Ensay, Victoria
Ensay is a small town located between Swifts Creek and Bruthen on the Great Alpine Road in East Gippsland, Australia. Ensay is 80 kilometres north of the major town of Bairnsdale and 366 kilometres east of the state capital Melbourne. Other nearby towns include Benambra; the town centre is located north of the confluence of the Tambo river. The population of Ensay was 109 as at the 2016 census; the Aboriginal name for the area around Ensay was Numblamunjie, which translates as ‘blackfish place’. Archibald Macleod set up a station in this area in 1843, he named it after the now unpopulated island of Ensay in the Outer Hebrides of his homeland of Scotland, whose name originates from the Old Norse for Ewe Island. The land around Ensay was taken up in 1839 by the noted explorer of the district Angus McMillan on behalf of his employer Lachlan Macalister; this was abandoned shortly afterwards in 1841 with the settlement of large areas of land in the more central parts of Gippsland. The original Ensay Station covered an enormous 38,400 acres, which took in most of the Ensay district up to Swifts Creek, where it abutted the Tongio Station.
Some areas near Ensay, such as Reedy Flat, were outside the Ensay Station boundaries and were not occupied by European settlers until the 1870s. Ensay Station was progressively split up into smaller farms over the years. Notably the area became a site for soldier settlers following World War I, as returned servicemen looking for employment were allocated areas of land to farm by the government. Agricultural use of the land around Ensay remains chiefly for the raising of cattle and sheep; the population of Ensay has contracted over the last few decades. In the past Ensay supported a primary school, a number of sporting teams and other facilities, including two significant pubs, two churches, a community hall, a Scout group and a cemetery; the Ensay Post Office opened on 1 March 1864. Several of these facilities continue to this day in some form; the Ensay Primary School opened in 1889 and was rebuilt in 1912. In 1971 three other local primary schools closed and amalgamated with Ensay Primary School to form the Ensay Group School.
Ensay Primary School itself closed in 1994. Following this local children were bussed to Swifts Creek Primary School, with older students attending Swifts Creek Secondary College, now merged to form Swifts Creek P-12 School; the Little River Inn originated as a shanty selling grog in the early 1840s. The first licence was taken out in 1847 and it has been continuously licensed since, remaining a popular local establishment to this day; this makes it the oldest hotel in the Omeo district and the oldest in East Gippsland. The early Little River Inn seemed to be susceptible to fire, having been burnt down at least three times in its history; the current building dates from the 1920s following the fire of 1921. At this time the building was rebuilt on its present site, a spot known at the time as Calcutta Corner; this hotel is around one kilometre from the official town centre, a short way down a side road east of the Great Alpine Road. For many years the Ensay Post Office ran from a small attachment to the Little River Inn.
After the post office moved to the general store, a small bookshop ran for several years from this attachment relocating to the former Primary School building, to Swifts Creek, before closing down in 2014. When the general store in Ensay closed about 2012, the post office relocated to again operate from the Little River Inn; the Ensay South Hotel, now sited on a small loop road off the Great Alpine Road about half a kilometre south of the town, was established in 1892 and closed in 1961. A bush nursing facility was established at Ensay in 1912, with a new building established in 1958. In 1978 this became known as the Ensay Community Health Centre and now includes a Rural Ambulance Depot. Ensay has a Country Fire Authority depot established in 1940 as the Ensay Bush Fire Brigade. Ensay is the nearest town to the folk art sculpture Mr. Stringy, located about 12 km south alongside the Great Alpine Road. In Australian rules football the Ensay Football Club competed for many decades in the Omeo District Football League.
The football team won premierships in 1934, 1936, 1940, 1946, 1947, 1950 and 1960. The affiliated Ensay Netball Club competed in the associated netball competition; the Ensay colours were gold. Earlier Ensay football jumpers were a golden-yellow vee on a royal blue background. Late in their time Ensay changed their jumper to the early design of the West Coast Eagles AFL club; the netball club wore a yellow top with blue skirt. The clubs played their last matches in 1995 when they struggled to field teams at the start of the season folding after a few rounds; the recreation reserve is still kept in good condition and hosts occasional special games, including the ODFL final series and Grand Final annually. Ensay Tennis Club competes in the Omeo District Tennis Association; the tennis club maintained a strong presence for several years after the football and netball teams folded, but itself ceased playing for the 2001/2002 and 2002/2003 seasons. Ensay again takes part in the ODTA competition. Ensay hosts the annual ANA Tournament on the Australia Day Weekend each year in late January, a long running and successful tennis tournament attracting entries from scattered areas.
