Murrumbidgee River

The Murrumbidgee River is a major river in the state of New South Wales, Australia, and the Australian Capital Territory. It is a major tributary of the Murray River.

The word Murrumbidgee means "big water" or possibly "track goes down here" or "a very good place" in the Wiradjuri language, the local Aboriginal language.^[1] The name was sometimes spelled Morumbidgee in the nineteenth century. ^[2]

Flow

Seasonally, this river system used to have large flows but now that it is a regulated stream, flows are only high when releases are made from upstream storages to supply downstream irrigators.

It is generally not appreciated that the ACT reaches of the Murrumbidgee 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. This had extremely serious affects on native fish populations and other native aquatic life and has led to serious habitat loss. It can be fairly said that the Murrumbidgee River through the ACT is only half the river it used to be (e.g. ^[3]).

The mainstream of the river system flows for 900 km.^[4] 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 kilometres, the river flows through the Australian Capital Territory near Canberra, picking up the important tributaries of the Molonglo and Cotter Rivers.^[5] 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. ^[6]

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".  Throsby reached the river in April 1821.^[7]

In 1823, Brigade-Major John Ovens and Captain Mark Currie came to the upper Murrumbidgee when exploring south of Lake George.^[8]. 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.^[9] The Murrumbidgee basin was opened to settlement in the 1830s and soon became an important farming area.

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.^[10]

Floods

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.^[11]

In 1925, four people died and the flooding lasted for eight days.^[12]

The river has risen above 23 feet 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 forty feet. The following year the river again rose to just over forty-one feet. The construction of Burrinjuck Dam from 1907 has significantly reduced flooding but, despite the dam, there were major floods in 1925 and 1974.^[13]

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.^[14]

Wetlands

Major wetlands along the Murrumbidgee or associated with the Murrumbidgee catchment include:^[15]

• Lowbidgee Floodplain, 2,000 km² 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

• Gudgenby River
  • Naas River (Naas flows into Gudgenby before Murrumbidgee despite what appears on the 1:100 000 topographic map)
• Molonglo River
  • Queanbeyan River
• Cotter River
• Tumut River
• Yass River
• Lachlan River
  • Abercrombie River

Population centres

• Tharwa
• Yass
• Gundagai
• Wagga Wagga
• Narrandera
• Yanco
• Leeton
• Darlington Point
• Hay
• Balranald

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.

• Angle Crossing (a ford)
• Tharwa Bridge 1895 - present
• Point Hut Crossing
• Near the confluence with the Cotter River at Casuarina Sands
• Uriarra Crossing
• Wee Jasper: Taemas Bridge 1930 -
• Jugiong
• Gobarralong : Gobarralong Bridge
• Gundagai
  • Prince Alfred Bridge 1867 -
  • Railway bridge 1902 -
  • Sheahan Bridge 1977 -
• Wagga Wagga
  • Eunony Bridge 1975 -
  • Hampden Bridge 1895 - 1995
  • Gobbagombalin Bridge 1997 -
  • Murrumbidgee River Rail Bridge 1881 - 2006 (Replaced with concrete bridge)
  • Wiradjuri Bridge opened 1995
• Narrandera
  • Rail bridge
• Darlington Point
  • concrete bridge
• Yanco: Euroley Bridge 2003 - (1929 Dare truss bridge was replaced by a concrete bridge in 2003)
• Carrathool - the last surviving example of a bascule lift span in a timber truss road bridge

References

External links

• Nomination of Lower Murrumbidgee Catchment for UNESCO's HELP Pilot Demonstration Status by CSIRO
• Murrumbidgee River Flows recorded by NSW Water
• River pilot maps 1880-1918 / Echuca Historical Societybn:মারাম্‌বিজি নদী

cs:Murrumbidgee de:Murrumbidgee River et:Murrumbidgee fr:Murrumbidgee it:Murrumbidgee lt:Marambidžis nl:Murrumbidgee pl:Murrumbidgee