47-500: Culgoa is a town in the Mallee region in the north west of the Australian state of Victoria . The town is about 319 kilometres (198 mi) from the state capital, Melbourne . At the 2021 census , Culgoa had a population of 86, declining from 101 in 2016. Primary production in the area is predominantly wheat and barley, with some legume and oil crops. Sheep numbers have been down since
94-539: A desert climate often face physical water scarcity. Central Asia , West Asia , and North Africa are examples of arid areas. Economic water scarcity results from a lack of investment in infrastructure or technology to draw water from rivers, aquifers , or other water sources. It also results from weak human capacity to meet water demand. Many people in Sub-Saharan Africa are living with economic water scarcity. An important concern for hydrological ecosystems
141-529: A co-operative and purchased the store to run for themselves. The store provides newspapers, bread, milk, groceries and some takeaway. Computer access is also available to the community. Golfers may play at the Culgoa Golf Club on the Calder Highway . Other sporting venues include tennis, lawn bowls, netball and football. In 2008, the local primary school closed after 98 years of service to the children of
188-526: A collection of 17 interlinked global goals designed to be a "blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all". Targets on fresh water conservation are included in SDG 6 (Clean water and sanitation) and SDG 15 (Life on land). For example, Target 6.4 is formulated as "By 2030, substantially increase water-use efficiency across all sectors and ensure sustainable withdrawals and supply of freshwater to address water scarcity and substantially reduce
235-533: A combined population of 88,178. The area of these same four LGAs is 40,183 square kilometres (15,515 sq mi). An area of South Australia immediately to the west of the Victorian Mallee region, also once covered with mallee scrub, is commonly referred to as the " Murray Mallee " or "the Mallee". The Mallee is, for all practical purposes, completely flat and very low-lying: in fact, for long geological periods
282-402: A drinking water supply it remains vital to protect due to its ability to carry contaminants and pollutants from the land into lakes and rivers, which constitute a significant percentage of other people's freshwater supply. It is almost ubiquitous underground, residing in the spaces between particles of rock and soil or within crevices and cracks in rock, typically within 100 m (330 ft) of
329-428: A larger salt content. Freshwater habitats can be classified by different factors, including temperature, light penetration, nutrients, and vegetation. There are three basic types of freshwater ecosystems: Lentic (slow moving water, including pools , ponds , and lakes ), lotic (faster moving water, for example streams and rivers ) and wetlands (areas where the soil is saturated or inundated for at least part of
376-509: A result of the development of superphosphate and other fertilisers . In the west, the soils are unconsolidated sands, much less alkaline than in the east, and not generally able to support any grain cropping. The Mallee has no surface drainage: the native vegetation has so high a rooting density that the rainfall of most years is easily absorbed and the porous sandy soils mean that any excess in an exceptionally wet year will recharge groundwater supplies which tend to be highly saline. Flow from
423-519: A single factor. Groundwater showed greater resilience to climate change than expected, and areas with an increasing threshold between 0.34 and 0.39 aridity index exhibited significant sensitivity to climate change. Land-use could affect infiltration and runoff processes. The years of most recharge coincided with the most precipitation anomalies, such as during El Niño and La Niña events. Three precipitation-recharge sensitivities were distinguished: in super arid areas with more than 0.67 aridity index, there
470-441: Is also significant industry. Mildura and Swan Hill contain a number of tourism focused businesses, including a number of specially built attractions and festivals. The Murray itself is also a major attraction, many people coming to the district for fishing and to stay on houseboats . The many Mallee national parks - Wyperfeld , Hattah-Kulkyne and Murray Sunset National Parks, wilderness parks, state forests, and other parks over
517-449: Is consumed through human activities than is naturally restored, this may result in reduced fresh water availability (or water scarcity ) from surface and underground sources and can cause serious damage to surrounding and associated environments. Water pollution also reduces the availability of fresh water. Where available water resources are scarce, humans have developed technologies like desalination and wastewater recycling to stretch
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#1732855980551564-416: Is critical to the survival of all living organisms . Many organisms can thrive on salt water, but the great majority of vascular plants and most insects , amphibians , reptiles , mammals and birds need fresh water to survive. Fresh water is the water resource that is of the most and immediate use to humans. Fresh water is not always potable water , that is, water safe to drink by humans . Much of
