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| Physical characteristics | |
| Mouth | confluence with the Murray River |
| Length | 900 km (mainstream) |
The Murrumbidgee River is a major river in the state of New South Wales, Australia.
Seasonally, this river system used to have large flows but now that it is a regulated stream, flows are only high when releases are made from upstream storages to supply downstream irrigators. The mainstream of the river system flows for 900 km. The river's source in the Fiery Range of the Snowy Mountains, part of the Australian Alps near Mount Kosciuszko and it flows to a confluence with the Murray River. It drains most of southern New South Wales and is the most important source of irrigation water for the Riverina farming area.
The river system's current channels are relatively new with the Upper Murrumbidgee being an anabranch of the Tumut River (that once continued north along Mutta Mutta Creek) when geological uplift near Adaminaby diverted its flow. The contemporary Murrumbidgee starts at Gundagai but generally the stream that now includes the Upper Murrumbidgee is described as being part of the full river.
The upper Murrumbidgee was discovered in 1823 by a party of settlers led by Mark Currie, but the extent of the river was not realised until 1829, when Charles Sturt and his party rowed down the length of the river from Narrandera to the Murray, and then down the Murray to the sea. They also rowed back up, against the current. The Murrumbidgee basin was opened to settlement in the 1830s and soon became an important farming area.
See also
Major tributaries
Population centres
References
- "Murrumbidgee River Catchment". Catchment Case Studies. NSW Department of Environment and Conservation. 1995. Retrieved 2006-07-13.
- Sharp, K.R. Cenzoic volcanism, tectonism, and stream derangement in the Snowy Mountains and northern Monaro of New South Wales, in Australian Journal of Earth Sciences(2004)51,67-83
External links
- Nomination of Lower Murrumbidgee Catchment for UNESCO's HELP Pilot Demonstration Status by CSIRO
- Murrumbidgee River Flows recorded by NSW Water
- River pilot maps 1880-1918 / Echuca Historical Society