DENILIQUIN, NEW SOUTH WALES

'Deniliquin', known locally as "Deni", is a town and Local Government Area (see Deniliquin Council) in the Riverina region of New South Wales close to the border with Victoria.
Deniliquin is located at the intersection of the Riverina and Cobb Highway approximately 725 kilometres south west of the state capital, Sydney and 285 kilometres north of Melbourne. The town is divided in two parts by the Edward River, an anabranch of the Murray River, with the main business district located on the south bank.
The town services a productive agricultural district with prominent rice, wool and timber industries. At the 2001 census Deniliquin had a population of 7,781.^[1]

Contents

History

Industry

Notable Residents

Education

Sport

Play on the Plains Festival

Music

Music Festivals

External links

References

History

Prior to European settlement, The aboriginal inhabitants of the Deniliquin area were the Barapa Baraba people.^[2]
In 1843 the entrepreneur and speculator Benjamin Boyd acquired land in the vicinity of present-day Deniliquin (probably via his agent Augustus Morris).  The location was known as The Sandhills, but Boyd (or Morris) named it Deniliquin after 'Denilakoon', a local Aborigine famed for his wrestling prowess.^[3] An inn and a punt were established on the site in the period 1845-1847 and the town site surveyed in 1848 and gazetted in 1850.
As Deniliquin was established on the convergence of major stock routes between the colonies of Queensland, New South Wales and the Victorian gold rush centres of Victoria, it soon became an important river crossing and the first bridge was built over the Edward River in 1861. A private railway was constructed in 1879 to connect with Moama, across the Murray River from the busy river port of Echuca, connected by rail to Melbourne.

A water trough on a sheep farm 50 km north of the town

Wool growing quickly became a major industry and the area around Deniliquin was home to several Merino studs. In 1861, George Hall Peppin and his two sons, experienced English sheep breeders, established a Merino stud at Wanganella station, north of Deniliquin. There, the brothers developed the Peppin Merino, able to thrive in drier inland regions. Today, as many as 70 percent of Merinos in Australia are said to be directly descended from these sheep.^[4]
In the 1860s, Deniliquin was the centre of a short lived campaign by wealthy pastoralists including Peppin, George Desailly, Robert Landale and William Bodribb for secession from New South Wales and the creation of a new Riverina colony. This campaign was supported by David Jones, the editor of the local newspaper the ''Pastoral Times.''^[5][6]
On 19th December 1868, Deniliquin was constituted as The Municipality of Deniliquin, and the first Municipal Election was held on 23rd February 1869. In 1993 the enactment of the Local Government Act (NSW) saw the name of the council changed from the Municipality of Deniliquin to the Deniliquin Council.^[7]
Large scale irrigation schemes came to the Deniliquin area with the establishment of the Deniboota and Denimein Irrigation Districts in 1938 and the Berriquin Irrigation District in 1939, using water diverted from the Murray River at Lake Mulwala through the Mulwala Canal. An ample and reliable water supply lead to the development of water intensive industries such as rice growing.^[8]
In April 2006 the Herald Sun reported on their front cover that the Edward River was dry, with an accompanying photograph showing a dry creek.^[9] This was later revealed to be erroneous; the photograph was of an unknown channel on a farm within 60km of Deniliquin, while the Edward River is in fact still running. Deniliquin Council and members of the Deniliquin community have since attempted to rectify the damage to local tourism by improving the profile of Deniliquin in various media outlets.^[10]

Industry

Waring Gardens in Deniliquin.

Deniliquin is a service centre for the surrounding agricultural region. The region includes both dryland and irrigated areas. The dryland areas support grazing, in particular beef cattle and wool growing. Deniliquin is home to many famous Merino studs and the saltbush plains produce quality medium class wool.
The irrigated areas produce a range of high yield crops. Rice is the major crop and the largest rice mill in the southern hemisphere is in Deniliquin, producing large packs and bulk rice for export markets.^[11]
Deniliquin is also the headquarters of Murray Irrigation Limited, an irrigator owned private company and one of the largest privately owned irrigation supply companies in the world. Murray Irrigation manages the operations of the Berriquin, Deniboota, Denimein and Wakool Irrigation Areas in the Murray Valley. These areas produce 50% of Australia’s rice crop, 20% of NSW milk production, 75% of NSW processing tomatoes and 40% of NSW potatoes.^[12]
Sawmills in the area process timber harvested from the River red gum forests lining the Edward and Murray floodplains.^[13]
As the largest town in the south western Riverina, there is a range of government and commercial services to residents of the town and the surrounding area.

Notable Residents

Notable people from Deniliquin include:

★ Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser

★ Sydney Swans Australian rules footballer Leo Barry

★ Melbourne Cup winning Jockey Roy Higgins

★ Test and one day cricketer and AFL Player Simon O'Donnell

★ Test and one day cricketer wicket keeper Adam Gilchrist

Education

Deniliquin is well serviced by the education sector. The town has 3 public primary schools (Deniliquin South P.S, Deniliquin North P.S, Edward P.S), 1 Catholic primary school (St Michael's P.S), 1 public high school (Deniliquin H.S) and 1 independant K-10 school (Deniliquin Christian School)
It has a TAFE NSW Campus, which is part of the Riverina Institute of TAFE.^[14]
Deniliquin is also the base for the NSW Department of Education South West Riverina regional office.