611-452: Is extracted for human consumption. Agriculture uses roughly two thirds of all fresh water extracted from the environment. Fresh water is a renewable and variable, but finite natural resource . Fresh water is replenished through the process of the natural water cycle , in which water from seas, lakes, forests, land, rivers and reservoirs evaporates, forms clouds , and returns inland as precipitation. Locally, however, if more fresh water
658-418: Is generally on a small scale and confined to food processing. Wheat and barley are widely grown on the less infertile soils in the southeast of the region, but fertilizers , especially superphosphate are essential for success and yields only a quarter of those in most of Europe or North America - in drought years, they can be as little as one twentieth of European wheat yields. Fruit growing along
705-479: Is particularly crucial in Africa, where water resources are often scarce and climate change poses significant challenges. Saline water in oceans , seas and saline groundwater make up about 97% of all the water on Earth . Only 2.5–2.75% is fresh water, including 1.75–2% frozen in glaciers , ice and snow, 0.5–0.75% as fresh groundwater. The water table is the level below which all spaces are filled with water, while
752-826: Is securing minimum streamflow , especially preserving and restoring instream water allocations . Fresh water is an important natural resource necessary for the survival of all ecosystems . Water pollution (or aquatic pollution) is the contamination of water bodies , with a negative impact on their uses. It is usually a result of human activities. Water bodies include lakes , rivers , oceans , aquifers , reservoirs and groundwater . Water pollution results when contaminants mix with these water bodies. Contaminants can come from one of four main sources. These are sewage discharges, industrial activities, agricultural activities, and urban runoff including stormwater . Water pollution may affect either surface water or groundwater . This form of pollution can lead to many problems. One
799-1162: Is sometimes referred to as an economic region , of the Australian state of Victoria . The district is located entirely within the Victorian government's "Loddon Mallee region". People in the central Mallee sometimes believe that "the Mallee" only includes the dryland farming portion of the region. Fresh water Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids . The term excludes seawater and brackish water , but it does include non-salty mineral-rich waters , such as chalybeate springs. Fresh water may encompass frozen and meltwater in ice sheets , ice caps , glaciers , snowfields and icebergs , natural precipitations such as rainfall , snowfall , hail / sleet and graupel , and surface runoffs that form inland bodies of water such as wetlands , ponds , lakes , rivers , streams , as well as groundwater contained in aquifers , subterranean rivers and lakes . Water
846-420: Is the degradation of aquatic ecosystems . Another is spreading water-borne diseases when people use polluted water for drinking or irrigation . Water pollution also reduces the ecosystem services such as drinking water provided by the water resource . Uses of water include agricultural , industrial , household , recreational and environmental activities. The Sustainable Development Goals are
893-458: Is used to describe the Wimmera district and a small part of the Mallee that is relatively close to Horsham. A separate tourism district known as Mildura Swan Hill covers the rural cities of Mildura and Swan Hill. The term Wimmera Mallee has also been used by the federal member for Mallee to describe their electorate, as the electorate covers both regions more-or-less in their entirety. The Mallee
940-526: Is usually only produced by the most vigorous frontal systems or by occasional penetration of tropical air in the summer. Average annual rainfall shows a well-defined north–south gradient: Mildura averages only 267.9 millimetres (10.55 in) per year but Hopetoun in the south receives around 370 mm (15 in). Variability, however, is quite high : in 1973 the Mallee averaged as much as 650 mm (26 in) but in 1982 only 115 mm (4.5 in). Temperatures in summer are generally very hot: during
987-531: The Amazon River . The atmosphere contains 0.04% water. In areas with no fresh water on the ground surface, fresh water derived from precipitation may, because of its lower density, overlie saline ground water in lenses or layers. Most of the world's fresh water is frozen in ice sheets . Many areas have very little fresh water, such as deserts . Water is a critical issue for the survival of all living organisms. Some can use salt water but many organisms including
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#17328559805511034-461: The Buloke , Gannawarra , Mildura City and Swan Hill City local government areas . Another common definition is that the Mallee is the part of Victoria dependent on Mildura and Swan Hill . The Victoria State Government has historically had many departmental regions combining the Mallee with the greater Bendigo area, the current one being named the "Loddon Mallee" region. This region includes
1081-539: The Early 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave , Hopetoun reached 48.8 °C (119.8 °F) and the average maxima in January and February are 32.7 °C (90.9 °F). In July, maximum temperatures average 15.4 °C (59.7 °F), but minima average 4.4 °C (39.9 °F) and frosts are very common. In his 1939 paper on the physiography of North-Western Victoria, E.S. Hills stated that: "the chief factors involved in