A New Year's Day Sports' Carnival is held annually in En
Snowy River
The Snowy River is a major river in south-eastern Australia. It originates on the slopes of Mount Kosciuszko, Australia's highest mainland peak, draining the eastern slopes of the Snowy Mountains in New South Wales, before flowing through the Alpine National Park and the Snowy River National Park in Victoria and emptying into Bass Strait. While the river’s course and surroundings have remained entirely unchanged, the majority of it being protected by the Snowy River National Park, its flow was drastically reduced in the mid 20th century, to less than 1%, after the construction of four large dams and many smaller diversion structures in its headwaters in New South Wales, as part of the Snowy Mountains Scheme; the river has been immortalised in cultural folklore through the poem The Man from Snowy River, written by'Banjo' Paterson in 1890, which formed the basis of many subsequent works in film, TV and music theatre. The main headwaters of the Snowy River, which include the Eucumbene and Thredbo Rivers and many smaller alpine watercourses, are predominantly located in Kosciuszko National Park and meet near Jindabyne.
From this point the river winds 352 kilometres southwards through inaccessible country, comprising private lands and the Snowy River National Park reaching the sea in the Snowy Inlet, at Marlo, near Orbost, Victoria. In New South Wales, the river runs through the Snowy Monaro Regional Council; the tributaries of the Snowy River below Jindabyne include: the Mowamba, Wullwye Creek, Delegate, Pinch, Suggan Buggan, Buchan and Brodribb rivers. In 1986, Jennings and Mabbutt mapped four geomorphic classes in the Snowy River Basin; each class is physically distinct from one another. The general distribution of rainfall over the Snowy River drainage basin is controlled by orographic effects. There is a strong rainfall gradient across the basin; the highest average annual rainfall is recorded in the higher alpine reaches of the Snowy Catchment, with 1,800 millimetres recorded in areas above 1,500 metres. The lowest average rainfall is recorded in the rain shadow affected north eastern catchment on the Monaro Plains around Dalgety, with average rain below 500 millimetres.
The lower eastern sub-catchments are more influenced by coastal rainfall patterns. For example, peak rainfall in the Delegate catchment is influenced by east coast lows, rather than the alpine dominated precipitation patterns in the upper Snowy River catchment; these local variations in rainfall result in distinctly different hydrology in the rivers across the Snowy River catchment. The snow melt derived rivers in the Snowy Mountains have the lowest average stream flow in the months from November to June, with October having the largest monthly flows of the year, e.g. mean monthly flow for October at Dalgety was 283,973 megalitres prior to the Snowy Scheme. The large flows in September and October are derived from snowmelt and hydrologically it is one of the key aspects that defines these mountain waterways. Australian rivers can be defined as having variable river flows, with frequent zero flows in humid areas due to the extreme age of soils and consequent high water absorption to absorb minimal phosphorus via proteoid and similar root types.
The mixed snow melt-rainfall rivers of the Snowy Mountains can be defined by strong seasonal patterns and remain permanent throughout the year, with no record of zero flow observed in the Lower Snowy. Prolonged base flows over the summer months are another feature of these types of rivers, driven by snowmelt derived groundwater. In the lower reaches of the Snowy River catchment, the larger tributaries have a distinctly different flow regime to the snow melt rivers of the Alps; these tributaries are dominated by the winter rainfall and have peak monthly flows a few months earlier than the snow melt tributaries. The peak monthly flows for these lower Snowy River tributaries occur in June through July. Additionally, the flow regime in the lower tributaries is unpredictable; the Snowy River below Jindabyne Dam contains four major waterfalls. Many of these waterfalls act as barriers for the large scale movement of aquatic species in the main stem of the Snowy River; the flows required to drown out the largest barrier, Snowy Falls, is larger than the environmental water releases to the river via Jindabyne Dam.
