Swan Hill is a

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

in the northwest of

Victoria, Australia Victoria, commonly abbreviated as Vic, is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state (after Tasmania), with a land area of ; the second-most-populated state (after New South Wales), with a population of over 7 million; ...

on the

Murray Valley Highway Murray Valley Highway is a rural highway located in Victoria (state), Victoria (with a short western tail in New South Wales), Australia, between Euston, New South Wales and Corryong, Victoria. The popular tourist route mostly follows the sout ...

and on the south bank 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 ...

, downstream from the junction of 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 ...

. At the , Swan Hill had a population of 11,508.

History

The area was given its current name by explorer Thomas Mitchell, while camping beside a hill on 21 June 1836. The European community grew up around a punt river crossing, which was established as early as 1846. This crossing serviced the growing agricultural area, and was the only river crossing for 100 km. The Post Office opened here on 1 February 1849. In 1853 Francis Cadell navigated the Murray river from its mouth in South Australia to Swan Hill in his

paddle steamer A paddle steamer is a steamship or steamboat powered by a steam engine driving paddle wheels to propel the craft through the water. In antiquity, paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, whereby the first uses were wh ...

, Lady Augusta. He arrived on 17 September 1853, narrowly beating

William Randell William Richard Randell "Captain Randell" (2 May 1824 – 4 March 1911), was an Australian politician and pioneer born in Devon, England, who emigrated to the newly founded colony of South Australia in 1837 with his family. He was a pioneer o ...

Mannum Mannum is a historic town on the west bank of the Murray River in South Australia, east of Adelaide. Mannum is the seat of the Mid Murray Council, and is situated in the state electoral district of Hammond and the federal Division of Barker. ...

, who arrived 4 hours later in the PS Mary Ann. This demonstrated the feasibility of river traffic, which flourished until the introduction of the railway. In 1876 Swan Hill was described in the following terms: In 1883 the first of several red brick water towers was built to supply the growing town with water. Water was pumped out of the river and into the top of the tower by a wood-fired steam engine, and then flowed by gravitation to surrounding businesses and private residences. Many of these towers can still be seen around town. The railway from Bendigo was extended from Kerang to Swan Hill station in May 1890, being extended to Piangil in 1915. The punt river crossing was replaced by a timber truss, steel lift span bridge in 1896. The first six telephones were connected in Swan Hill on 2 October 1911. The National Bank was phone number 1. In 1914 Isaburo (Jo) Takasuka produced the first commercial

rice Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...

crop in Australia. He grew Japanese (Japonica) varieties on of flood prone land on the Murray River near Swan Hill. The Chinese had been growing rice in Australia since at least 1877. Swan Hill became a

in 1965.

Burke and Wills

The

Burke and Wills The Burke and Wills expedition (originally called the Victorian Exploring Expedition) was an exploration expedition organised by the Royal Society of Victoria (RSV) in Australia in 1860–61. The exploration party initially consisted of nine ...

expedition reached Swan Hill on Thursday, 6 September 1860 on their journey across Australia from

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

to the

Gulf of Carpentaria The Gulf of Carpentaria is a sea off the northern coast of Australia. It is enclosed on three sides by northern Australia and bounded on the north by the eastern Arafura Sea, which separates Australia and New Guinea. The northern boundary ...

. They made Camp XV (their fifteenth camp out of Melbourne) in the police paddock on the banks of the Murray River in an area that is now Riverside Park. The expedition stayed in Swan Hill until Monday, 10 September while they reorganised the stores. Burke dismissed four men; Essau Khan, Brooks, Lane and John Polongeaux. He then hired Alexander McPherson, a saddler from Epsom and Charlie Gray, a former sailor from Scotland who had worked as an ostler for Cobb and Co between

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 ...

and Swan Hill and who was now employed at the Lower Murray Inn in Swan Hill. The party was strengthened further by the arrival from Melbourne of journalist William Hodgkinson, and scientist Georg von Neumayer. The local inhabitants gave the expedition a rousing farewell as they crossed into New South Wales. Folklore alleges Burke and Wills planted a

Moreton Bay Fig ''Ficus macrophylla'', commonly known as the Moreton Bay fig or Australian banyan, is a large evergreen banyan tree of the mulberry and fig family Moraceae. It is native to eastern Australia, from the Wide Bay–Burnett region of Queensland i ...

tree in the garden of the local doctor, Dr B W Gummow. The tree is now approximately 27 metres high and has a branch spread of approximately 44 metres and can be seen in Curlewis Street.

