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Murrumbidgee
The Murrumbidgee at Gundagai
The Murrumbidgee at Gundagai
Origin Australian Alps at
35°39′47″S 149°08′00″E / -35.66306, 149.1333331
Mouth confluence with the Murray River
Length 1,400 km (870 mi)
Source elevation 1,600 m (5,200 ft)
Basin area 80,000 km2 (31,000 sq mi)
The Murrumbidgee is a major tributary of the Murray River

The Murrumbidgee River is a major river in the state of New South Wales, Australia, and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). A major tributary of the Murray River, the Murrumbidgee travels 900 kilometres (559 mi) from the Fiery Range of the Snowy Mountains, through the ACT, and to a confluence with the Murray.

The word Murrumbidgee means "big water" in the Wiradjuri language, the local Aboriginal language.12

Contents

Flow

The reaches of the Murrumbidgee in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) are now affected by the complete elimination of large spring snow melt flows and a reduction of average annual flows of almost 50%, due to Tantangara Dam. Tantangara Dam was completed in 1960 on the headwaters of Murrumbidgee River and diverts approximately 99% of the river's flow at that point into Lake Eucumbene.3 This had extremely serious affects on native fish populations and other native aquatic life and has led to serious habitat loss. It is said that the Murrumbidgee River through the ACT is only half the river it used to be.4.

The mainstream of the river system flows for 900 km (559 mi).5 The river's source in the Fiery Range of the Snowy Mountains, part of the Australian Alps near Mount Kosciuszko and it flows to a confluence with the Murray River. For 66 km (41 mi), the river flows through the Australian Capital Territory near Canberra,6 picking up the important tributaries of the Molonglo and Cotter Rivers. The Murrumbidgee drains much of southern New South Wales and all of the Australian Capital Territory, and is an important source of irrigation water for the Riverina farming area.

The river system's current channels are relatively new with the Upper Murrumbidgee being an anabranch of the Tumut River (that once continued north along Mutta Mutta Creek) when geological uplift near Adaminaby diverted its flow. The contemporary Murrumbidgee starts at Gundagai but generally the stream that now includes the Upper Murrumbidgee is described as being part of the full river. 7

In June 2008 the Murray-Darling Basin Commission released a report on the condition of the Murray-Darling basin, with the Goulburn and Murrumbidgee Rivers rated in a very poor condition in the Murray-Darling basin with fish stocks in both rivers were also rated as extremely poor, with 13 of the 22 native fish species found in the Murrumbidgee River.8

Exploration

The Murrumbidgee River was known to Europeans before it was actually discovered by them.  In 1820 the explorer Charles Throsby informed the Governor of New South Wales that he anticipated finding "a considerable river of salt water (except at very wet seasons), called by the natives Mur-rum-big-gee". In the expedition journal, Throsby wrote as a marginal note: "This river or stream is called by the natives Yeal-am-bid-gie ..."9. The river he had stumbled upon was in fact the Molonglo River, Throsby reached the actual river in April 1821.10

In 1823, Brigade-Major John Ovens and Captain Mark Currie reached the upper Murrumbidgee when exploring south of Lake George.11 In 1829, Charles Sturt and his party rowed and sailed down the length of the river from Narrandera to the Murray, and then down the Murray to the sea. They also rowed, sailing when possible, back up against the current.12 The Murrumbidgee basin was opened to settlement in the 1830s and soon became an important farming area.

Charles Sturt Monument located at Wagga Beach in Wagga Wagga

Ernest Favenc, when writing on Australian exploration, commented on the relatively tardy European discovery of the river and that the river retained a name used by Indigenous Australians:

Here we may remark on the tenacity with which the Murrumbidgee River long eluded the eye of the white man. It is scarcely probable that Meehan and Hume, who on this occasion were within comparatively easy reach of the head waters, could have seen a new inland river at that time without mentioning the fact, but there is no record traceable anywhere as to the date of its discovery, or the name of its finder. When in 1823 Captain Currie and Major Ovens were led along its bank on to the beautiful Maneroo country by Joseph Wild, the stream was then familiar to the early settlers and called the Morumbidgee. Even in 1821, when Hume found the Yass Plains, almost on its bank, he makes no special mention of the river. From all this we may deduce the extremely probable fact that the position of the river was shown to some stockrider by a native, who also confided the aboriginal name, and so it gradually worked the knowledge of its identity into general belief. This theory is the more feasible as the river has retained its native name. If a white man of any known position had made the discovery, it would at once have received the name of some person holding official sway.13

Floods

Flood marker on the Murrumbidgee River showing the height of the 1974 floods

The river has risen above 7 metres (23 ft) at Gundagai eight times between 1852 and 2002, an average of just under once every eleven years. Since 1925, flooding has been minor with the exception of floods in 1974. In the 1852 disaster, the river rose to just over 12.2 m (40 ft). The following year the river again rose to just over 12.5 m (41 ft). The construction of Burrinjuck Dam from 1907 has significantly reduced flooding but, despite the dam, there were major floods in 1925 and 1974.14

