Kerang

History

The Wemba-Wemba and Barapa Barapa Aboriginal people are the original owners and the area's first occupants. Thomas Mitchell was the first European to visit the area, in 1836. Squatters began to settle in the area in 1845 and in 1848 Richard Beyes opened a public house at a river crossing near the future townsite. The gold rush of 1850 in Australia attracted the miner's sons, Peter and Anders Pettersson from Herrnäs to Australia in 1853. They emigrated with 4 other miners' sons, among them Lars Fredrik Pettersson who later took the name Westblad. A couple of hired hands also went with this first group. Lars Fredrik Westblad returned to Sweden to visit his home in Bjurtjärn socken. When he returned to Australia in 1857, two brothers went with him and later two more brothers joined them along with a cousin and a nephew. Lars Fredrik Westblad became a justice of the peace and the owner of an inn in Mia Mia which became a gathering spot for the Swedes. With three of his brothers and four sons he operated a farm of more than 40,000 acres at Kerang, northeast of Melbourne. He did well in the cattle business. The Westblad family in Australia reached considerable numbers and in 1976 about 300 descendants of Lars Fredrik gathered for a reunion in Kerang. This was followed by a saddlery and a church. In 1857 Woodford Patchell built a bridge upriver from the settlement which drew traffic from the earlier settlement. He built a store, house and hotel that became the centre of what was to become Kerang. Patchell was the first farmer in the state to use irrigation and experimented with oats, barley, maize, millet, tobacco, beet, cotton and sugarcane. The Post Office opened on 29 July 1858; the current Kerang Post Office building dates from 1886 and is heritage-listed. An earlier…

Most-observed species

• Australian Magpie

  Gymnorhina tibicen (Latham, 1802) · Aves
  1,203
• Superb Fairywren

  Malurus cyaneus (Ellis, 1782) · Aves
  1,202
• Whistling Kite

  Haliastur sphenurus (Vieillot, 1818) · Aves
  1,132
• Red-rumped Parrot

  Psephotus haematonotus (Gould, 1838) · Aves
  1,044
• Welcome Swallow

  Hirundo neoxena Gould, 1842 · Aves
  1,032
• Magpie-lark

  Grallina cyanoleuca (Latham, 1802) · Aves
  1,003
• Crested Pigeon

  Ocyphaps lophotes (Temminck, 1822) · Aves
  1,002
• Willie-wagtail

  Rhipidura leucophrys (Latham, 1802) · Aves
  969

Most recent

• M 3 — 2018-07-23
  18 km S of Cohuna, Australia
• M 2.7 — 2007-12-09
  38 km SE of Charlton, Australia
• M 3.6 — 2003-12-29
  40 km WNW of Deniliquin, Australia
• M 3.1 — 2003-03-10
  Victoria, Australia
• M 2.9 — 2002-04-19
  45 km N of Charlton, Australia
• M 3.3 — 2002-01-22
  5 km WNW of Rochester, Australia