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Murray River | |
---|---|
Location | |
Country | Australia |
Physical characteristics | |
Source | |
• location | Mount Keats |
• elevation | 187 metres (614 ft) [1] |
Mouth | |
• location | Peel-Harvey Estuary |
• elevation | sea level |
Length | 134 kilometres (83 mi) |
The Murray River is a river in the southwest of Western Australia. It played a significant part in the expansion of settlement in the area south of Perth after the arrival of British settlers at the Swan River Colony in 1829.
The river is one of the few major rivers close to Perth which is devoid of dams for public water supply. It includes a catchment area including a large part of the wheatbelt and southwest of the state, draining from 450 mm (18 in) per annum average rainfall country in the east near Pingelly, westward through the high rainfall parts of the Darling Range around Dwellingup with an average rainfall of 1,300 mm (51 in) per annum.
The first of the two major tributaries, the Hotham River, starts its journey near Narrogin. The other major tributary is the Williams River, which starts between Williams and Narrogin. These two tributaries are the main rivers which drain the eastern wheat-belt.
The Murray River then flows through forested high-rainfall parts of the Darling Range to emerge near Pinjarra.
Another tributary, the Dandalup River, joins the Murray a short distance downstream of Pinjarra. This section is known as the lower Murray and is navigable in small boats. The river then flows across the sand plain between the Darling Scarp and the coast to empty into the Peel Estuary near Mandurah.
The canal development of North and South Yunderup is situated several kilometres upstream from the estuary.
The first European exploration of the area was in July 1829 when a group, led by Captain Currie of HMS Challenger and accompanied by botanist James Drummond, marched a short distance inland from present-day Rockingham and after climbing a small hill at what is now Baldivis, sighted a river in the distance. This was later named the Serpentine River, which is to the north of the Murray and for some time was confused with the Murray, which was not encountered until later that year.
In November, Dr Alexander Collie and Lieutenant William Preston and crew from HMS Sulphur piloted two whaleboats out of Cockburn Sound and at midday on 17 November 1829 crossed the ocean bar at present-day Mandurah. After camping overnight, they sailed south down the Peel-Harvey Estuary to the southern extreme near the delta of the Harvey River, where they had an amicable encounter with some local Aboriginal people.
Due to strong winds, they sailed north out of the estuary without exploring the Eastern shore where the Murray River enters the estuary. The group then exited through the ocean bar and sailed south along the coast as far as the Collie and Preston Rivers and the Leschenault Inlet before returning to the Peel-Harvey estuary on 28 November 1829. From there they explored the Murray River delta, which at the time included five entrances into the estuary. The boats managed to navigate about 3 kilometres (2 mi) up the river before returning to Fremantle after the 12-day trip. This was their first actual encounter with the Murray River and it was named by Governor James Stirling after the Secretary of State for the Colonial Office in London, Sir George Murray.
Within a few months, settlers from the Swan River had started to explore the river and choose blocks along its banks.
Thomas Peel had left Britain with a promise that if he arrived at Fremantle by the beginning of November 1829 with 400 settlers, he would be allocated a grant of 1,000 square kilometres (250,000 acres), comprising much of the land on the south bank of the Swan River to Cockburn Sound. As he arrived six weeks late and with only 169 settlers, the offer was withdrawn by Stirling as the land had been granted to established settlers. Peel was offered an alternative grant from Woodman Point to the north bank of the Murray River and from the ocean to the Darling Scarp.
Peel's remaining settlers arrived shortly after and settled initially at Clarence before moving to the site of present-day Mandurah, which he named Peeltown.
Despite many problems faced by the settlers, the area gradually expanded, and a settlement at Pinjarra was established by late 1830. Pinjarra was approximately the upper limit of navigable water along the Murray River. It also had a natural ford for travellers at nearby Oakley Brook.
More land allocations along the southern bank of the river were made; however, settlement seemed to be limited to no further south than the Murray River grants, partly because of continuing and increasing conflicts with local Aboriginal people. These conflicts culminated in the infamous Pinjarra massacre in October 1834 during which an uncertain number of Noongar people of the local Pindjarup tribal group were killed. The massacre by a detachment of 25 soldiers, police and settlers, led by Stirling, followed a raid in Perth by members of the Murray River tribe. The following year, a formal truce was made between the Murray River and the Swan River Noongars and the white settlers.
Relative peace was established and expansion around the towns of Pinjarra increased. The opening of the Perth to Bunbury railway in 1893 further expanded the area. Almost immediately after farming commenced, settlers realised that the soils surrounding the lower reaches of the river suffered badly from annual flooding caused by a very low fall between the base of the scarp and the estuary, a distance of about 40 kilometres (25 mi). The problem was exacerbated by extensive clearing of trees in the foothills which would have otherwise helped remove the excess water. Settlers described a giant wetland with travel impossible for several months each year.
From 1900 to about the end of the Second World War, a concerted effort at draining the flood-prone areas was made and today, about one-third of all land with the Peel-Harvey catchment is within 100 m (328 ft) of a constructed drain, stream or river.
The Swan River is a major river in the southwest of Western Australia. The river runs through the metropolitan area of Perth, Western Australia's capital and largest city.
