Discussion Paper - Part A - Victorian Environmental Assessment ...

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Mitta Mitta above their junction, and named the Ovens,near present day Everton, and the Goulburn, nearCathkin (Powell & Duncan 1982).Figure 7.1 Cairn near Wodonga commemorating the1824 exploration route of Hume and Hovell.Charles Sturt charted the course of the River Murray in1830 below the junction with the Murrumbidgee andgave the river its present name in honour of GeorgeMurray, British Secretary of the State for the Colonies(Davison et al. 1998). Surveyor General Major ThomasMitchell made an exploratory excursion through the areain 1836. Mitchell named the Loddon, Campaspe andAvoca Rivers on this expedition. Mitchell made severalerrors in identifying rivers, naming a stream at Swan Hill,the Goulburn when it was actually the Marraboor (LittleMurray) River which connects the Loddon River and RiverMurray. He also named a watercourse the Yarrayne,which was already known as the Loddon. On two lateroccasions he crossed this same stream again, this timeidentifying it as the Avoca (Mitchell 1839).Following the positive reports of earlier explorers,Edward John Eyre made for Port Phillip and Adelaide inDecember 1837 with 300 cattle from near the site ofpresent day Canberra. Eyre crossed the Goulburn andheaded to the Loddon River but became hopelessly lost.He eventually arrived in Adelaide some seven monthsafter his date of departure. In January 1838 JosephHawdon and Charles Bonney drove a mob of cattle fromHowlong (near Albury) to Adelaide via the GoulburnRiver and River Murray. They travelled close to today’ssite of Echuca. Hawdon’s experience of the countrycrossed by Mitchell was coloured by the hues of a hotsummer. From the vantage point of Mount Hope inFebruary he described the vastness of the plains being ofthe ‘worst description’ (Hawdon 1952).Sturt returned in 1838 to drive his cattle along theMurray crossing to the left bank at Barmah Forest andmoving on to Adelaide using the tracks of Hawdon andEyre. By 1866, it was estimated that 350,000 sheepwere being moved along this route (Holmes 1948). Thefirst overlanders were able to ford the rivers they cameacross with reasonable ease, suggesting dry conditions.The routes taken by these explorers and overlanders aretoday marked by cairns and plaques (Figure 7.1). Theintensive use of the River Murray track led to clashesbetween Aboriginal people and overlanders. The worstof these collisions occurred at Rufus River (Lake Victoria)during 1841 when 4–5 overlanders and at least 30Aboriginal people were killed in battle (Sinclair 2001).PastoralismIt was Mitchell’s triumphant view of the country hecrossed, published and widely promoted, that brought awave of squatters to the Port Phillip district. The advanceof pastoralism was rapid, especially in the years 1838–40after the official opening of the Port Phillip District in1836. ‘The Major’s Line’, the track left by Mitchell’s 1836expedition, marked a clear path followed by overlandinggraziers searching for the abundant natural pasturesMitchell had labelled ‘Australia Felix’. Translated from theLatin as happy or fortunate southern land, this was usedby Mitchell to describe the lands of the Port Phillipdistrict, and later the Colony of Victoria. The Major’s Lineacted as a kind of internal boundary line for theprovince. It was used by subsequent overlanders andruns were defined in relation to the line. Parts of thetrack were still visible in the 1850s and can still be seennear Heathcote today with the name remaining in use inthe 1880s.Many squatters arrived in the study area by striking outfrom Mitchell’s tracks and river crossings. Land withinthe study area was taken up for sheep and cattlegrazing from as early as 1835. Bonegilla station (nearpresent day Wodonga) was claimed by William Wyse onbehalf of Charles Ebden in that year. White settlementwas halted when overlanders encountered resistance byAboriginal people along Mitchell’s route on the BrokenRiver in April 1838. For two to three months afterconflicts at Faithfull’s Creek near Benalla, in which eightwhite men and several Aboriginal people were killed,there was open warfare between ‘blacks and whites’ inthis region (Christie 1979).Runs were taken up on the best land along the rivers ofthe study area. A general trend saw the River Murrayplains taken up from Ebden’s run to the Goulburn, thenwest along the Murray. The lower reaches of theCampaspe, Loddon and Avoca Rivers were taken up tothe north along those river courses with the plains beingsettled in later years. Runs were also taken up along theMurray in an easterly direction from South Australia. TheDiscussion Paper99