Around 70–80% of the Snowy River's length is protected by national parks, these include, from upstream to downstream: Kosciuszko National Park — New South Wales Alpine National Park — Victoria Snowy River National Park — Victoria The aquatic flora and fauna of the snowy mountain snow melt rivers have evolved with the predictable seasonal hydrological snow melt peaks and constant summer base flow conditions. Many of these flora and fauna are coldwater specialists; the instream habitat of the Snowy River below Jindabyne can be best described as disturbed. Many of the in-stream features of a large upland river are not evident today; the substrate was typified by a clean cobble stone substrate. Today, the river channel has contracted and the substrate has a heavy cover of sediment, overlaying much of the cobble stone riverbed; the bushfires of 2002-03, added to this problem as large amounts of sediment and organic matter were deposited in the river via tributary inflows. This input of sediment lead to the substrate becoming
Cann River, Victoria
Cann River is a town in the East Gippsland region of Victoria in Australia. The town is located on the Cann River at the junction of the Princes Highway and the Monaro Highway, in the Shire of East Gippsland. At the 2016 census, Cann River had a population of 194 people; the town is close to the Lind, Coopracambra and Alfred national parks, is a popular stopping point for travellers between Melbourne and Sydney using the Princes Highway route. Public transport services are provided to the town by V/Line, a coach bus service between Canberra and Bairnsdale, that operates three times per week; the post office opened on 1 July 1890. In the 2016 Census, there were 194 people in Cann River. 85.3% of people were born in Australia and 86.3% of people spoke only English at home. Cann River East Branch Australian Places - Cann River "Cann River website". Archived from the original on 2014-01-11. Retrieved 2014-01-11
Buchan Caves
The Buchan Caves are a group of limestone caves that include the Royal Cave and the Fairy Cave, located south-west of Buchan, in the East Gippsland region of the Australian state of Victoria. They have a total length of between 3 and 4 kilometres, six entrances; the Buchan Cave Reserve has been transferred back to the Gunaikurnai Nation and is jointly managed with the state. The limestone rock at Buchan was laid down during the Devonian period about 300 – 400 million years ago. At the time, the sea covered this area of East Gippsland, alive with shellfish and coral, their remains were deposited over the years compacted to form limestone. The caves were formed by solution of the limestone; the Buchan Caves are located 360 kilometres east northeast from Melbourne, along the Princes Highway, north of Lakes Entrance. The caves are a major tourist attraction for East Gippsland. Daily tours are conducted in Fairy Cave. Royal Cave features calcite-rimmed pools and in Fairy Cave features elaborate stalactites and stalagmites.
Both caves are lit, have walkways and have a constant temperature of 17 °C making it a comfortable temperature all year round. The Buchan Caves are situated within the Buchan Caves Reserve. There is access to short and long walks in the surrounding bushland and the nearby Snowy River National Park; the area is surrounded by trees and wildlife, including over 60 species of birds including bellbirds and lyrebirds. Amenities include picnic ground, playground and an information centre; the traditional and current custodians of the Buchan Caves and its surrounds are the Australian Aboriginal Gunaikurnai Nation. The caves were accidentally made a reserve in 1887, as they were on land set aside for stock camping; the government commissioned an exploration of the land and, on the recommendation of the geologist Albert Ernest Kitson, reserved the area to protect the caves. In 1907, Frank Moon reported back about the Fairy Cave, opened to the European public that year, though Aborigines were not allowed.
Royal Cave was mapped in 1910 by Frederick Wilson and after an entrance tunnel was excavated, it was opened to white visitors in 1913. The Caves Reserve was set out and planted in the late 1930s; the site is included a Heritage Overlay. "Buchan Caves Reserve: park notes". Parks Victoria. August 2012. Gippsland’s official tourism website The Buchan Caves Area
Shire of East Gippsland
The Shire of East Gippsland is a local government area in Gippsland, Australia, located in the eastern part of the state. It covers an area of 20,931 square kilometres and at the 2016 Census had a population of 45,000, it includes the towns of Bairnsdale, Bruthen, Ensay, Lakes Entrance, Metung, Orbost, Swan Reach and Swifts Creek. It was formed in 1994 from the amalgamation of the City of Bairnsdale, Shire of Bairnsdale, Shire of Omeo, Shire of Orbost, Shire of Tambo and parts of the Shire of Rosedale; the Shire is administered by the East Gippsland Shire Council. The Shire is named after the Gippsland region; the council is composed of nine councillors elected to represent an unsubdivided municipality. The council meets in the council chambers at the council headquarters in the Bairnsdale Municipal Offices, the location of the council's administrative activities, it provides customer services at both its administrative centre in Bairnsdale, its service centres in Lakes Entrance and Orbost. East Gippsland List of localities East Gippsland Shire Council official website Vic Govt Dept of Natural Resources and Environment: East Gippsland biodiversity management Metlink local public transport map Link to Land Victoria interactive maps
Bairnsdale
Bairnsdale is a city in East Gippsland, Australia. The estimated population of Bairnsdale urban area was 14,887 at June 2016; the city is a major regional centre of eastern Victoria along with Traralgon and Sale and the commercial centre for the East Gippsland region and the seat of local government for the Shire of East Gippsland. Bairnsdale was first proclaimed a shire on 16 July 1868 and it was proclaimed as a city on 14 July 1990; the origin of the city's name is uncertain. It was Bernisdale, with "Bernis-dale" originating from "Bjorn's dale, or glen", which indicates the Viking origins of the Skye Village. Legend has it that Macleod was so impressed by the large number of children on the run, the children of his stockmen, that he called it Bairns-dale, or "valley of the children". In 1876 the Bairnsdale Shire, which went on to become one of the largest in Victoria in the 1880s, was led out of administrative chaos by former shire auditor and shipping agent Herman Bredt, he had acted as a mine manager for the nearby Sons of Freedom mine.
