49-726: The Murrumbidgee River ( / m ʌr ə m ˈ b ɪ dʒ i / ) is a major tributary of the Murray River within the Murray–Darling basin and the second longest river in Australia . It flows through the Australian state of New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory , descending 1,500 metres (4,900 ft) over 1,485 kilometres (923 mi), generally in a west-northwesterly direction from
98-692: A group of Aboriginal Australian people from central New South Wales , united by common descent through kinship and shared traditions. They survived as skilled hunter-fisher-gatherers, in family groups or clans, and many still use knowledge of hunting and gathering techniques as part of their customary life. In the 21st century, major Wiradjuri groups live in Condobolin , Peak Hill , Narrandera and Griffith . There are significant populations at Wagga Wagga and Leeton and smaller groups at West Wyalong , Parkes , Dubbo , Forbes , Cootamundra , Darlington Point , Cowra and Young . The Wiradjuri autonym
147-526: A junction, and in less than a minute afterwards, we were hurried into a broad and noble river ... such was the force with which we had been shot out of the Morumbidgee, that we were carried nearly to the bank opposite its embouchure , whilst we continued to gaze in silent astonishment on the capacious channel [of the Murray River] we had entered ... The Murrumbidgee basin was opened to settlement in
196-400: A new river, to be given its own name, perhaps one already known to the people who live upon its banks. Conversely, explorers approaching a new land from the sea encounter its rivers at their mouths, where they name them on their charts, then, following a river upstream, encounter each tributary as a forking of the stream to the right and to the left, which then appear on their charts as such; or
245-501: A revised and expanded edition of Lancelot Threlkeld 's 1834 work on the Awabakal language, An Australian Grammar , in which he created his own names for groupings, such as Yunggai, Wachigari and Yakkajari. Tindale says that some of the later terms had entered the literature, although not based on fieldwork and lacking Aboriginal support, as artificial, collective names for his "Great Tribes" of New South Wales. He writes that there
294-400: A river or stream that branches off from and flows away from the main stream. Distributaries are most often found in river deltas . Right tributary , or right-bank tributary , and left tributary , or left-bank tributary , describe the orientation of the tributary relative to the flow of the main stem river. These terms are defined from the perspective of looking downstream, that is, facing
343-630: A section of the upper river's channels are relatively new in geological terms, dating from the early Miocene (the Miocene era being from 23 to 5 million years ago). It is suggested that the Upper Murrumbidgee is an anabranch of the Tumut River (that once continued north along Mutta Mutta Creek) when geological uplift near Adaminaby diverted its flow. From Gundagai onwards the rivers flow within its ancestral channel. In June 2008
392-724: 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. The river was once used as a transport route, with paddle steamers navigating the river as far as Gundagai . The river trade declined with the coming of the railways. Paddle steamers last used the Murrumbidgee in the 1930s. To allow the steamers and towed barges to pass, there were opening bridges at Hay , Balranald , and Carathool The river has risen above 7 metres (23 ft) at Gundagai nine times between 1852 and 2010, an average of just under once every eleven years. Since 1925, flooding has been minor with
441-449: Is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream ( main stem or "parent" ), river, or a lake . A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean . Tributaries, and the main stem river into which they flow, drain the surrounding drainage basin of its surface water and groundwater , leading the water out into an ocean. The Irtysh is a chief tributary of the Ob river and
490-411: Is also the longest tributary river in the world with a length of 4,248 km (2,640 mi). The Madeira River is the largest tributary river by volume in the world with an average discharge of 31,200 m /s (1.1 million cu ft/s). A confluence , where two or more bodies of water meet, usually refers to the joining of tributaries. The opposite to a tributary is a distributary ,
539-457: Is centred in Wiradjuri region. Jessica's best friend (Mary Simpson) was from Wiradjuri. Noel Beddoe's novel The Yalda Crossing also explores Wiradjuri history from an early settler perspective, bringing to life a little-known massacre that occurred in the 1830s. Andy Kissane's poem, "The Station Owner's Daughter, Narrandera" tells a story about the aftermath of that same massacre, and was
