Our beginnings

Evidence suggests that Aboriginal people have inhabited the Murray Valley for at least 40, 000 years. The river downstream from Renmark was the most densely populated area in South Australia. The warrior, Nanya, was from the Danggali Tribe, one of four main groups in the area which formed the larger clan known as the Ngarrindjeri.

European Exploration

Leaving Sydney in September 1829, Captain Charles Sturt led an expedition to follow the Murrumbidgee River downstream and explore the lower reaches of the Darling, in an effort to confirm or disprove the widely held belief of the time that the rivers emptied into an inland sea. In January 1830, the party discovered that the Murrumbidgee entered 'a broad and noble river', the Murray River, which Sturt named after Sir George Murray, the British Secretary of State for the Colonies.

Establishment of the area began in 1851, with the first pastoral lease taken out in the Renmark vicinity and in 1865, Richard Holland obtained the lease for Bookmark Station. This was later passed onto his stepsons, the Robertson's, who in turn divided the property into the Calperum and Chowilla Stations in 1896. It was from the Bookmark lease that the Chaffey Brothers were granted 30,000 acres to begin the first irrigation colony in Australia in 1887.

Our Proud History