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The Victorian government's Wimmera Southern Mallee subregion is part of the Grampians region in western
Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...
. It includes most of what is considered the Wimmera, and part of the southern Mallee region. The subregion is based on 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. The Wimmera district 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. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...
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. It runs roughl ...
. Most of the Wimmera is very flat, with only the
Grampians The Grampian Mountains () is one of the three major mountain ranges in Scotland, that together occupy about half of Scotland. The other two ranges are the Northwest Highlands and the Southern Uplands. The Grampian range extends northeast to so ...
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 (; ; : plateaus or plateaux), 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. ...
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. The Wimmera does not include the southern Mallee area in the north part of the
Shire of Yarriambiack The Shire of Yarriambiack is a Local government areas of Victoria, local government area of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, located in the north-western part of the state. It covers an area of and at the , had a population of 6,556. I ...
(around Hopetoun). It does include the southern part of the
Shire of Buloke The Shire of Buloke is a Local Government Areas of Victoria, local government area in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, located in the western part of the state. It covers an area of and, in August 2021, had a population of 6,201. It i ...
, which is not part of the Victorian government's aforementioned subregion (around
Wycheproof Wycheproof is a town in the centre of the Shire of Buloke, in north western Victoria, Australia. As of the , it had a population of 610. History The name "Wycheproof" originates from an Aboriginal word meaning 'grass on a hill', referring to ...
,
Birchip Birchip is a town in the Mallee region of Victoria, Australia on the Sunraysia Highway north of Donald. The town is located in the Shire of Buloke local government area. At the , Birchip had a population of 694, down from the 2016 figure of 7 ...
,
Donald Donald is a Scottish masculine given name. It is derived from the Gaelic name ''Dòmhnall''.. This comes from the Proto-Celtic *''Dumno-ualos'' ("world-ruler" or "world-wielder"). The final -''d'' in ''Donald'' is partly derived from a misinter ...
and
Charlton Charlton may refer to: People * Charlton (surname) * Charlton (given name) Places Australia * Charlton, Queensland * Charlton, Victoria * Division of Charlton, an electoral district in the Australian House of Representatives, in New South Wales ...
). This latter area, plus the St Arnaud area, makes up the East Wimmera region. In the context of the
Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia The Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia (IBRA) is a biogeography, biogeographic regionalisation of Australia developed by the Australian government's Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities ( ...
, the Wimmera is a sub-region of located within the Murray Darling Depression
bioregion A bioregion is a geographical area, on land or at sea, defined not by administrative boundaries, but by distinct characteristics such as plant and animal species, ecological systems, soils and landforms, Human settlement, human settlements, and ...
. The Wimmera is one of the nine districts in Victoria used for weather forecasting by the
Australian Bureau of Meteorology The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM or BoM) is an executive agency of the Australian Government that is responsible for providing weather forecasts and meteorological services to Australia and neighbouring countries. It was established in 1906 unde ...
. The Victorian Department of Environment and Primary Industries defines the Wimmera as a region for agricultural production purposes encompassing the
Buloke ''Allocasuarina luehmannii'', commonly known as buloke or bull-oak, is a species of flowering plant in the family Casuarinaceae and is endemic to south-eastern continental Australia. It is a dioecious tree, that has its leaves reduced to scales ...
, 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 ph ...
. The Victorian Government's Wimmera Catchment Management Authority serves the catchment of the
Wimmera River The Wimmera River, an inland intermittent river of the Wimmera catchment, is located in the Grampians and Wimmera regions of the Australian state of Victoria. Rising in the Pyrenees, on the northern slopes of the Great Dividing Range, the Wimm ...
, and that of the
Yarriambiack Creek The Yarriambiack Creek, an inland intermittent watercourse of the Wimmera River, Wimmera catchment, is located in the Wimmera region of the Australian state of Victoria, Australia, Victoria. Rising on the northern slopes of the Great Dividing Ran ...
south of the Mallee. The
Shire of Wimmera The Shire of Wimmera was a local government area in the Wimmera region of western Victoria, Australia. The municipality covered an area of , and existed from 1862 until 1995. Although its shire offices were located in Horsham, Horsham itself wa ...
originally covered a large part of the Wimmera and southern Mallee, but retracted over time to cover only land near Horsham. It was later abolished, with most of being becoming part of the
Rural City of Horsham The Rural City of Horsham is a Local government areas of Victoria, local government area in Victoria, Australia, located in the western part of the state. It covers an area of and in June 2018, had a population of 19,875. It includes the towns ...
. The federal government
Division of Wimmera The Division of Wimmera was an Divisions of the Australian House of Representatives, Australian electoral division in the states and territories of Australia, state of Victoria (Australia), Victoria. It was named after the Wimmera, Wimmera reg ...
originally covered roughly the same area as the
Division of Mallee The Division of Mallee is an Divisions of the Australian House of Representatives, Australian Electoral Division in the States and territories of Australia, state of Victoria (Australia), Victoria. It is located in the far north-west of the sta ...
does today, but ended its life covering only the Wimmera area. At the , the six local government areas (LGAs) that are thought to comprise the Wimmera 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
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 ...
,
Warracknabeal Warracknabeal ( ) is a town in the Australian state of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, located in the Wheatbelt (Australia), Victorian wheatbelt. Situated on the banks of the Yarriambiack Creek, 330 km northwest of Melbourne, it is the bus ...
,
Dimboola Dimboola is a town in the Shire of Hindmarsh in the Wimmera region of western Victoria, Australia, 334 kilometres north-west of Melbourne. History Situated on the Wimmera River, Dimboola was previously known as 'Nine Creeks'. Following a survey ...
, Stawell and
Nhill Nhill is a town in the Wimmera, in western Victoria, Australia. Nhill is located on the Western Highway, halfway between Adelaide and Melbourne. At the , Nhill had a population of 1,749. "Nhill" is believed to be a Wergaia word meaning "early ...
. Almost all of these are largely dependent on the
grain A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached husk, 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 ...
and
sheep Sheep (: sheep) or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are a domesticated, ruminant mammal 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 d ...
industries, and landscape is heavily dominated by
flour mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separat ...
s and grain
storage silo A silo () is a structure for storing Bulk material handling, bulk materials. Silos are commonly used for bulk storage of grain, coal, cement, carbon black, woodchips, food products and sawdust. Three types of silos are in widespread use toda ...
s. 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 (economics), production, Distribution (economics), distribution and trade, as well as Consumption (economics), consumption of Goods (economics), goods and Service (economics), services. In general, it is ...
. 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 acoustics, acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere, known as thunder. Relatively weak thunderstorm ...
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
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 ...
.


