Murray Upper is a rural

locality Locality may refer to: * Locality, a historical named location or place in Canada * Locality (association), an association of community regeneration organizations in England * Locality (linguistics) * Locality (settlement) * Suburbs and localitie ...

in the

Cassowary Coast Region The Cassowary Coast Region is a Local government in Australia, local government area in the Far North Queensland region of Queensland, Australia, south of Cairns, Queensland, Cairns and centred on the towns of Innisfail, Queensland, Innisfail, ...

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, Australia. In the , Murray Upper had a population of 218 people.

Geography

The

Murray River The Murray River (in South Australia: River Murray; Ngarrindjeri language, Ngarrindjeri: ''Millewa'', Yorta Yorta language, Yorta Yorta: ''Dhungala'' or ''Tongala'') is a river in Southeastern Australia. It is List of rivers of Australia, Aust ...

rises in Murray Upper and enters the

Coral Sea The Coral Sea () is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean, South Pacific off the northeast coast of Australia, and classified as an Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia, interim Australian bioregion. The Coral Sea extends down t ...

at neighbouring

Bilyana Bilyana is a coastal locality in the Cassowary Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , Bilyana had a population of 190 people. Geography The ''Coral Sea'' forms the eastern boundary, and the ''Murray River'' part of the northern. The Br ...

. Almost all of the locality is mountainous (rising to peaks of about 900 metres about sea level) and is within the

Girramay National Park Girramay is a national park in Queensland, Australia, 1,269 km northwest of Brisbane. The national park is part of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area. The park protects part of the coastline between the mouths of the Tully River and Me ...

or the Murray Upper State Forest. Only a small area in the north-east of the locality is outside the protected areas and is flat land about 20 metres about sea level where the land use is farming, with

sugarcane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fib ...

and bananas being important crops. A cane tramway passes through the farming area to carry the harvested sugarcane to the sugar mill at Tully. Jumbun Aboriginal community is located on Murray Falls Road in Murray Upper at .

History

Girramay (also known as Giramay, Garamay, Giramai, Keramai) is a language of Far North Queensland, particularly the area around

Herbert River The Herbert River is a river in Far North Queensland, Australia. The southernmost of Queensland's wet tropics river systems, it was named in 1864 by George Elphinstone Dalrymple explorer, after Robert Herbert, Robert George Wyndham Herbert, th ...

Catchment taking in the towns of

, Cardwell and Ingham. The Girramay language region includes the landscape within the local government boundaries of Cassowary Coast and Hinchinbrook Regional Councils. Murray River Upper Provisional School opened on 18 January 1904. It became Murray River Upper State School on 1 October 1904. It closed temporarily due to low student numbers in 1910, 1922, July 1924 to July 1925, and 16 May 1927 to 4 November 1934.

Demographics

In the , Murray Upper had a population of 266 people. In the , Murray Upper had a population of 218 people.

Education

Murray River Upper State School is a government primary (Prep-6) school for boys and girls at 1 Middle Murray Road (). In 2016, the school had an enrolment of 45 students with 4 teachers (3 full-time equivalent) and 7 non-teaching staff (3 full-time equivalent). In 2018, the school had an enrolment of 31 students with 3 teachers and 6 non-teaching staff (3 full-time equivalent). There are no secondary schools in Murray Upper. The nearest government secondary school is

Tully State High School Tully is a rural town and locality in the Cassowary Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. It is adjacent to the Bruce Highway, approximately south of Cairns by road and north of Townsville. Tully is perhaps best known for being one of the wette ...

in Tully to the north-east.

Attractions

Murray Falls The Murray Falls, a cascade waterfall on the Murray River, is located in the UNESCO World Heritagelisted Wet Tropics in Murray Upper, Cassowary Coast Region in the Far North region of Queensland, Australia. Location and features The Murra ...

are a

cascade waterfall A waterfall is any point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in several ...

on the Murray River within the Girramay National Park and form part of the

Wet Tropics World Heritage Area The Wet Tropics of Queensland World Heritage Site consists of approximately 8,940 km2 of Australian wet tropical forests growing along the north-east Queensland portion of the Great Dividing Range. The Wet Tropics of Queensland meets all f ...

. The falls can be viewed from a boardwalk and viewing platform.

References

External links

{{Cassowary Coast Region Cassowary Coast Region Localities in Queensland