Heritage listings

The Murray River road bridge over the

connects McCallum Street in Swan Hill to the Swan Hill Road in Murray Downs in

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 ...

. The bridge is listed on the

New South Wales State Heritage Register The New South Wales State Heritage Register, also known as NSW State Heritage Register, is a heritage list of places in the state of New South Wales, Australia, that are protected by New South Wales legislation, generally covered by the Heritag ...

Indigenous people

Dreamtime The Dreaming, also referred to as Dreamtime, is a term devised by early anthropologists to refer to a religio-cultural worldview attributed to Australian Aboriginal religion and mythology, Australian Aboriginal mythology. It was originally u ...

myths, Totyerguil (from the area now known as Swan Hill) ran out of spears while chasing Otchtout the cod. This chase is part of the mythology of the creation of the Murray River. Based on evidence from Coobool Creek and Kow Swamp, it appears that Aboriginal people have lived in the area for the last 13,000–9,000 years. The area is inhabited by the Wemba-Wemba (or ''Wamba-Wamba''), Latji Latji, Tatti Tatti, Waddi Waddi and Barapa Barapa people. Swan Hill was called "Matakupaat" or "place of the

Platypus The platypus (''Ornithorhynchus anatinus''), sometimes referred to as the duck-billed platypus, is a semiaquatic, egg-laying mammal endemic to eastern Australia, including Tasmania. The platypus is the sole living representative or monotypi ...

" by the Wemba Wamba people. Their language is the Wemba Wemba language, and the sub dialect is Bura Bura. At the time of the 2021 census, 4.5% of people in Swan Hill identified as Indigenous. The average for Victoria is 1% and Australia overall is 3.2%.

Geography

The town is situated on the Northern Plains Grassland.

Viticulture

Swan Hill gives its name to a wine region straddling the Murray River. The

vine A vine is any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent (that is, climbing) stems, lianas, or runners. The word ''vine'' can also refer to such stems or runners themselves, for instance, when used in wicker work.Jackson; Benjamin; Da ...

s are predominantly

irrigated 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 be ...

from the river.

Climate

Swan Hill 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 ...

(''BSk'') with hot sunny summers and cool, partly cloudy winters. Afternoon dew points are extremely low in the warmer months, particularly from October to December, due in part to the frequency of dry

cold fronts A cold front is the leading edge of a cooler mass of air at ground level that replaces a warmer mass of air and lies within a pronounced surface trough of low pressure. It often forms behind an extratropical cyclone (to the west in the Northern ...

out of the south-west.

Demography

Around 88% of the people living in Swan Hill were born in Australia. Migrants account for around 12 per cent, these include Italy (1.4%); England (1.0%); New Zealand (0.4%); Scotland (0.3%) and Afghanistan (0.3%). 3.2% of the population are Indigenous.

Facilities

Education

In Swan Hill there are four primary schools, two secondary schools and three schools which run both primary and secondary syllabuses. These are Swan Hill College, MacKillop College, St Mary's Primary School, Swan Hill Primary School, Swan Hill North Primary School, Son Centre Christian School, Victorian P-12 College of Koorie Education - Payika Campus and Swan Hill Specialist School. Swan Hill College is well known for its anti-drug program. Tertiary education is delivered by Sunraysia Institute of TAFE. Its main campus is at Tower Hill, and it runs a farm north of the city. As well as its own courses, it offers a Deakin University program. The Country Universities Centre has, as of 2023, established a study centre in Swan Hill, and assists around 200 students with attaining a University Degree in their local community. The Victoria P-12 College of Koorie Education—Payika Campus is now actually a Flo Program, linked to Swan Hill College.

