Waranga Basin and Harriman Point
In 1905, on the site of a natural wetland about 8km north-east of Rushworth, hundreds of men lined up with shovels on their shoulders to build Australia’s first major dam.
Over the next three years, these men and others using scoops, horses and drays, moved mountains of earth to transform Gunn’s Swamp into the fourth-largest inland waterway in Victoria - the Waranga Basin.
Folklore suggests that several workers may be buried in the banks of the 432,360 megalitre reservoir due to the dangerous nature of the work and to fatal alcohol-fuelled fights between the workers.
Waranga Basin was completed in 1908, and at the time of construction was described as one of the largest projects of its kind in the world, with an embankment height of 8m and a length of 7km.
Between 1915 and 1921, the embankment was raised to a maximum height of 12.2m, and the clay core and rock beaching was extended to the new crest level.
Waranga Basin is located between the Goulburn and Campaspe River basins. It is filled by water diverted from the Goulburn River at Goulburn Weir through the Stuart Murray and Cattanach canals. It provides irrigation water for the Central Goulburn, Rochester and Loddon Valley irrigation areas, as well as urban supplies for Goulburn Valley Water, Coliban Water and Grampians Wimmera Mallee Water.
The Basin’s recreation area at Harriman Point was named after an early settler in the area, William Harriman, who arrived in 1884. The point was originally used as a camping spot for drovers and settlers. Harriman Point was developed into a recreational area in the early 20th century, with a picnic ground, boat ramps and a jetty. A new dual-lane boat ramp was installed by Goulburn-Murray Water (GMW) at the site in 2022 to improve safety and access for boating, sailing, windsurfing, fishing, jet skiing and kayaking.
Railway Station, Goods Shed and Turntable
The original railway station at Rushworth was located where the Country Fire Authority (CFA) station now stands on Murchison Rd, on the south side of the railway yards.
It was built just prior to the opening of the Rushworth to Murchison East railway line in 1890.
At the time, the station housed a main office, passenger waiting room and toilet, ticket office and goods storeroom. In the late 1920s and early 1930s it was one of the busiest stations on the line, with hundreds of passengers passing through on many days.
When passenger services ceased on the line in 1956, little use remained for the railway station. From that time onwards, the line was used for goods only, primarily grain, and the goods shed became the hub of activity.
The station was demolished in 1967 and two steel grain silos were erected in its place, adjacent to the original passenger platform. The silos were later removed to make way for the present-day fire station which opened in October 2013.
An impressive amount of former rail infrastructure still exists, despite the rail line being closed in 1987. The goods shed and platform are still in place, while a significant amount of trackwork in the former yard also remains.
The remnants of the old train engine turntable can still be seen to the east of the CFA Station area. The turntable was used to turn locomotives in the opposite direction for return journeys, forming a crucial part of the railway infrastructure.
Rushworth Township and History
Rushworth is a former gold mining town nestled within the largest Box-Ironbark forest in Australia, and on the shores of the Waranga Basin reservoir.
Established during the Victorian Gold Rush in 1853, the town boasts one of the most impressive, unspoiled main streets in rural Victoria, with many heritage buildings classified by the National Trust.
Prior to European settlement the district was inhabited by the Ngurai-illum Wurrung First Nation people. Today, both the Taungurung and Yorta Yorta people act as custodians of the land along the Rushworth Rail Trail.
In the 1840s, the area was a squatter’s run, but the discovery of gold in 1853 changed the district forever.
At the peak of the gold mining boom, legend has it that up to 10,000 people lived in the area encompassing Rushworth and nearby Whroo, and diggers harvested almost $1.85 million in gold from surrounding mines.
By the 1870s the goldrush was over, and the district shifted from gold mining to timber, then later to grain and livestock. Between 1896 and 1900 an average of 50,000 railway sleepers were harvested each year from forests around Rushworth, and the timber industry flourished until the 1940s.
The railway line from Murchison East to Rushworth opened in 1890, after more than 30 years of lobbying, and operated for almost 100 years, until its closure in 1987.
The 20th century saw a shift in Rushworth's importance as a mining town, to a servicing centre for the surrounding rural communities.
Gold was the primary drawcard in those early years, but nowadays travellers visit to relive the fascinating past through the town’s historic buildings and characteristic streetscapes.
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