German born Bredt was the father of Bertha Bredt who married the famous Australia poet and writer Henry Lawson. Prior to this she had worked at the Bairnsdale Hospital. In this period the Main Street was fashioned but was unsealed thereby causing extensive problems of dust in the summer and mud in the winter. Asphalting didn’t take place until 1883. Nicholson Street was formed in 1877 and MacLeod Street followed in 1879. Bairnsdale is sited on a bend of the Mitchell River, with the river flowing from the west along the northern edge of the town, before turning south to flow along the eastern edge, although suburbs are now found across the river to both north and east, e.g. Wy Yung and Lucknow; the Mitchell River flows into Jones Bay at Eagle Point Bluff. The Mitchell and Nicholson rivers deliver a combined discharge of 1.1 gigalitres per year into the lakes system. The Strategic Management Plan quotes that about 100,000 tonnes of suspended solids are estimated to enter the Gippsland Lakes each year from the catchments of the Mitchell and Nicholson rivers alone.
Sediment loads from the western catchments deliver two to three times the nutrient and sediment loads than from the eastern catchments. Comparison of aerial photographs spanning 1935 to 1997 demonstrate that the vast majority of shorelines are eroding at an average of less than 10 cm per year; the lower reaches of the Latrobe River, Thomson River and Mitchell River flow into the Gippsland Lakes and have extensive floodplains in which there are large wetlands separated by natural levees from the main river channels. The Mitchell river flats were always prone to flooding and 1891 bore witness to the flood, only second in extent to the great floods of 1870; the biggest floods recorded were in 1893–94 with them being 76 mm higher than the 1870 water levels. All floods caused the township great suffering with loss of life and crops; the flooding that occurred in the 1893–94 was notable for the gallantry of Patrick Piggott and George Brooks who both worked to rescue people. However, on their last trip their boat tipped as they moored it and both men were swept into the river and drowned.
A witness remonstrated that. Both men are remembered upon a marble tablet installed at the Mechanics' Hall; the Mitchell Delta is represented as a type-L under the Ramsar wetland type classification framework, which means that it is a permanent inland delta. The Mitchell Delta is a classic form of digitate delta and is located near the western shoreline of Lake King at Eagle Point Bluff, extending into the lake as silt jetties formed by alluvial deposition of sediment; the Mitchell Delta represents one of the finest examples of this type of landform in the world and is a site deemed of international geomorphological significance and is one of the finest examples of a classic digitate delta in the world. A colony of nationally Threatened Grey-headed flying foxes roosts along the river in poplars adjacent to Riverine St; the native bats pollinate over 100 species of native trees and plants and have declined across their range by over 95% since 1900. Their long-distance movement of floral genetic material reduces the in-breeding of trees and help produce strong timber.
With a high mortality rate and low reproduction considerable efforts are being devoted to the bats' conservation. Macleod Morass and Jones Bay Wildlife Reserves cover an area of 557 hectares and 123 hectares, respectively; the Reserves lie south of Bairnsdale at the head of Lake King and on either side of the Mitchell River. According to tradition, the Tatungoloong clan of the Gunai/Kurnai peoples were the custodians of land and waters and used the aquatic and terrestrial habitats of the area as sources of food and the surrounding open forest for shelter. Macleod Morass formed with and was isolated from Lake King and Jones Bay with the development of the Mitchell River silt jetties; the marginal bluff marks the former shoreline position of Lake King and the relict gravel beaches and spits were formed by wave action. The area contains geological features and sites of state geological and geomorphological significance; the extensive'backswamp' forming Macleod Morass, the escarpment along its western boundary, relict gravel beaches and spits are important features providing evidence of once higher sea levels in Bass Strait.
