The Wimmera is a

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics ( physical geography), human impact characteristics ( human geography), and the interaction of humanity an ...

of the

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

n state of Victoria. The district is located within parts of the

Loddon Loddon may refer to: *Loddon, Norfolk in England, UK *Shire of Loddon in Victoria, Australia (since 1995) **Bridgewater On Loddon, Victoria in Australia *River Loddon, flows into the River Thames near Reading * Loddon River, flows north from south o ...

Mallee and the Grampians regions; and covers the dryland farming area south of the range of Mallee scrub, east of the

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest o ...

border and north of the

Great Dividing Range The Great Dividing Range, also known as the East Australian Cordillera or the Eastern Highlands, is a cordillera system in eastern Australia consisting of an expansive collection of mountain ranges, plateaus and rolling hills, that runs rough ...

. It can also be defined as the land within the social catchment of

Horsham Horsham is a market town on the upper reaches of the River Arun on the fringe of the Weald in West Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Nearby to ...

, its main settlement. Most of the Wimmera is very flat, with only the Grampians and

Mount Arapiles Mount Arapiles is a rock formation that rises about above the Wimmera plains in western Victoria, Australia. It is located in Arapiles approximately west of the town of Natimuk and is part of the Mount Arapiles-Tooan State Park. Arapile ...

rising above vast plains and the low

plateau In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; ), also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. Often one or more sides ...

x that form the Great Divide in this part of Victoria. The Grampians are very rugged and tilted, with many sheer sandstone cliffs on their eastern sides, but gentle slopes on the west. In the context of the

Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia The Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia (IBRA) is a biogeographic regionalisation of Australia developed by the Australian government's Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population, and Communities. It was deve ...

, the Wimmera is a sub-region of located within the Murray Darling Depression bioregion. The Wimmera is one of the nine districts in Victoria used for weather forecasting by the

Australian Bureau of Meteorology Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal A ...

. The Victorian Department of Environment and Primary Industries defines the district as a region for agricultural production purposes encompassing the Buloke, Hindmarsh, Horsham City, Northern Grampians, West Wimmera and Yarriambiack

local government areas A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a state, province, division, or territory. The phra ...

. At the , the six local government areas (LGAs) that are thought to comprise the district had a combined population of . The area of these same six LGAs is .

History

The area was inhabited by its Indigenous residents (and continues to be) when it was surveyed by the first European to do so Thomas Mitchell in the mid 1830s, and he is credited with naming the Grampians after a mountain range in his native Scotland, and naming the region as Wimmera, adapting a word from the local indigenous language meaning 'throwing stick'.Wimmera article in online Britannica.
Retrieved 10 March 2014.

Regional development and population

The area contains a number of important towns, such as

Warracknabeal Warracknabeal ( ) is a wheatbelt town in the Australian state of Victoria. Situated on the banks of the Yarriambiack Creek, 330 km north-west of Melbourne, it is the business and services centre of the northern Wimmera and southern Mallee ...

, Dimboola, Stawell and Nhill. Almost all of these are largely dependent on the

grain A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit ( caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legum ...

and

sheep Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticate ...

industries, and landscape is heavily dominated by flour mills and grain storage silos. The smaller towns in the area are dying due to the declining value of primary products that dominate the region's

economy An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with th ...

. Similarly, modern farm technology allows individual farmers to stay viable by farming more land, but the decreasing population, and better transport, make smaller service centres less and less viable. :

Climate

The climate is semi-arid to sub-humid, with annual rainfall ranging generally from in the north to in the south. In the Grampians, annual precipitation can be as high as and snowfalls are not uncommon. Most rain falls in winter, though heavy summer falls can occur, the most famous of which was the

thunderstorm A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm or a lightning storm, is a storm characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere, known as thunder. Relatively weak thunderstorms are some ...

that dumped on in mid-January 1974. Temperatures are hot in summer, ranging typically from a maximum of to a minimum of , whilst extremes can be as high as . In the winter, maximums are , but mornings can be cool, averaging at

Geography

Most of the soils are very infertile and many are sandy; however in a narrow belt between Nhill and

there are heavy grey Vertisols, that, although still deficient in

phosphorus Phosphorus is a chemical element with the symbol P and atomic number 15. Elemental phosphorus exists in two major forms, white phosphorus and red phosphorus, but because it is highly reactive, phosphorus is never found as a free element on Ea ...

, are otherwise free of major nutrient deficiencies and are able to hold water very well. These grey soils are the principal

wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...

soils of Victoria. Red-brown earths are also used for wheat but do not give as high yields and require more fertilisation. The Wimmera River flows from the Pyrenees Ranges, across the northern foothills of the Grampians then towards

Lake Hindmarsh Lake Hindmarsh, an ephemeral lake located in the Wimmera region of western Victoria, Australia, is the state's largest natural freshwater lake. The nearest towns are Jeparit to the south and Rainbow to the north. After more than a decade of d ...

. Many streams in the region flow only after sustained heavy rainfall and are often dry for long spells. In recent years

Rocklands Reservoir The Rocklands Reservoir, a water reservoir, is created by a major ungated concretewalled gravity dam with embankment sections across the Glenelg River in the Wimmera region of Victoria, Australia. It is the largest reservoir within the Grampi ...

, the main water storage of the district, has been consistently at unusually low levels due to a succession of dry years.

Natural heritage

The Wimmera is renowned for its natural heritage. One of the key preservation areas is contained within the

Grampians National Park The Grampians National Park commonly referred to as The Grampians, is a national park located in the Grampians region of Victoria, Australia. The Jardwadjali name for the mountain range itself is Gariwerd. The national park is situated be ...

, which possesses many unusual wildflowers and the greatest diversity of flora and fauna in Victoria west of the Snowy River. The Grampians also possess many important Aboriginal artifacts. A local Aboriginal name ''

Gariwerd The Grampians National Park commonly referred to as The Grampians, is a national park located in the Grampians region of Victoria, Australia. The Jardwadjali name for the mountain range itself is Gariwerd. The national park is situated betwee ...

'' was adopted by the National Park in 1991 in recognition of this fact; however, this change was soon reversed after a change of state government in 1992. The Little Desert National Park, south of Nhill and west of Dimboola, is a large wilderness area of sand dunes that were too infertile for productive farming even with superphosphate and trace elements.

Notes

References

{{coord, -37.45, 142.45, display=title IBRA subregions Regions of Victoria (Australia)