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#1732773122309588-553: Is derived from wiray , meaning "no" or "not", with the comitative suffix -dhuray or -dyuray meaning "having". That the Wiradjuri said wiray , as opposed to some other word for "no", was seen as a distinctive feature of their speech, and several other tribes in New South Wales, to the west of the Great Dividing Range , are similarly named after their own words for "no". A similar distinction
637-492: The Grave of Yuranigh . They are generally to be found near rivers where the softer earth allowed easier burial. Alfred William Howitt remarked that these trees incised with taphoglyphs served both as transit points to allow mythological cultural heroes to ascend to, and descend from, the firmament as well as a means for the deceased to return to the sky. The Wiradjuri diet included yabbies and fish such as Murray cod from
686-676: 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 only 13 of the original 22 native fish species still found in the Murrumbidgee River. The Murrumbidgee River runs through
735-459: The "nations" concept. However, Tindale refers to Wiradjuri in his own work (p. 200): "Wiradjuri 'Wiradjuri (Wi'raduri)". Wiradjuri is a Pama–Nyungan family and classified as a member of the small Wiradhuric branch of Australian languages of Central New South Wales. The Wiradjuri language is effectively extinct, but attempts are underway to revive it, with a reconstructed grammar, based on earlier ethnographic materials and wordlists and
784-462: 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
833-581: The 1850s there were still corroborees around Mudgee , but there were fewer clashes. The short story Death in the Dawntime , originally published in The Mammoth Book of Historical Detectives (Mike Ashley, editor; 1995), is a murder mystery that takes place entirely among the Wiradjuri people before the arrival of Europeans in Australia. In Bryce Courtenay 's novel Jessica , the plot
882-592: The Australian Capital Territory, and is an important source of irrigation water for the Riverina farming area. The reaches of the Murrumbidgee in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) are affected by the complete elimination of large spring snowmelt 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 diverted approximately 99% of
931-498: The Australian Capital Territory, the river is bordered by a narrow strip of land on each side; these are managed as the Murrumbidgee River Corridor (MRC). This land includes many nature reserves , eight recreation reserves, a European heritage conservation zone and rural leases. The mainstream of the river system flows for 900 kilometres (560 mi). The river's headwaters arise from the wet heath and bog at
980-468: The Murrumbidgee River including Wagga Wagga, where the river peaked at 10.56 metres (34.6 ft) on 6 March 2012. This peak was 0.18 metres (0.59 ft) below the 1974 flood level of 10.74 metres (35.2 ft). Major wetlands along the Murrumbidgee or associated with the Murrumbidgee catchment include: Download coordinates as: The Murrumbidgee River has about 90 named tributaries in total; 24 rivers, and numerous creeks and gullies. The ordering of
1029-510: The Wiradjuri's southern boundary and the change from woodland to open grassland marks their eastern boundary. The Wiradjuri were organised into bands. Norman Tindale quotes Alfred William Howitt as mentioning several of these local groups of the tribe: The Wiradjuri, together with the Gamilaraay (who however used them in bora ceremonies ), were particularly known for their use of carved trees which functioned as taphoglyphs , marking
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#17327731223091078-463: 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
1127-415: The basin, from source to mouth, of the major tributaries is: 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. a replacement for this bridge in 2020. Download coordinates as: and 2020 and 2009 Tributary A tributary , or an affluent ,
1176-400: The burial site of a notable medicine-man, ceremonial leader, warrior or orator of a tribe. On the death of a distinguished Wiradjuri, initiated men would strip the bark off a tree to allow them to incise symbols on the side of the trunk which faced the burial mound . The craftsmanship on remaining examples of this funeral artwork displays notable artistic power. Four still stand near Molong at
1225-421: The direction the water current of the main stem is going. In a navigational context, if one were floating on a raft or other vessel in the main stream, this would be the side the tributary enters from as one floats past; alternately, if one were floating down the tributary, the main stream meets it on the opposite bank of the tributary. This information may be used to avoid turbulent water by moving towards
1274-509: The exception of floods in 1974 and in December 2010, when the river rose to 10.2 metres (33 ft) at Gundagai. 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, 1950, 1974 and 2012. The most notable flood
