Echuca, Victoria
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Echuca in Victoria (Australia) is a city of about 10,717 people situated on the banks of the Murray River (Moama is on the northern side in NSW). Its location at the closest point of the Murray to Melbourne contributed to its development as a thriving river port city during the 1800s.
Echuca, an Aboriginal name meaning "Meeting of the Waters" is indicative of the role rivers have played in the town's existence. Echuca is situated close to the junction of the Goulburn, Campaspe and Murray Rivers.
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[edit] Origin and growth
Echuca was founded by one of the most enterprising characters of the early colonial days, an ex-convict named Henry Hopwood. In 1850 he bought a small punt which operated across the Murray River near the Campaspe junction. The relatively small settlement known as "Hopwood's Ferry" became Echuca as the town grew.
While the settlers at Echuca treated the local Aborigines with relative kindness, their way of life was irrevocably changed by their relationship with the Europeans. Having already been decimated by smallpox in the late 1820s, in the 1850s many Aborigines developed a taste for European luxuries such as bread, tobacco, and most tragically, alcohol. They were relegated to the role of fringe-dwellers, living on the banks of the Murray, and occasionally entering into the European economy as fishermen and farm labourers, and by selling the possum rugs which they crafted. Within a few short decades, their lifestyles had become unrecognisable from that of their ancestors.
By the 1870s Echuca had risen to prominence as Australia's largest inland port. Being the point of shortest distance between the Murray River and the major city of Melbourne, Echuca was both a key river port and railway junction. Steam-driven paddleboats would arrive at Echuca's 400-metre long redgum wharf, unloading it to be transported by rail to Melbourne. Wool, wheat, other grains, livestock and timber were the most common cargoes.
This industrial boom led to a rapidly expanding population, at one stage in excess of 15,000, with more than a hundred pubs (hotels) rumoured to exist in the Echuca district at one time. An iron bridge was constructed over the Murray River in the 1870s.'
[edit] Decline
The expansion of the railways from Melbourne to most parts of Victoria, as well as improving roads and fickle river conditions, all combined to lessen Echuca's importance, and by the 1890s her paddlesteamer fleet was in decline. An economic depression and the collapse of several banks virtually ended Echuca's role as a major economic centre, and her population began to disperse.
[edit] Today
The main industry in Echuca now is tourism, as visitors are attracted to the town by its warm climate, the river, its historical features such as the Port of Echuca, and sporting attractions, such as golf courses and lawn bowls greens. Annual activities include the Southern 80 waterski race (February) the Jazz, Food and Wine Festival (February) the Rotary Steam Horse and Vintage Rally (June) and the Red Cross Murray Marathon (December). The Port is home to the largest Paddle Steamer fleet in the world, which includes the world's oldest surviving wooden hulled paddle boat, the 1866 built PS Adelaide. In 1984 a television mini-series, All the Rivers Run, based on a novel by Nancy Cato and starring Sigrid Thornton and John Waters, was filmed in and around Echuca. The local Paddle Steamer PS Pevensey, featured in the mini-series as the PS Philadelphia, still operates from the port. The airing of this series around Australia and internationally revitalized Echuca's tourism economy.
Dairy, wheat, sheep and cattle farming are also important to the region. Echuca's local government is managed by the Shire of Campaspe.
[edit] Nearby towns
[edit] Trivia
- An urban myth popular in the town is that the body of a labourer, supposedly killed during the construction of the town's iron bridge, is still entombed in one of the concrete pylons. Both the local and Melbourne press, however, mention no such accident.
- In 1970, Echuca resident Leith Ratten was convicted of murdering his wife. His case became one of the most controversial in Victorian legal history.
- In the bar/resturant called "The Star" which is located in the main port area it is said that illegal after hours drinkers hid in the cellars so that the guards wouldn't arrest them, but just in case they had made an escape tunnel leading out to the back of The Star. The door into this tunnel was narrowed because the guards weren't allowed to re-arrange their rifles from their almost horizontal postition and therefor would not be able to step into this tunnel.
It is rumored that there were tunnels leading all over Echuca. One was discovered to be at least 300 metres long.
[edit] References
- Campaspe Shire Council: Where our community names were derived from
- Official Visitors Information for Echuca and its twin city Moama