1128-657: The Green Sahara periods) and are not appreciably replenished under current climatic conditions - at least compared to drawdown, these aquifers form essentially non-renewable resources comparable to peat or lignite, which are also continuously formed in the current era but orders of magnitude slower than they are mined. Fresh water can be defined as water with less than 500 parts per million (ppm) of dissolved salts . Other sources give higher upper salinity limits for fresh water, e.g. 1,000 ppm or 3,000 ppm. Fresh water habitats are classified as either lentic systems , which are
1175-504: The Loddon River catchment and adjacent areas as well as the Mallee. This region is used by all state government departments, and often there is a central body for the region located in Bendigo. In 2005, there were attempts to push for a separate region in north-west Victoria in the belief that this would deliver more services to the district. For tourism purposes, the term Wimmera Mallee
1222-536: The Wimmera River to the south supplies Lake Hindmarsh and, very occasionally (in 1918, 1956 and 1975), overflows to the north. The Murray River is, thus, the only source of fresh water for the region and is consequently overburdened by intensive irrigation . As of 2019, 61% of the area utilizes drip irrigation . The climate of the Mallee is the hottest and driest in Victoria owing to its inland location. Rainfall
1269-508: The earth 's fresh water (on the surface and groundwater) is to a substantial degree unsuitable for human consumption without treatment . Fresh water can easily become polluted by human activities or due to naturally occurring processes, such as erosion. Fresh water makes up less than 3% of the world's water resources, and just 1% of that is readily available. About 70% of the world's freshwater reserves are frozen in Antarctica . Just 3% of it
1316-555: The Mallee is spread over parts of both the Murray Darling Depression and Riverina bioregions . The Mallee is one of the nine districts in Victoria used for weather forecasting by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology . The Victorian Department of Environment and Primary Industries defines the district as a 39,300-square-kilometre (15,200 sq mi) region for agricultural production purposes encompassing
1363-536: The Murray River exceeds grain crops as the Mallee's major source of revenue. Oranges and grapes are particularly important and the region produces a large part of Victoria's wine though most of it is inexpensive cask wines. Dairying on irrigated pastures is important in the south of the region, but is threatened by its high water demand and the extreme scarcity of water in the Murray-Darling Basin. Tourism
1410-494: The area above this level, where spaces in the rock and soil contain both air and water, is known as the unsaturated zone. The water in this unsaturated zone is referred to as soil moisture. Below the water table, the entire region is known as the saturated zone, and the water in this zone is called groundwater. Groundwater plays a crucial role as the primary source of water for various purposes including drinking, washing, farming, and manufacturing, and even when not directly used as
1457-539: The area. [REDACTED] Media related to Culgoa at Wikimedia Commons This article about a location in Victoria, Australia is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Mallee (region, Victoria) The Mallee is a sub-region of Loddon Mallee covering the most north-westerly part of Victoria , Australia and is bounded by the South Australian and New South Wales borders. Definitions of
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1504-421: The available supply further. However, given the high cost (both capital and running costs) and - especially for desalination - energy requirements, those remain mostly niche applications. A non-sustainable alternative is using so-called " fossil water " from underground aquifers . As some of those aquifers formed hundreds of thousands or even millions of years ago when local climates were wetter (e.g. from one of
1551-452: The distinction between the Mallee and the country south and east of it are precipitation, evaporation, rock type, porosity of the superficial deposits, drainage away from high areas and supply of water from streams that rise in regions of higher rainfall." At the 2011 census, the Mallee had a population of 81,544, most of which live close to the Murray River in the district's two cities, Mildura and Swan Hill. These and other settlements within
1598-479: The drought took hold in the early 2000s. The Post Office opened on 27 May 1893 as Kaneira shortly after the arrival of the railway and was renamed Culgoa in 1920. In 2006 the post office was relocated to the Culgoa Community Store which is a community owned not for profit business to meet the daily needs of the locals. In 2003 when it looked like the local store would close the community formed
1645-527: The freshwater flow to be measurably contaminated both by insoluble solids but also by the soluble components of those soils. Significant quantities of iron may be transported in this way including the well-documented transfer of iron-rich rainfall falling in Brazil derived from sand-storms in the Sahara in north Africa . In Africa, it was revealed that groundwater controls are complex and do not correspond directly to