Sport

Swan Hill is the heart of the Central Murray Football League. It is also the home to two football clubs, the Swan Hill "Swans" and the Tyntynder "Bulldogs". Swan Hill also has Futsal Swan Hill providing senior futsal in Swan Hill, both men's and women's leagues, 2 men's divisions and 1 women's division. Established in 1995 the competition regularly features over 30 teams each season. The Swan Hill Junior Soccer League that consists of over 500 children. They also field 3 teams in the Bendigo Amateur Soccer League where their Senior Men's Division 2 Team won the Knock-Out Cup in 2006. The Youth Team has come runner up in the Knock-Out Cup competition in both 2006 and 2008. The Senior Women's team came runner up in 2008. Swan Hill has a horse racing club, the Swan Hill Jockey Club, which schedules around ten race meetings a year including the Swan Hill Cup meeting in June. The Swan Hill St Patricks Race Club also holds a meeting at the racecourse in October. Golfers play at the course of the Murray Downs Golf Club on Moulamein Road. Swan Hill also has Junior and Senior badminton games in Winter at the Stadium every Tuesday night. Juniors from 6pm till completed matches. Then Seniors not long afterwards.

Transport

The city is located on the

(B400), which links it 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 ...

and Albury-Wodonga to the east and

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 ...

in the west, the Loddon Valley Highway (B260) links Swan Hill to

to the south.

V/Line V/Line is a statutory authority that operates Regional rail, regional passenger rail and Intercity bus service, coach services in the Australian state of Victoria (state), Victoria. It provides passenger train services on five Commuter rail, ...

operates passenger rail services on the Swan Hill line, with the local railway station being the terminus. The Swan Hill Airport is also nearby. Swan Hill also has its own public bus network.

Media

Swan Hill has one locally produced newspaper, ''The Swan Hill Guardian'', which has been circulating Swan Hill and surrounding regions for almost 120 years. In addition to this, there are four local radio stations: 99.1 Smart FM (3SFM); ABC Mildura Swan Hill (3MIL); 107.7 Mixx FM (3SHI) and AM station 1332 3SH. Swan Hill's television stations are identical to Bendigo's:

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

Prime A prime number (or a prime) is a natural number greater than 1 that is not a product of two smaller natural numbers. A natural number greater than 1 that is not prime is called a composite number. For example, 5 is prime because the only ways ...

, WIN,

Southern Cross Ten 10 was an Australian television network distributed by Southern Cross Austereo (SCA) in regional Queensland, southern New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, regional Victoria, the Spencer Gulf and Broken Hill. SCA's network was ...

and SBS.

Residents

*Author

James Aldridge Harold Edward James Aldridge (10 July 1918 – 23 February 2015) was an Australian-British writer and journalist. His World War II despatches were published worldwide and he was the author of over 30 books, both fiction and non-fiction works, ...

grew up in Swan Hill. He described Swan Hill during the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

of the 1930s in his series of "St Helen" novels. * Radio and television broadcaster Arch McKirdy was born and grew up in Swan Hill. He worked at radio station 3SH for a period and later compered the ABC's jazz program ''Relax with Me''. *Television and radio presenter

Yumi Stynes Yumi Tasma Stynes (born 2 June 1975) is an Australian feminist podcaster and author. She is the presenter of the ABC Radio podcast ''Ladies, We Need to Talk'' about female health and sexuality, and thSBS AudiopodcastSEEN where she talks with tra ...

was born and grew up in Swan Hill, Victoria, where she grew up with her parents, David and Yoshiko, two sisters and a brother. Her father was fifth generation Australian and her mother is Japanese. She spent her teenage years in Melbourne before moving to Sydney to work for Channel V Australia. *Artist Lorraine Connelly-Northey was born in Swan Hill. Her mixed

Wiradjuri The Wiradjuri people (; ) are a group of Aboriginal Australian people from central New South Wales, united by common descent through kinship and shared traditions. They survived as skilled hunter-fisher-gatherers, in family groups or clans, a ...

and European heritage influences her artwork.

References

External links

Swan Hill Rural City Council

Swan Hill Online
{{authority control Cities in Victoria (state) Rural City of Swan Hill Populated places on the Murray River Mallee_(Victoria)