The Wimmera is a

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

of the Australian

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * '' Our ...

of Victoria. The district is located within parts of the Loddon Mallee and the Grampians regions; and covers the dryland farming area south of the range of Mallee

scrub Scrub(s) may refer to: * Scrub, low shrub and grass characteristic of scrubland * Scrubs (clothing), worn by medical staff * ''Scrubs'' (TV series), an American television program * Scrubs (occupation), also called "scrub tech," "scrub nurse," ...

, east of the

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

border and north of the Great Dividing Range. It can also be defined as the land within the social catchment of Horsham, its main settlement. Most of the Wimmera is very flat, with only the Grampians and

Mount Arapiles Mount Arapiles is a rock formation that rises about above the Wimmera plains in western Victoria, Australia. It is located in Arapiles approximately west of the town of Natimuk and is part of the Mount Arapiles-Tooan State Park. Arapiles ...

rising above vast plains and the low

plateau In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; ), also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. Often one or more sides ...

x that form the Great Divide in this part of Victoria. The Grampians are very rugged and tilted, with many sheer sandstone cliffs on their eastern sides, but gentle slopes on the west. In the context of the Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia, the Wimmera is a sub-region of located within the Murray Darling Depression

bioregion A bioregion is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a biogeographic realm, but larger than an ecoregion or an ecosystem, in the World Wide Fund for Nature classification scheme. There is also an attempt to use th ...

. The Wimmera is one of the nine districts in Victoria used for weather forecasting by the

Australian Bureau of Meteorology Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Au ...

. The Victorian Department of Environment and Primary Industries defines the district as a region for agricultural production purposes encompassing the Buloke,

Hindmarsh Hindmarsh is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Alfred Hindmarsh, MP for Wellington South (New Zealand electorate) and first leader of the New Zealand Labour Party *Ian Hindmarsh, Australian rugby league player * Jean Hindm ...

, Horsham City, Northern Grampians, West Wimmera and Yarriambiack local government areas. At the , the six local government areas (LGAs) that are thought to comprise the district had a combined population of . The area of these same six LGAs is .

History

The area was inhabited by its Indigenous residents (and continues to be) when it was surveyed by the first European to do so Thomas Mitchell in the mid 1830s, and he is credited with naming the Grampians after a mountain range in his native Scotland, and naming the region as Wimmera, adapting a word from the local indigenous language meaning 'throwing stick'.Wimmera article in online Britannica.
Retrieved 10 March 2014.

Regional development and population

The area contains a number of important towns, such as Horsham,

Warracknabeal Warracknabeal ( ) is a wheatbelt town in the Australian state of Victoria. Situated on the banks of the Yarriambiack Creek, 330 km north-west of Melbourne, it is the business and services centre of the northern Wimmera and southern Mall ...

, Dimboola, Stawell and Nhill. Almost all of these are largely dependent on the

grain A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit ( caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legu ...

and

sheep Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus ''Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticated sh ...

industries, and landscape is heavily dominated by

flour mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separated ...

s and grain storage silos. The smaller towns in the area are dying due to the declining value of primary products that dominate the region's

economy An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with t ...

. Similarly, modern farm technology allows individual farmers to stay viable by farming more land, but the decreasing population, and better transport, make smaller service centres less and less viable. :

Climate

The climate is semi-arid to sub-humid, with annual rainfall ranging generally from in the north to in the south. In the Grampians, annual precipitation can be as high as and snowfalls are not uncommon. Most rain falls in winter, though heavy summer falls can occur, the most famous of which was the thunderstorm that dumped on in mid-January 1974. Temperatures are hot in summer, ranging typically from a maximum of to a minimum of , whilst extremes can be as high as . In the winter, maximums are , but mornings can be cool, averaging at Horsham .

Geography

Most of the soils are very infertile and many are sandy; however in a narrow belt between Nhill and

there are heavy grey Vertisols, that, although still deficient in

phosphorus Phosphorus is a chemical element with the symbol P and atomic number 15. Elemental phosphorus exists in two major forms, white phosphorus and red phosphorus, but because it is highly reactive, phosphorus is never found as a free element on Ea ...

, are otherwise free of major nutrient deficiencies and are able to hold water very well. These grey soils are the principal

wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeolog ...

soils of Victoria. Red-brown earths are also used for wheat but do not give as high yields and require more fertilisation. The Wimmera River flows from the Pyrenees Ranges, across the northern foothills of the Grampians then towards

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 d ...

. Many streams in the region flow only after sustained heavy rainfall and are often dry for long spells. In recent years Rocklands Reservoir, the main water storage of the district, has been consistently at unusually low levels due to a succession of dry years.

Natural heritage

The Wimmera is renowned for its natural heritage. One of the key preservation areas is contained within the Grampians National Park, which possesses many unusual wildflowers and the greatest diversity of flora and fauna in Victoria west of the Snowy River. The Grampians also possess many important

Aboriginal Aborigine, aborigine or aboriginal may refer to: *Aborigines (mythology), in Roman mythology * Indigenous peoples, general term for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area *One of several groups of indigenous peoples, see ...

artifacts. A local Aboriginal name ''

Gariwerd The Grampians National Park commonly referred to as The Grampians, is a national park located in the Grampians region of Victoria, Australia. The Jardwadjali name for the mountain range itself is Gariwerd. The national park is situated betwee ...

'' was adopted by the National Park in 1991 in recognition of this fact; however, this change was soon reversed after a change of state government in 1992. The Little Desert National Park, south of Nhill and west of Dimboola, is a large wilderness area of sand dunes that were too infertile for productive farming even with superphosphate and trace elements.

Notes

References

{{coord, -37.45, 142.45, display=title IBRA subregions Regions of Victoria (Australia)