australia), Victoria is divided into distinct geographic regions. The most commonly used regions are those ...
* Sunraysia
Sunraysia is a region located in northwestern Victoria and southwestern New South Wales in Australia. The region is renowned for its sunshine, intensive horticulture including grapes and oranges. Its main centre is Mildura, Victoria.
The are ...
Notes
References
Works cited
*
*
*
Further reading
* Dee, Paul.
The Mallee
' (State Library Victoria
State Library Victoria (SLV) is the state library of Victoria, Australia. Located in Melbourne, it was established in 1854 as the Melbourne Public Library, making it Australia's oldest public library and one of the first free libraries in th ...
)
{{Victoria , state=autocollapse
*
Mallee, The