Shepparton

History

Prior to the European settlement of Australia, the area was inhabited by the Yorta Yorta, the indigenous Australian people whose country covers the junction of the Goulburn and Murray Rivers in present-day northern Victoria and southern New South Wales. The town of Shepparton and surrounds are on the country of the Kailtheban clan of the [https://yynac.com.au/ Yorta Yorta nation]. Surveyor General Thomas Mitchell was the first European to be recorded traveling through the area, crossing the Goulburn River in 1836 on his return to Sydney from an expedition to survey the Darling River and its tributaries. On Mitchell's recommendation, Joseph Hawdon and Charles Bonney would follow two years later, camping on the town site by the Goulburn River in 1838 while droving cattle from Albury to Adelaide. The first permanent settlement in the area was the "Tallygaroopna" sheep station, established in the early 1840s. By 1843 the station was being run by a man named Sherbourne Sheppard, the town's eventual namesake. A post office opened in February 1854, but closed in July that same year. The settlement was first surveyed in 1855 by Assistant Surveyor J.G.W. Wilmot. By this time, in addition to Macguire's Punt, it had also become known as Sheppard town, Sheppardton, and Shepparton. It remained a small settlement of a half-dozen buildings into the 1870s despite adding a police station, a general store, a blacksmith, a foundry, and a public hall which remains the city's oldest building. Shepparton's first bridge over the Goulburn River was completed in 1878 and named Dainton's Bridge after James Henry Dainton, the bridge's chief engineer. The first church, St. Patrick's, opened in 1879. The railway from Seymour reached the town in 1880. A mechanics institute opened between 1880…

Geography

Shepparton has a cool semi-arid climate (Köppen: BSk) bordering upon a humid subtropical climate (Cfa), with hot, sunny summers and cool, cloudy winters. The hottest summer month is January, when the average maximum temperature is . In winter, the weather becomes coldest in July when the minimum averages and the maximum gets to . On 7 February 2009, a maximum of was recorded in the city. Although the rainfall in Shepparton is fairly sparse, winter sees the most rain days. Rainfall is quite low throughout the year. Even with the wettest month being in November, the rainfall still averages at . The driest month in terms of rainfall is January, which receives an average of . The average wind speed in Shepparton is .

Most-observed species

• Australian Magpie

  Gymnorhina tibicen (Latham, 1802) · Aves
  6,210
• Noisy Miner

  Manorina melanocephala (Latham, 1801) · Aves
  5,827
• Crested Pigeon

  Ocyphaps lophotes (Temminck, 1822) · Aves
  5,765
• Galah

  Eolophus roseicapilla (Vieillot, 1817) · Aves
  5,307
• Sulphur-crested Cockatoo

  Cacatua galerita (Latham, 1790) · Aves
  5,062
• Welcome Swallow

  Hirundo neoxena Gould, 1842 · Aves
  4,895
• Rainbow Lorikeet

  Trichoglossus haematodus (Linnaeus, 1771) · Aves
  4,697
• Eastern Rosella

  Platycercus eximius (Shaw, 1792) · Aves
  4,490

Most recent

• M 3.2 — 2013-06-22
  24 km SE of Benalla, Australia
• M 3 — 2010-05-26
  8 km E of Rochester, Australia
• M 3.3 — 2005-01-20
  16 km WNW of Wangaratta, Australia
• M 2.6 — 2003-05-09
  27 km SE of Euroa, Australia
• M 2.5 — 2002-08-09
  10 km ESE of Kyabram, Australia
• M 3.3 — 2002-01-22
  5 km WNW of Rochester, Australia