Figure 7.2 Murray Downs homestead (NSW) near Swan Hill.vast Neds Corner run was established on the SouthAustralian border by Ned Bagot in 1857.The 1847 Order-in-Council provided for the issuing ofleases through the Colonial Secretary which enabledsquatters to take up the choicest agricultural land andriver frontages. By 1850, most of the country of thestudy area was divided into sheep stations. Homesteadswere located on river and creek frontages andboundaries were defined by blazed trees, ploughedfurrows and the deployment of stock. Squatters andtheir herds and mobs were quick to make their mark onthe land. The rapid introduction of domestic animalswith hard hooves affected vegetation cover and soils asdid introduced grasses.Evidence today of the period of squatting occupationinclude homesteads which still stand at the sites of theStrathmerton, Wharparilla, Restdown Plains, TerrickTerrick, Mount Hope and Madowla Park (formerly LowerMoira) runs. Remains of sheep wash areas are found invarious locations such as those at Woolshed Lake nearBoort. Murray Downs (NSW) and Tyntynder homesteadsnear Swan Hill, and Burramine homestead nearYarrawonga are open to the public, and the Swan HillPioneer Settlement also evokes this era (Figure 7.2).Gold MiningAlluvial gold was discovered in the study area in 1852, inthe ‘Buffalo Ranges’ of the Ovens district. Subsequentgoldfields were opened at Myrtleford in 1853, Eldoradoin 1854 and Wahgunyah and Rutherglen in 1858. Themajor gold discoveries in nearby areas such as Bendigo,Rushworth and Beechworth also had significantimplications for settlement in the study area. The vicinityof Myrtleford was dredged from 1908. Cyaniding ofdeep lead dumps was undertaken at Wahgunyah andRutherglen between 1937–1950 (Heritage Victoria2005). The impact of gold mining on affected parts ofthe region was devastating. Vegetation was cleared andtopsoil turned over. Trees were felled to line drives andmine shafts and to stoke boilers. Creeks and rivers werepolluted, silted, and riverbanks eroded and removed.Material reminders of the gold era exist today in theareas of Myrtleford and Wahgunyah (DNRE 1999).SelectionAgriculture in the study area began in earnest with thepassing of the Land Acts in 1860, 1862, 1865 and 1869.The aim of the Land Acts was to settle a class of yeomenfarmers on small holdings across the colony of Victoria.The motives that fed the pursuit of this ideal werecomplex and varied, but the clear objective of the LandActs was to break the squatter stronghold. Eachconsecutive Act brought with it conditions that made itmore difficult for squatting interests to select land.Despite this, squatters had actually consolidated theirholdings by 1869 by manipulating how the Acts wereimplemented by ‘dummyimg’ (nominal selectors actingon behalf of someone else) and ‘peacocking’ (selectingprime land such as waterways and fertile areas so as tomake surrounding land untenable).Most of the Riverine Plain of the study area was dividedinto 320 acre farms under the Land Act 1869. This Actrequired lessees to live on the selection for at least twoand a half years, and within three years build a house, tofulfil residency conditions. They also had to fence theselection, cultivate at least ten per cent of the land, andimprove their selection through clearing vegetation,100 River Red Gum Forests Investigation > 2006
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2 GeologyGeology underpins the dive
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Figure 2.2 Schematic diagram of fol
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et al. 2000). This Selwyn Block is
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Figure 2.4 Murray Basin during the
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quartz sand and gravel beds, carbon
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Box 3.1 River MeandersRivers rarely
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lakes by flooding from Chalka Creek
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major valleys. The large, older fan
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ecommending representative areas fo
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Box 3.2 Barmah Area GeomorphologyTh
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4 Climate andHydrological SystemsAu
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Figure 4.1 Annual anomalies (based
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such as messmate have a thick prote
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Natural Hydrology of the River Murr
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Table 4.3 Stream flow in major Vict
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GroundwaterHydrology also relates t
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FloodplainsThe floodplains of the R
Page 46 and 47: 5 BiodiversityBiodiversity is impor
Page 48 and 49: Ecosystem Assessment 2005). Species
Page 51: Figure 5.2 Hairy darling-pea on a r
Page 57 and 58: Figure 5.5 A common blue-tongued li
Page 59: Threatened VertebratesBased on cons
Page 64 and 65: Figure 5.8 Mature river red gum on
Page 66 and 67: Figure 5.12 Tangled lignum at Mulcr
Page 68 and 69: Egrets generally only breed in livi
Page 70 and 71: which is essential habitat for some
Page 72 and 73: dependent species including darling
Page 74: Table 5.7 Summary of risk levels to
Page 77 and 78: Figure 5.22 Koala in a river red gu
Page 79 and 80: Examples include the larvae of leaf
Page 81 and 82: Figure 5.27 Cattle on the bank of t
Page 83 and 84: Table 5.8 Comments on fire from exp
Page 85 and 86: 6 Indigenous LandAssociationsThis c
Page 89 and 90: Table 6.1 Summary of area in Victor
Page 91 and 92: waters. The Joint Body is funded to
Page 93 and 94: Consultative ManagementConsultative
Page 95: 7 Non-IndigenousHistoryThe resource
Page 99 and 100: Reception Centre established in 194
Page 101 and 102: and rural water supply became the r
Page 103: FisheriesThe collapse of the Murray
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