Swan Hill

Sister cities

• Yamagata

History

The area was given its current name by explorer Thomas Mitchell, while camping beside a hill on 21 June 1836. The European community grew up around a punt river crossing, which was established as early as 1846. This crossing serviced the growing agricultural area, and was the only river crossing for 100 km. The post office opened here on 1 February 1849. In 1853 Francis Cadell navigated the Murray River from its mouth in South Australia to Swan Hill in his paddle steamer, Lady Augusta. He arrived on 17 September 1853, narrowly beating William Randell of Mannum, who arrived 4 hours later in PS Mary Ann. This demonstrated the feasibility of river traffic, which flourished until the introduction of the railway. In 1876 Swan Hill was described in the following terms: In 1883 the first of several red brick water towers was built to supply the growing town with water. Water was pumped out of the river and into the top of the tower by a wood-fired steam engine, and then flowed by gravity to surrounding businesses and private residences. Many of these towers can still be seen around town. The railway from Bendigo was extended from Kerang to Swan Hill station in May 1890, being extended to Piangil in 1915. The punt river crossing was replaced by a timber truss, steel lift span bridge in 1896. The first six telephones were connected in Swan Hill on 2 October 1911. The National Bank was phone number 1. In 1914 Isaburo (Jo) Takasuka produced the first commercial rice crop in Australia. He grew Japanese (Japonica) varieties on of flood prone land on the Murray River near Swan Hill. The Chinese had been growing rice in Australia since at least 1877. Swan Hill became a city in 1965. The Burke and Wills expedition reached Swan Hill on Thursday, 6 September 1860 on…

Geography

The town is situated on the Northern Plains Grassland. Swan Hill gives its name to a wine region straddling the Murray River. The vines are predominantly irrigated from the river. Swan Hill has a cold semi-arid climate (BSk) with hot sunny summers and cool, partly cloudy winters. Afternoon dew points are extremely low in the warmer months, particularly from October to December, due in part to the frequency of dry cold fronts out of the south-west.