1323-599: The expedition journal, Throsby wrote as a marginal note: "This river or stream is called by the natives Yeal-am-bid-gie ..." . The river he had stumbled upon was in fact the Molonglo River , Throsby reached the actual river in April 1821. In 1823, Brigade-Major John Ovens and Captain Mark Currie reached the upper Murrumbidgee when exploring south of Lake George . In 1829, Charles Sturt and his party rowed down
1372-536: The first-order tributary being typically the least in size. For example, a second-order tributary would be the result of two or more first-order tributaries combining to form the second-order tributary. Another method is to list tributaries from mouth to source, in the form of a tree structure , stored as a tree data structure . Wiradjuri The Wiradjuri people ( Wiradjuri northern dialect pronunciation [wiraːjd̪uːraj] ; Wiradjuri southern dialect pronunciation [wiraːjɟuːraj] ) are
1421-644: The foot of Peppercorn Hill in the Fiery Range of the Snowy Mountains towards its confluence with the Murray River near Boundary Bend . The word Murrumbidgee or Marrambidya means "big water" in the Wiradjuri language , one of the local Australian Aboriginal languages . The river itself flows through several traditional Aboriginal Australian lands, home to various Aboriginal peoples. In
1470-573: The foot of Peppercorn Hill situated along Long Plain which is within the Fiery Range of the Snowy Mountains ; and about 50 kilometres (31 mi) north of Kiandra . From its headwaters it flows to its confluence with the Murray River . The river flows for 66 kilometres (41 mi) through the Australian Capital Territory near Canberra , picking up the important tributaries of the Gudgenby , Queanbeyan , Molonglo and Cotter Rivers . The Murrumbidgee drains much of southern New South Wales and all of
1519-661: The foothills of the Blue Mountains east of Lithgow and Oberon , and east of Cowra , Young and Tumut and south to the upper Murray at Albury and east to about Tumbarumba . The southern border ran to Howlong . Its western reaches went along Billabong Creek to beyond Mossgiel . They extended southwest to the vicinity of Hay and Narrandera . Condobolin southwards to Booligal , Carrathool , Wagga Wagga , Cootamundra , Parkes , Trundle ; Gundagai , Boorowa , and Rylstone , Wellington , and Carcoar all lay within Wiradjuri territory. The Murray River forms
Murrumbidgee River - Misplaced Pages Continue
1568-451: The handedness is from the point of view of an observer facing upstream. For instance, Steer Creek has a left tributary which is called Right Fork Steer Creek. These naming conventions are reflective of the circumstances of a particular river's identification and charting: people living along the banks of a river, with a name known to them, may then float down the river in exploration, and each tributary joining it as they pass by appears as
1617-557: The harshness of his own people's behaviour, since the Wiradjuri were in his view, fond of white people, as they would call them. Clashes between the British settlers and the Wiradjuri however multiplied as the influx of colonist increased, and became known as the Bathurst Wars . The occupation of their lands and their cultivation began to cause famine among the Wiradjuri, who had a different notion of what constituted property. In
1666-477: 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
1715-461: The lower half of the Murrumbidgee River in a stoutly built, large row-boat, from Narrandera to the Murray River, and then down the Murray River to the sea. They rowed back upstream, against the current to their starting point. Sturt's description of their passage through the junction of the Murrumbidgee and Murray Rivers is dramatic. His description of wild strong currents in the Murrumbidgee— in
1764-484: The memories of Wiradjuri families, which is now used to teach the language in schools. This reclamation work was originally propelled by elder Stan Grant and John Rudder who had previously studied Australian Aboriginal languages in Arnhem Land . The Wiradjuri are the largest Aboriginal group in New South Wales. They once occupied a vast area in central New South Wales, on the plains running north and south to
1813-476: The middle of summer (14 January 1830), when flows are declining and close to the seasonal summer/autumn minimum, is in contrast to the reduced flow seen at the junction today in mid-summer: The men looked anxiously out ahead; for the singular change in the river had impressed on them an idea, that we were approaching its termination ... We were carried at a fearful rate down its gloomy and contracted banks ... At 3 p.m., Hopkinson called out that we were approaching
1862-469: The opposite bank before approaching the confluence. An early tributary is a tributary that joins the main stem river closer to its source than its mouth, that is, before the river's midpoint ; a late tributary joins the main stem further downstream, closer to its mouth than to its source, that is, after the midpoint. In the United States, where tributaries sometimes have the same name as
