The Murray River: people, trade and water

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have enduring connections to Country across the Murray–Darling Basin. The National Museum of Australia’s collections include Aboriginal artworks recording traditional knowledge of the river’s waters, plants and animals, as well as the continuing renewal of cultural forms and relationships with the river. These stories are specific to communities and places; no single account can stand for every Traditional Owner group. Water planning maps provide a preliminary guide to groups across resource-planning areas, not a complete description of Country, culture or custodianship.

The river has also been understood as a pathway and place of work. Museum collections preserve hand-drawn river charts made by boat captains, while Aboriginal artists have recorded distinct relationships with water and landscape. Reading these alongside engineering and agricultural records gives a fuller picture than treating the river only as a water supply. The river connects ecological processes, cultural responsibilities, towns and livelihoods over long distances.

In the nineteenth century, before road and rail transport expanded, river boats carried goods to inland properties and transported wool toward ocean ports. The paddle steamer PS Mary Ann traversed the Murray–Darling system in 1853. Ports including Echuca, Mannum, Goolwa, Wentworth and Morgan grew around river trade; a rail connection to Melbourne in 1864 helped make Echuca a major trans-shipment point. Paddle steamers moved wool, produce, mail and supplies, linking river communities to distant markets.

Water infrastructure then transformed farming. The Chaffey brothers began irrigation settlements at Mildura and Renmark in the late 1880s. Their pumps lifted Murray water into channels, supporting new agricultural production, but the project also brought conflict over land and water rights. Low river levels in 1893 stranded fruit that settlers could not move to market, and irrigation-related salinity became a lasting problem in the basin. This history illustrates that a river’s economic value depends on water availability, transport, governance and environmental effects—not simply on the presence of water.

Today, management of the Murray is tied to the larger Murray–Darling Basin, where water moves across connected rivers and jurisdictions. Decisions about water allocation and river health affect communities and ecosystems along the system. For complementary context, explore Australia’s landscapes and climate, the guide to protected areas and national parks, and the broader history of Australia’s communities and places.