The Darling Scarp, also referred to as the Darling Range or Darling Ranges, is a low escarpment running north–south to the east of the Swan Coastal Plain and Perth, Western Australia. The escarpment extends generally north of Bindoon, to the south of Pemberton. The adjacent Darling Plateau goes easterly to include Mount Bakewell near York and Mount Saddleback near Boddington. It was named after the Governor of New South Wales, Lieutenant-General Ralph Darling.
Mandurah is a coastal city in the Australian state of Western Australia, situated approximately 72 kilometres (45 mi) south of the state capital, Perth. It is the state's second most populous city, with a population of 90,306.
Thomas Peel organised and lead a consortium of the first British settlers to Western Australia. He was a leader of the colonial militia that participated in Pinjarra massacre in 1834, which saw 70-80 of the Aboriginal Binjareb people killed. He was a second cousin of two-times British Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel.
The Peel region is one of the nine regions of Western Australia. It is located on the west coast of Western Australia, about 75 km (47 mi) south of the state capital, Perth. It consists of the City of Mandurah, and the Shires of Boddington, Murray, Serpentine-Jarrahdale and Waroona.
Pinjarra is a town in the Peel region of Western Australia along the South Western Highway, 82 kilometres (51 mi) from the state capital, Perth and 21 kilometres (13 mi) south-east of the coastal city of Mandurah. Its local government area is the Shire of Murray. At the 2016 census, Pinjarra had a population of 4910.
South Western Highway is a highway in the South West region of Western Australia connecting Perth's southeast with Walpole. It is a part of the Highway 1 network for most of its length. It is about 406 kilometres (252 mi) long.
The Blackwood River is a major river and catchment in the South West of Western Australia.
The Wagyl is the Noongar manifestation of the Rainbow Serpent in Australian Aboriginal mythology, from the culture based around the south-west of Western Australia. The Noongar describe the Wagyl as a snakelike Dreaming creature responsible for the creation of the Swan and Canning rivers and other waterways and landforms around present day Perth and the south-west of Western Australia.
The Swan Coastal Plain in Western Australia is the geographic feature which contains the Swan River as it travels west to the Indian Ocean. The coastal plain continues well beyond the boundaries of the Swan River and its tributaries, as a geological and biological zone, one of Western Australia's Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia regions. It is also one of the distinct physiographic provinces of the larger West Australian Shield division.
The Bindjareb, Binjareb, Pindjarup or Pinjareb are an Indigenous Noongar people that occupy part of the South West of Western Australia.
Whadjuk, alternatively Witjari, are Noongar people of the Western Australian region of the Perth bioregion of the Swan Coastal Plain.
Coodanup is a south-eastern suburb of Mandurah, Western Australia. Its local government area is the City of Mandurah.
The Serpentine River is a river in the South West region of Western Australia. It is known as Waangaamaap Bilya to the Indigenous Bindjareb people, who met, lived and fished there before British settlement.
The Pinjarra massacre, also known as the Battle of Pinjarra, occurred on 28 October 1834 in Pinjarra, Western Australia when a group of Binjareb Noongar people were attacked by a detachment of 25 soldiers, police, and settlers led by Governor James Stirling. According to Stirling, "about 60 or 70" of the Binjareb people were present at the camp and John Roe, who also participated, estimated about 70–80. This roughly agrees with an estimate of 70 by an unidentified eyewitness. The attack at Pinjarra was in response to sustained aggression by the Binjarebs, including robberies and murder of settlers and members of other Nyungar tribes.
Calyute, also known as Kalyute, Galyute or Wongir, was an Indigenous Australian resistance leader who was involved in a number of reprisal attacks with white settlers and members of other tribes in the early days of the Swan River Colony, in Western Australia. He was a member of the Pindjarup people from around the Murray River area south of Perth. Calyute's family included two brothers, Woodan and Yanmar, two wives, Mindup and Yamup, and two sons, Ninia and Monang.
The Peel-Harvey Estuarine System is a natural estuarine system that lies roughly parallel to the coast of Western Australia and south of the town of Mandurah.
Forrest Highway is a 95-kilometre-long (59 mi) highway in Western Australia's Peel and South West regions, extending Perth's Kwinana Freeway from east of Mandurah down to Bunbury. Old Coast Road was the original Mandurah–Bunbury route, dating back to the 1840s. Part of that road, and the Australind Bypass around Australind and Eaton, were subsumed by Forrest Highway. The highway begins at Kwinana Freeway's southern terminus in Ravenswood, continues around the Peel Inlet to Lake Clifton, and heads south to finish at Bunbury's Eelup Roundabout. There are a number of at-grade intersections with minor roads in the shires of Murray, Waroona, and Harvey including Greenlands Road and Old Bunbury Road, both of which connect to South Western Highway near Pinjarra.
North Dandalup Dam is a dam in Western Australia. It is located 63.8 kilometres (39.6 mi) south of Perth in the Darling Scarp, which forms the western border of the Darling Ranges. Constructed in 1994, it was opened by the then state Premier Richard Court in October of that year. It was the final project in a dam-building scheme that also includes the Victoria and Conjurunjup Dams.