The Murray–Darling Basin is the largest interconnected system of rivers in Australia and spans around one-seventh of the Australian land mass. That’s equivalent to around the size of France and Spain joined together, or a little bigger than Egypt.
This month, we’re getting to know the upper Murray.
Located in the southern Basin, the upper Murray takes in the headwaters of the River Murray and its tributaries, and extends 300 kilometres to the Hume Dam, located in southern New South Wales along the NSW-Victorian border.
Did you know?
The upper Murray is home to one of the largest dams in the Australia – Hume Dam.
Situated just below the junction of the Murray and Mitta Mitta rivers, Hume Dam holds a maximum of 3,005,000 megalitres, about six times the volume of Sydney Harbour.
When it opened in 1936, it was the second largest dam in the world at the time and remains a key part of eastern Australia's water management infrastructure today.
The dam’s catchment area of 15,300 square kilometres (two thirds of which is in Victoria), includes much of the rugged Australian Alps where annual rainfall can exceed 2000 millimetres.
WaterNSW operates Hume Dam acting on direction from the MDBA to make necessary water releases.
Fast facts on the upper Murray catchment
- The upper Murray catchment is 2,500 square km in total.
- The upper Murray covers less than 1.5% of the area of the Murray–Darling Basin, but contributes a huge 37 per cent of total inflow to the Murray River in an average year!
- The Hume Dam is named after Hamilton Hume, the first European to explore the river upstream of Albury in 1824.
- Since the Hume Reservoir was built in 1936 a flow has been maintained throughout the length of the Murray at all times, despite several severe drought periods.
- The upper Murray and surrounding mountains, hills and valleys have been important for First Nations culture for at least 21,000 years.
- Khancoban, with a population of 300 people, is the headquarters of the Murray section of the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme.
- For a short time in the late 1800s, gold and tin were mined in the region.
Main water storage:
- Hume Dam (3,005 GL)
- Khancoban Pondage (26 GL)
- Geehi Reservoir (21 GL)
- Tooma Reservoir (26 GL)
Water from the catchment also supplies major irrigation industries along the Murrumbidgee and Murray Rivers to South Australia, as well as to all the towns located on the river, including Adelaide and inland parts of South Australia.
Cultural significance
The upper Murray catchment includes the traditional land of the Dhudhuroa, Djilamatang, Ngarigo, Walgalu and Yaitmathang First Nations. The area extends from the River Murray to the Macquarie River in the north, and west to Balranald (NSW).
The platypus is widespread in the upper Murray and holds great significance to First Nations peoples. The Dreaming story “The Moon and the Platypus” – The life of the upper Murray indigenous people [PDF 9.1MB] is told to Indigenous children in their youth describing how the rivers and creeks were formed many hundreds of years ago.
Major centres
Due to the terrain of the upper Murray catchment, the population is around 3,700 for the major towns of Corryong, Khancoban, Tumbarumba (NSW and Victoria). Several other smaller towns make up this beautiful part of the Basin.
Over 60% of the upper Murray catchment is used for forestry or conservation. The next most extensive land use is grazing, crops and wine grapes.
Tourism is a significant industry in the upper Murray catchment with the mountain peaks, valleys and extensive forests providing options for outdoor recreation from bushwalking and bird watching, to skiing and trail riding, to fishing and water sports.