1692-547: The great majority of higher plants and most mammals must have access to fresh water to live. Some terrestrial mammals, especially desert rodents , appear to survive without drinking, but they do generate water through the metabolism of cereal seeds, and they also have mechanisms to conserve water to the maximum degree. Freshwater ecosystems are a subset of Earth's aquatic ecosystems . They include lakes , ponds , rivers , streams , springs , bogs , and wetlands . They can be contrasted with marine ecosystems , which have
1739-439: The municipalities based on these centres contain over two-thirds of the region's population. Ouyen and Murrayville are the main settlements of the central Mallee, while Kerang , Cohuna , Hopetoun and Birchip are the major towns in the south. The Mallee is a primarily agricultural region: apart from possible mineral sands in the west and salt from certain ephemeral lakes there are no mineral deposits of value and industry
1786-413: The others as well. Water scarcity (closely related to water stress or water crisis) is the lack of fresh water resources to meet the standard water demand. There are two types of water scarcity. One is physical. The other is economic water scarcity . Physical water scarcity is where there is not enough water to meet all demands. This includes water needed for ecosystems to function. Regions with
1833-682: The river are also major drawcards. The Wergaia people are an Aboriginal Australian group in the Wimmera and Mallee regions. The people were also known as the Maligundidj (in the Wotjobaluk language ) which means the people belonging to the Mali (mallee) bushland, which covers part of their territory. This name has also been recorded as Malleegunditch . In the context of the Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia ,
1880-421: The sea if windy conditions have lifted drops of seawater into the rain-bearing clouds. This can give rise to elevated concentrations of sodium , chloride , magnesium and sulfate as well as many other compounds in smaller concentrations. In desert areas, or areas with impoverished or dusty soils, rain-bearing winds can pick up sand and dust and this can be deposited elsewhere in precipitation and causing
1927-413: The south-eastern boundary vary, however, all are based on the historic Victorian distribution of mallee eucalypts. These trees dominate the surviving native vegetation through most of Mallee, (except for swamps and areas along waterways). Its biggest settlements are Mildura and Swan Hill . At the 2011 census , the four local government areas (LGAs) that are usually thought to define the district had
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1974-420: The stillwaters including ponds , lakes, swamps and mires ; lotic which are running-water systems; or groundwaters which flow in rocks and aquifers . There is, in addition, a zone which bridges between groundwater and lotic systems, which is the hyporheic zone , which underlies many larger rivers and can contain substantially more water than is seen in the open channel. It may also be in direct contact with
2021-636: The surface, and soil moisture, and less than 0.01% of it as surface water in lakes , swamps and rivers . Freshwater lakes contain about 87% of this fresh surface water, including 29% in the African Great Lakes , 22% in Lake Baikal in Russia, 21% in the North American Great Lakes , and 14% in other lakes. Swamps have most of the balance with only a small amount in rivers, most notably
2068-469: The time). Freshwater ecosystems contain 41% of the world's known fish species. The increase in the world population and the increase in per capita water use puts increasing strains on the finite resources availability of clean fresh water. The response by freshwater ecosystems to a changing climate can be described in terms of three interrelated components: water quality, water quantity or volume, and water timing. A change in one often leads to shifts in
2115-657: The underlying underground water. The original source of almost all fresh water is precipitation from the atmosphere , in the form of mist , rain and snow . Fresh water falling as mist, rain or snow contains materials dissolved from the atmosphere and material from the sea and land over which the rain bearing clouds have traveled. The precipitation leads eventually to the formation of water bodies that humans can use as sources of freshwater: ponds , lakes , rainfall , rivers , streams , and groundwater contained in underground aquifers . In coastal areas fresh water may contain significant concentrations of salts derived from
2162-492: The whole region was inundated by the ocean . Most of the Mallee consists of sand dunes that have been deposited as a result of movement of sand from the interior of Australia during arid glacial periods of the Quaternary . The soils are generally very infertile and sandy: the better ones on more stabilised sand dunes in the east are slightly loamy and pink to light brown and have been able to support wheat and barley growing as
2209-461: Was constant recharge with little variation with precipitation; in most sites (arid, semi-arid, humid), annual recharge increased as annual precipitation remained above a certain threshold; and in complex areas down to 0.1 aridity index (focused recharge), there was very inconsistent recharge (low precipitation but high recharge). Understanding these relationships can lead to the development of sustainable strategies for water collection. This understanding
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