The most notable flood was in 1852 when the town of Gundagai was swept away and 89 people, a third of the town's population was killed. The town was rebuilt on higher ground.15

In 1925, four people died and the flooding lasted for eight days.16

The reduction in floods has consequences for wildlife, birds and trees. There has been a decline in bird populations and black box flood plain eucalypt forest trees are starting to lose their crowns.17

Wetlands

Major wetlands along the Murrumbidgee or associated with the Murrumbidgee catchment include:18

  • Lowbidgee Floodplain, 2,000 square kilometres (772 sq mi) between Maude and Balranald
  • Mid-Murrumbidgee Wetlands along the river from Narrandera to Carathool
  • Tukerbill Swamp
  • Tomneys Plain
  • Micalong Swamp
  • Lake George
  • Yaouk Swamp
  • Black Swamp & Coopers Swamp
  • Big Badja Swamp

Major tributaries

Bridge over the Murrumbidgee at Carrathool, New South Wales.

Population centres

Swimming hole on the Murrumbidgee at Hay, New South Wales
Aerial photo of Tuggeranong Town Centre, with Murrumbidgee River behind, Bullen Range is behind and Tidbinbilla Tracking Station is visible too.

River crossings

The list below notes past and present bridges that cross over the Murrumbidgee River. There were numerous other crossings before the bridges were constructed and many of these still exist today.

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Tharwa Bridge looking South; Tharwa, ACT is to the right

Junction with Cotter, in moderate flood

The Prince Alfred bridge crosses the Murrumbidgee River at Gundagai, photographed c. 1885

Former Wagga Wagga railway bridge

New concrete railway bridge at Wagga Wagga

Hampden Bridge at Wagga Wagga

Wiradjuri Bridge

Gobbagombalin (Gobba) Bridge

Distances along the river

References

  1. ^ a b "Geographical Names Register Extract: Murrumbidgee River". Geographical Names Register (GNR) of NSW. Geographical Names Board of New South Wales. Retrieved on 2008-06-08.
  2. ^ Room, Adrian (2003). Placenames of the World. McFarland, 246. ISBN 0786418141. 
  3. ^ Lintermans, Mark. "The re-establishment of endangered Macquarie perch Macquaria australasica in the Queanbeyan River,New South Wales,with an examination of dietary overlap with alien trout" (pdf). Environment ACT and Cooperative Research Centre for Freshwater Ecology. Retrieved on 2008-06-08.
  4. ^ Lintermans, M. (2000) The Status of Fish in the Australian Capital Territory : A Review of Current Knowledge and Management Requirements. Technical Report No. 15. Environment ACT, Canberra
  5. ^ "Murrumbidgee River Catchment". Catchment Case Studies. NSW Department of Environment and Conservation (1995). Retrieved on 2006-07-13.
  6. ^ "Interim recreation study for the natural areas of the ACT" (PDF). ACT Government (April 2004). Retrieved on 2008-06-08.
  7. ^ Sharp, K.R. Cenzoic volcanism, tectonism, and stream derangement in the Snowy Mountains and northern Monaro of New South Wales, in Australian Journal of Earth Sciences(2004)51,67-83
  8. ^ (June 2008) "Sustainable Rivers Audit".: 14, 50, Murray-Darling Basin Commission. Retrieved on 2008-06-21. 
  9. ^ Official Year Book of the Commonwealth of Australia, 1931 (ABS cat. no. 1301.0)
  10. ^ Reed, A. W., Place-names of New South Wales: Their Origins and Meanings, (Reed: 1969).
  11. ^ Discovery of the Manaro
  12. ^ Sturt, Charles [1833] (2004). Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia (txt), Project Gutenberg EBook. Retrieved on 2006-08-26. 
  13. ^ Favenc, Ernest [1908] (2004). "Chapter 4", The Explorers of Australia and their Life-work (txt), Project Gutenberg EBook. Retrieved on 2006-08-26. 
  14. ^ Butcher, Cliff (2002). "Chapter 9 Floods", Gundagai: A track winding back. Gundagai, NSW, Australia: A. C. Butcher, pages 84 - 98. ISBN 0-9586200-0-8. 
  15. ^ Historic emegencies in NSW, Emergency NSW database
  16. ^ Australian Government Emergency Management database
  17. ^ ABC television transcript: Report warns of damage to Murrumbidgee River from 2001 7:30 Report program
  18. ^ NSW Separtment of Natural Resources Murrumbidgee Region
  19. ^ "0766—Matthews Bridge—Maude". Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved on 2008-06-24.
  20. ^ Heaton, J.H.,1984, The Bedside Book of Colonial Doings, Published in 1879 as 'Australian Dictionary of Dates' containing the History of Australasia from 1542 to May, 1879, Angus & Robertson Publishers Sydney, pp.215-216

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