Murchison is a small rural village located on the Goulburn River in Victoria, Australia. Murchison is located 145 kilometres from Melbourne and is just to the west of the Goulburn Valley Highway between Shepparton and Nagambie. The surrounding countryside contains orchards, vineyards and dairy farms and the population of Murchison is approximately 600.

Early history

The Ngooraialum tribe were the aboriginal inhabitants of the area. The first explorer to enter the Goulburn Valley was Thomas Mitchell who crossed the Goulburn River at Mitchellstown. The first Europeans to visit what would become the site where the drovers Joseph Hawdon and Charles Bonney who drove cattle between Mitchellstown and Adelaide.

Squatters started settling the area in 1840 with a school being established that year and a police station in 1841. The aboriginal protectorate was also transferred from Mitchellstown to Murchison in 1840 and closed in 1850.

French vigneron Ludovic Marie settled in Murchison in 1850 and established vineyards. He also set up a hotel and punt service over the Goulburn for gold miners travelling between the Bendigo and Beechworth. A township was established in 1854 with the town being named after Captain John Murchison.

The town grew rapidly with a post office established in 1855, a flour mill in 1858 and a Presbyterian church and school in 1859. Small selectors started settling the area after 1870. A bridge was built over the Goulburn to replace the punt service in 1871 with a newspaper, courthouse and mechanics institute being established in 1870.

The town grew further in 1875 with the arrival of the first paddlesteamer. At that time, Murchison had six hotels, a number of general stores, two flour mills and numerous stores and services. In 1878, Murchison became the base for operations against Ned Kelly and his gang. The railway reached Murchison East in 1880.

The building of the Goulburn Weir for irrigation in 1887-90 meant that the Goulburn River was no longer navigable by paddle steamer leading to Murchison declining in importance. The development of irrigation led to the growth of nearby towns notably Shepparton. The Waranga Basin was developed in the early part of the twentieth century approximately 15 kilometres from the town.

Twentieth century

Approximately 4000 Italian, Japanese and German prisoners of war (POWs) were interned near the town between 1941 and 1947. Dhurringile Homestead, 11 kilometres to the north, was used as a POW camp for German officers while the Italians and Japanese were kept at an internment camp in the town. The prisoner of war camp was employing 675 people with the Italians and Japanese prioners working as fruitpickers. The German POWs were not used. After the camps closed in 1947, the internment camp became an Italian war memorial while Dhurringhile Homestead became a low security prison.

On September 28, 1969, a meteorite shower fell 2 kilometres south of Murchison. Many local residents collected samples of these meteorites reducing the chance of contamination. The rocks were analysed at the NASA Ames Research Center where they were discovered to contain the first convincing evidence of amino acids of extraterrestial origin, confirming the Miller-Urey experiment. These meteorites contained 90 different amino acids, only 19 of which are found on earth. The Meteorite Park 2 kilometres south of Murchison celebrates this discovery.

Further reference

• Murchison Walkabout page (http://www.walkabout.com.au/locations/VICMurchison.shtml/)
• Murchison Travelmate page (http://www.travelmate.com.au/Places/Places.asp?TownName=Murchison_%5C_VIC/)
• page on the Murchison meteorite (http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/AAO/local/www/jab/astrobiology/murchison.html/)