Sport

Sport is an important part of the culture of Deniliquin. The town is famous for the sportspeople raised in the area. Notable sporting clubs in the area include:
'Australian Rules Football'

★ Deniliquin Rams Football Club, competing in the Murray Football League

★ Deniliquin Rovers Football Club competing in the Picola & District Football League.
'Rugby Union Football'

★ Deniliquin Drovers, competing in the Victorian Rugby Union Country Division

Play on the Plains Festival

Two Utes at the Deni Ute muster 2002

Deniliquin is home to the ''Play on the Plains Festival'' held each September/October on the New South Wales
Labour Day long weekend which includes the famous 'Deniliquin Ute Muster'^[15]
The Play On The Plains Festival has set the following world records:^[15]

★ World Record Ute Count

★
★ 1999 - 2839 utes in one location

★
★ 2000 - 2990 utes in one location

★
★ 2001 - 3012 utes in one location

★
★ 2002 - 3070 utes in one location

★
★ 2003 - 3418 utes in one location

★
★ 2004 - 4012 utes in one location

★
★ 2005 - 6172 utes in one location

★
★ 2006 - 6211 utes in one location

★ World Record Blue Singlet Count

★
★ 2004 - 1328 people wearing blue singlets

★
★ 2005 - 1474 people wearing blue singlets

★
★ 2006 - 1566 people wearing blue singlets

Music

Deniliquin has a promising music scene with both young and old local bands popping up all over the town. It's primary genre which goes across the board is Heavy metal. Although this is a depiction of boring teenage days when all you could play was "Enter Sandman", there are a few good performers and artist's.
Unfortunately, the music scene within depicts a lot of ugly competitive behaviour often demeaning other bands on stage and making themselves appear like fools. The worst of all offenders would be some of the "Leading Musicians" in the town.
Deniliquin is home to one of the two official Australian branches of the Metallica fan club, known as For Whom Metallica Tolls.
With such a large ammount of musical artist's within Deniliquin, it is amazing that no-one has made it to the big time as yet. Deniliquin seems to slowly build it's name as a town for musicians that want to perform but not exceed the ranks of the town.
Deniliquin is also the home of the website Heavy Metal Nation, a place for people to contribute their own opinions on music from the heavier side, including punk, heavy metal, hardcore, emo, rock, goth, death metal, and everything else that fits into that genre. Heavy Metal Nation is responsible for organising Night Of Darkness, a festival of heavy metal music.

Music Festivals

'The Flat Earth Festival'. The Flat Earth Festival was organised by Tilly NOT the youth council under the auspices of South West Music, beginning in 1999 and running until 2003. The aim of the Flat Earth Festival (so named because Deniliqiun is on the Hay Plains, the area with the smallest deviation of elevation on Earth^[17]) was to provide a music festival accompanied by other activities (such as motorcross demonstrations) in a drug and alcohol free environment.^[18]. The Flat Earth Festival youth committee failed to attract new members as previous members moved on, and the event recessed.
Notable bands attending the Flat Earth Festival included Grinspoon and Sunk Loto.
'Spring Blues Festival'. The Spring Blues Festival had its inaugural year in 2006. The aim of the festival is to expose Deniliquin residents to the talented Blues musicians performing in Australia, as well as providing music workshops and improptu jam sessions. Notable acts appearing at The Spring Blues Festival include The Dutch Tilders and Jeff Lang^[19]

External links

★ Deniliquin Council

★ Deniliquin Visitor Information Centre

★ Plains Talking - celebrating the natural history of Deniliquin

★ Series of Images of Deniliquin, New South Wales, 1994 - National Library of Australia

★ Deniliquin Play On The Plain Festival

References

1. Deniliquin (A) (Local Government Area)

2. Walkabout Australian Travel Guide - Deniliquin
3. Reed, A. W., ''Place-names of New South Wales: Their Origins and Meanings'', (Reed: 1969).
4. Merino Sheep in Australia
5. jas review: Leighton Frappell, Lords of the Saltbush Plains: Fontier Squatters and the Pastoral Independence Movement 1865-1866
6. Peppin, George Hall (1800 - 1872)
7. About Deniliquin Countil
8. The Irrigation Industry in the Murray and Murrumbidgee Basins
9. Country News
10. Deniliquin tries to counteract photo bungle
11. SuRice Deniliquin
12. Taking up the challenge ~ Responsible irrigation management
13. Managing Murray's mighty river red gums
14. TAFE NSW, Deniliquin Campus
15. Deniliquin Ute Muster Play On The Plains Festival
16. Deniliquin Ute Muster Play On The Plains Festival
17. Visit Hay - Real People, Real Experiences
18. The Music Council Of Australia: Way Out West
19. Deniliquin Spring Blues Festival