Wimmera
About this page
The Wimmera is located in Western Victoria and contains the Wimmera River Catchment and that part of the Millicent Coast Basin to the South Australian border.
The Wimmera Region
The Wimmera is located in Western Victoria and contains the Wimmera River Catchment and that part of the Millicent Coast Basin to the South Australian border. The Region is landlocked and covers about 30,000 square kilometres. It forms the southwest part of the Murray Darling Basin.
Prior to European settlement, the catchment supported a diverse range of vegetation. The upper catchment was covered in dense eucalypt woodland, with an understorey of shrubs, perennial grasses and herbs. On the plains vegetation thinned out to open woodland of buloke, native pine and mallee communities as well as areas of open grassland.
The Wimmera River is the largest river in Victoria that does not flow into the sea. The River and its tributaries flow from the Mt Cole and Pyrenees Ranges in the southeast and the Grampians in the south to a series of terminal lakes including Lakes Hindmarsh and Albacutya, two of the largest natural freshwater lakes in Victoria. However, due to changes in land and water use from the Wimmera River catchment, Lake Albacutya and beyond into Wyperfeld National Park are frequently dry, having only been filled four times last century.
The Wimmera has a semi-arid climate, in which rainfall ranges from 700-1000mm per year in the Grampians in the south of the catchment, to 550mm per year on the southern plains and 300 mm per year on the northern plains. Annual rainfall is greatest during the months of May to October.
From: Wimmera Regional Catchment & Land Protection Board (1997) Wimmera Regional Catchment Strategy.
