Murtho is a locality in

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 ...

. It is north-east of Renmark and Paringa. It is bounded by the

River Murray The Murray River (in South Australia: River Murray; Ngarrindjeri: ''Millewa'', Yorta Yorta: ''Dhungala'' or ''Tongala'') is a river in Southeastern Australia. It is Australia's longest river at extent. Its tributaries include five of the n ...

on its north and west sides and the

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 ...

n border on the east. Land around Murtho today is used for vineyards and orchards irrigated from the river, and cereal crops. It has a boat ramp and shop which supports campers and recreational fishing. Before

Australian federation The Federation of Australia was the process by which the six separate British self-governing colonies of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia (which also governed what is now the Northern Territory), and Wester ...

in 1901, Murtho was the site of the South Australian customs house known as Border Cliffs, charging import duty on goods being brought down the river from New South Wales and Victoria. A village settlement was established at Murtho, upstream of Renmark (on the opposite bank) in the 1890s as a

socialist colony An intentional community is a voluntary residential community designed to foster a high degree of social cohesion and teamwork. Such communities typically promote shared values or beliefs, or pursue a common vision, which may be political ...

. The Village Settlements established under Part VII of the ''Crown Lands Amendment Act 1893'' were mostly used by unemployed people seeking a fresh start during an economic depression. Murtho was different in that it required financial commitment by the members and no government handouts. Chairman of the Murtho Co-operative Village Settlement Association was Henry Cordeaux (?–1902). By 1897, Murtho had under irrigation. However, by 1899 the settlement, like many others, had been largely abandoned. It failed chiefly through inadequate irrigation: the settlement was atop a cliff. This was initially seen as an advantage, as the land sloped away from the banks, thus easier to irrigate but the double-acting

plunger pump A plunger pump is a type of positive displacement pump where the high-pressure seal is stationary and a smooth cylindrical plunger slides through the seal. This makes them different from piston pumps and allows them to be used at higher pressure ...

used to raise water to this height was expensive, inefficient, and could barely cope with of suction lift during "normal" low river levels, and failed utterly when the river dropped further. Further, the cost of transporting provisions and produce by river was exorbitant (dearer per ton than from London to Adelaide); and rabbits, which bypassed wire netting fences by scaling the cliffs, took much of the crops. Among the Murtho settlers were brothers John Napier Birks (1845–1929) and Walter Richard Birks (1847–1900), of Adelaide's prominent

Birks family Dr. George Vause Birks ( 1815 – 31 January 1858) was a medical doctor who with his family emigrated to South Australia in 1853, and died there less than four years later. Their family was significant in the commercial life of the young city of A ...

. In the 1960s, Murtho almost became the south bank (actually the east end of the dam wall) of the

Chowilla Dam Chowilla Dam was a proposed water storage reservoir on the Murray River in the 1960s. The dam wall would have been in South Australia, but the reservoir behind it would have stretched upstream into Victoria and New South Wales. The site was sele ...

. This dam would have impounded a vast area, mostly upstream of the state borders in New South Wales and Victoria, in a relatively shallow reservoir to provide security of water supply to South Australia. Preparations were made to build the dam, including a railway line built in 1967 to cart rock for the construction, but the increasing cost estimates and environmental concerns caused the dam to be deferred then cancelled.

Heritage listings

Murtho has a number of heritage-listed sites, including: * Lock 6 Road: Graves of Passengers of the PS Bunyip * Wilkinson Road: Wilkadene * Murtho Road: Border Cliffs Customs House

Notes

References

{{authority control Towns in South Australia Riverland