Macleod Morass was classified as a'deep freshwater marsh' but only 30% of
Benambra, Victoria
Benambra is a small town 28 kilometres north-east of Omeo and 430 kilometres east of the state capital Melbourne, in the Australian Alps of East Gippsland, Australia. Nearby towns include Swifts Creek and the major town of Bairnsdale. At the 2016 census and the surrounding area had a population of 149. Benambra town centre is at the intersection of Gibbo Street and Limestone Road, at an altitude of 700m; the town has a population of around 150, although most residents live on farms and properties out of the actual town. From its early days Benambra has been regarded as a premier agricultural area, specialising in both sheep and cattle farming; the annual weaner calf sales, held in March, attract buyers from across Australia who are seeking high quality predominantly Hereford and Hereford Shorthorn Cross calves on offer. Merino sheep are raised for wool, there is a small amount of cropping in the area; the timber industry employs a small number of people in harvesting and transportation of the logs to mills in other areas.
Mining was once a significant employer in the area, but only occasional forays are conducted. For the tourist, the area offers beautiful mountain scenery, crystal clear trout fishing streams, an assortment of picturesque bush walking trails, including those of the Alpine National Park; the town of Benambra is on the shores of Lake Omeo which can serve as a tourist attraction, however this lake only irregularly holds water at present. During wetter times a pier and public toilets were built at the top end of the lake furthest from the town where the lake is at its maximum depth; the depth varies when full from about 3m at the top end to about 1m at the town end, where the lake will flood across the sealed road. When holding sufficient water, the lake has hosted sailing, speed boat races. Benambra was one of the first regions of Victoria to be settled by Europeans; the Aboriginal history from this area is not well recorded. There was a mountain clan, the Ja-itma-thang, centred on the Omeo area, but this clan would have interacted with nearby tribes, including the Gunai or Kurnai of Gippsland proper.
Population levels are uncertain, but were highly underestimated by European settlers with consideration given to the fact that observation in the mountains and forests of Gippsland is far more difficult than in the more open parts of Australia. What is clear is that like elsewhere, population levels declined following European occupation due to both disease and conflict, people from this clan are no longer found in the area. Unlike most of Australia, where exploration went inland from the sea, the Gippsland region was first explored and settled by Europeans who came overland from the Monaro region of New South Wales and headed down to the coastal regions; this could be seen as a natural expansion of the first settlements of Australia radiating out from Sydney, but to do so the settlers had to cross the not insignificant barrier of the Australian Alps. In fact the first to arrive via this route were not explorers in the traditional sense, but ordinary stockmen pushing out to expand their range.
The route they found put them in the Omeo region, with access through present day Benambra. First to arrive was James MacFarlane in late 1834, in 1835 he returned with two other Highland Scots, George MacKillop and Livingstone, all settling on the Omeo Plains. MacFarlane returned to the Monaro and brought cattle back to the Benambra area in 1836; this formed Gippsland’s first squatting run. The Scots were soon followed by four Irish cattlemen from the Monaro. John Pendergast was at Lake Omeo by 1836, John Hyland took up a run at Hinnomunjie, Edmund Buckley moved to Tongio Munjie and Ensay, south of Omeo, in 1836, his stepson, Patrick Buckley, was at Benambra by 1839. Many of these surnames are still common in the area. By the time of 1839 and 1840 wealthy landholders in New South Wales had become interested in the Gippsland region and funded further exploration of the region; the key explorations around this time were those of another Scot, Angus McMillan, a Polish scientist-explorer, Count Paul Strzelecki.
Both of these expedition parties passed through the established lands around Benambra and Omeo heading south towards the coast, both were assisted by the McFarlane family. McMillan completed several expeditions, while he was not the first to visit many locations, his explorations were the most important in terms of European settlement of Gippsland proper. On his final expedition he located a suitable port at present day Port Albert; the route established by McMillan remains the same major north-south route through Gippsland to this day. This route follows the Great Alpine Road south through the Tambo Valley to Bruthen west to Bairnsdale and Sale along the Princes Highway south from Sale to Port Albert. For several decades Gippsland operated on this north-south axis, following this route from Benambra and Omeo to Port Albert, but in the 1860s a road was opened from Melbourne to the east, this was followed a couple of decades by a rail line and a Post Office opened on 16 June 1886; these developments, along with development of significant east-west shipping on the Gippsland Lakes at the time, reoriented trav