Geography

Most of the soils are very infertile and many are sandy; however in a narrow belt between Nhill and
Warracknabeal Warracknabeal ( ) is a town in the Australian state of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, located in the Wheatbelt (Australia), Victorian wheatbelt. Situated on the banks of the Yarriambiack Creek, 330 km northwest of Melbourne, it is the bus ...
there are heavy grey
Vertisols A vertisol is a Soil Order in the USDA soil taxonomy and a Reference Soil Group in the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB). It is also defined in many other soil classification systems. In the Australian Soil Classification it is c ...
, that, although still deficient in
phosphorus Phosphorus is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol P and atomic number 15. All elemental forms of phosphorus are highly Reactivity (chemistry), reactive and are therefore never found in nature. They can nevertheless be prepared ar ...
, 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 group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...
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 The Wimmera River, an inland intermittent river of the Wimmera catchment, is located in the Grampians and Wimmera regions of the Australian state of Victoria. Rising in the Pyrenees, on the northern slopes of the Great Dividing Range, the Wimm ...
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 dr ...
. Many streams in the region flow only after sustained heavy rainfall and are often dry for long spells. In recent years Rocklands Reservoir, 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 known 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 between ...
, which possesses many unusual wildflowers and the greatest diversity of flora and fauna in Victoria west of the
Snowy River The Snowy River is a major river in south-eastern Australia. It originates on the slopes of Mount Kosciuszko, Australia's highest mainland peak, draining the eastern slopes of the Snowy Mountains in New South Wales, before flowing through the ...
. The Grampians also possess many important Aboriginal artifacts. A local Aboriginal name ''
Gariwerd The Grampians National Park, commonly known 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 between a ...
'' 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 The Little Desert National Park is a national park in the Wimmera Mallee region of Victoria, Australia. The national park is situated near Dimboola, approximately west of Melbourne and extends from the Wimmera River in the east to the South ...
, 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 Superphosphate is a chemical fertiliser first synthesised in the 1840s by reacting bones with sulfuric acid. The process was subsequently improved by reacting phosphate coprolites with sulfuric acid. Subsequently, other phosphate-rich deposits suc ...
and trace elements.


See also

*
Geography of Victoria Victoria is the southernmost mainland state of Australia. With an area of , it is Australia's sixth largest state/territory, comparable in size to the island of Great Britain or the U.S. state of Utah. It is bound to the northwest by South ...
*
Regions of Victoria The regions of Victoria vary according to the different ways that the Australian states and territories of Australia, state of Victoria (Australia), Victoria is divided into distinct geographic regions. The most commonly used regions are those ...


Notes


References

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