1911-666: The river into which they feed, they are called forks . These are typically designated by compass direction. For example, the American River in California receives flow from its North, Middle, and South forks. The Chicago River 's North Branch has the East, West, and Middle Fork; the South Branch has its South Fork, and used to have a West Fork as well (now filled in). Forks are sometimes designated as right or left. Here,
1960-559: The river's flow at that point into Lake Eucumbene . This has extremely serious effects on native fish populations and other native aquatic life and has led to serious siltation, stream contraction, fish habitat loss, and other problems. The Murrumbidgee where it enters the ACT is effectively half the river it used to be. The reduced and significantly modified flow of the river is further exasperated by dams on its tributaries, such as Scrivener Dam , Cotter Dam , and Googong Dam . A study suggests
2009-405: The rivers. In dry seasons, they ate kangaroos, emus and food gathered from the land, including fruit, nuts, yam daisies ( Microseris lanceolata ), wattle seeds, and orchid tubers. The Wiradjuri travelled into Alpine areas in the summer to feast on Bogong moths . The Wiradjuri were also known for their handsome possum-skin cloaks stitched together from several possum furs. Governor Macquarie
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2058-418: The smaller stream designated the little fork, the larger either retaining its name unmodified, or receives the designation big . Tributaries are sometimes listed starting with those nearest to the source of the river and ending with those nearest to the mouth of the river . The Strahler stream order examines the arrangement of tributaries in a hierarchy of first, second, third and higher orders, with
2107-432: The streams are seen to diverge by the cardinal direction (north, south, east, or west) in which they proceed upstream, sometimes a third stream entering between two others is designated the middle fork; or the streams are distinguished by the relative height of one to the other, as one stream descending over a cataract into another becomes the upper fork, and the one it descends into, the lower ; or by relative volume:
2156-524: The traditional lands of the Ngarigo, Ngunnawal, Wiradjuri , Nari Nari and Muthi Muthi Aboriginal peoples. The Murrumbidgee River was known to Europeans before they first recorded it. 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
2205-688: The west of the Blue Mountains . The area was known as "the land of the three rivers", the Wambuul (Macquarie) , the Kalare later known as the Lachlan and the Murrumbidgee , or Murrumbidjeri . Norman Tindale estimated the territorial range of the Wiradjuri tribal lands at 127,000 km (49,000 sq mi). Their eastern borders ran from north to south from above Mudgee , down to
2254-492: Was in 1852 when the town of Gundagai was swept away and 89 people, a third of the town's population, were killed. The town was rebuilt on higher ground. In 1925, four people died and the flooding lasted for eight days. The reduction in floods has consequences for wildlife, particularly 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. Major flooding occurred during March 2012 along
2303-428: Was made between Romance languages in medieval France , with the langues d'oc and the langues d'oïl distinguished by their word for "yes". In his book Aboriginal Tribes of Australia (1974), Norman Tindale wrote that Wiradjuri was one of several terms coined later, after the 1890s had seen a "rash of such terms", following the publication of a work by ethnologist John Fraser . In 1892, Fraser had published
2352-436: Was presented with one of these cloaks by a Wiradjuri man when he visited Bathurst in 1815. Wiradjuri territory was first penetrated by British colonists in 1813. In 1822 George Suttor took up an extensive lot of land, later known as Brucedale Station, after Wiradjuri guides showed him an area with ample water sources. Suttor learnt their language, and befriended Windradyne, nicknamed "Saturday" , and attributed conflict to
2401-817: Was such a "literary need for major groupings that [Fraser] set out to provide them for New South Wales, coining entirely artificial terms for his 'Great tribes'. These were not based on field research and lacked aboriginal support. His names such as Yunggai, Wachigari and Yakkajari can be ignored as artifacts...During the 1890s the idea spread and soon there was a rash of such terms...Some of these have entered, unfortunately, into popular literature, despite their dubious origins." He lists Wiradjuri (NSW) as one of these artificial names, along with Bangarang ( Pangerang ) (Vic.); Booandik (Vic. & SA); Barkunjee ( Barkindji ) (NSW), Kurnai (Vic.), Thurrawal ( Dharawal ) (NSW), and Malegoondeet (?) (Vic.). He also mentions R. H. Mathews , A. W. Howitt and John Mathew as promulgators of
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