34-559: 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 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
68-592: A cousin and a nephew. Lars Fredrik Westblad became a justice of the peace and the owner of an inn in Mia Mia which became a gathering spot for the Swedes. With three of his brothers and four sons he operated a farm of more than 40,000 acres at Kerang, northeast of Melbourne. He did well in the cattle business. The Westblad family in Australia reached considerable numbers and in 1976 about 300 descendants of Lars Fredrik gathered for
102-509: 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
136-512: A reunion in Kerang. This was followed by a saddlery and a church. In 1857 Woodford Patchell built a bridge upriver from the settlement which drew traffic from the earlier settlement. He built a store, house and hotel that became the centre of what was to become Kerang. Patchell was the first farmer in the state to use irrigation and experimented with oats, barley, maize, millet, tobacco, beet, cotton and sugarcane. The Post Office opened on 29 July 1858;
170-501: A thousand. The spread of Patchell's irrigation ideas improved local productivity and the town continued to expand. The Burke and Wills expedition passed through Kerang on their journey to cross Australia from Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria. On Sunday, 2 September 1860 the expedition camped at Booth & Holloway's Tragowel Station to the south of Kerang. On Tuesday, 4 September 1860 they passed through Kerang, crossed
204-419: A tourist attraction and are drawing many businesses to the town. The Wemba-Wemba Aboriginal people are the original owners and the area's first occupants. Thomas Mitchell was the first European to visit the area, in 1836. Squatters began to settle in the area in 1845 and in 1848 Richard Beyes opened a public house at a river crossing near the future townsite. The gold rush of 1850 in Australia attracted
238-604: Is also a popular recreational destination. Many of the wetlands have been recognised by inclusion in the North Victorian Wetlands Important Bird Area and as being of international significance through listing under the Ramsar Convention . Kerang is located at the junction of the Loddon Valley and Murray Valley Highways . Air transport is provided by Kerang Airport . The town is also on
272-441: 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
306-418: 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
340-515: Is located along two major transport corridors, the Calder Highway corridor linking Melbourne to Bendigo and Mildura and the interstate Sturt Highway corridor linking Sydney to Mildura and Adelaide . The region comprises two distinct and inter-connected sub-regions or districts: Loddon Campaspe and Mallee . For the purposes of Australian federal elections for the House of Representatives ,
374-552: 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. Loddon Mallee The Loddon Mallee is an economic rural region located in
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#1733086225328408-515: Is the largest region in Victoria hosting a population of over 348,000 people. The Loddon Malle region includes the Shire of Buloke , Shire of Campaspe , Shire of Central Goldfields , Shire of Gannawarra , City of Greater Bendigo , Shire of Loddon , Shire of Macedon Ranges , Rural City of Mildura , Shire of Mount Alexander and Rural City of Swan Hill local government areas . The Loddon Mallee region
442-457: 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
476-526: 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
510-596: The 2011 census , the four local government areas (LGAs) that are usually thought to define the district had 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
544-460: 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
578-538: 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
612-502: 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
646-584: The Murray Sunset National Park , Big Desert Wilderness Park , Wyperfeld National Park , Hattah - Kulkyne National Park , Kooyoora State Park and Greater Bendigo National Park . Kerang Kerang is a town on the Loddon River in northern Victoria in Australia . It is the commercial centre to an irrigation district based on livestock, horticulture, lucerne and grain. It is located 279 kilometres (173 mi) north-west of Melbourne on
680-665: The Murray Valley Highway a few kilometres north of its intersection with the Loddon Valley Highway , elevation 78 metres (256 ft). At the 2016 census , Kerang had a population of 3,893. Kerang is believed to be an Aboriginal word for Cockatoo . It is home to the largest solar and battery farm in the country which was opened in June 2019. The 50-megawatt battery system is located outside of Kerang and stores 100 per cent renewable energy. The 2,000 solar panels have become
714-477: The Swan Hill railway line , served by V/Line trains from Kerang station to Melbourne , as well as coach services to Balranald . The Kerang-Koondrook Tramway once linked the town to Koondrook from 1889, being closed to passengers in 1976, and closed 1981. On 5 June 2007, a semi-trailer collided with a passenger train at a level crossing , 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) north of the town, killing 11 people. This
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#1733086225328748-484: 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
782-606: The Loddon Mallee region is contained within all or part of the electoral divisions of Bendigo , Mallee , McEwen and Nicholls . For the purposes of Victorian elections for the Legislative Assembly , the Loddon Mallee region is contained within all or part of the electoral districts of Bendigo East , Bendigo West , Euroa , Macedon , Mildura , Murray Plains and Ripon . The region contains ten local government areas , which are: The Loddon Malle region contains
816-473: The Loddon and camped at Mr. Fenton's Reedy Creek Run, making Camp XIII, (their thirteenth camp since leaving Melbourne). Kerang's symbol is a flying ibis . The area around Kerang is dotted with lagoons and lakes (including Lake Tutchewop ) and is believed to have the most populous ibis rookeries in the world with an estimated 200,000 ibis using the area for breeding each year, along with many other waterbirds. It
850-551: 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
884-536: 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
918-423: The current Kerang Post Office building dates from 1886 and is heritage-listed. An earlier Kerang office, quite distant, was renamed Wedderburn on the same day. Kerang was declared a shire in 1871; at the time the settlement's population was 109. The arrival of the railway from Bendigo in 1884 and the construction of a tramway to Koondrook in 1888 led to expansion; by 1891 the population had increased to over
952-451: 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
986-499: The miner's sons, Peter and Anders Pettersson from Herrnäs to Australia in 1853. They emigrated with 4 other miners' sons, among them Lars Fredrik Pettersson who later took the name Westblad. A couple of hired hands also went with this first group. Lars Fredrik Westblad returned to Sweden to visit his home in Bjurtjärn socken . When he returned to Australia in 1857, two brothers went with him and later two more brothers joined them along with
1020-439: 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
1054-593: The north-western part of Victoria , Australia . Occupying more than a quarter of the state, it stretches from Greater Melbourne to the northernmost point of Victoria, sharing a border with South Australia and New South Wales , and has one of the most consistently warm climates in Victoria. It has two major regional cities Bendigo and Mildura and also contains the major settlements of Castlemaine , Echuca , Gisborne , Kerang , Kyneton , Maryborough , Swan Hill , Wedderburn and Wycheproof . Comprising an area in excess of 58,000 square kilometres (22,000 sq mi) this
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1088-678: 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 ,
1122-492: 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
1156-795: Was the worst train disaster in Victoria since 1969. The town has an Australian Rules football team competing in the Central Murray Football League . Kerang has a horse racing club , the Kerang Turf Club, which schedules two race meetings a year including the Kerang Cup meeting in March. Golfers play at the course of the Kerang Golf Club on Koondrook Road. Kerang also has a thriving skatepark community, with freestyle BMX and skateboarding enthusiasts regularly honing their skills at
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