Echuca Travel Guide
Echuca accommodation, Echuca activities and attractions, Echuca maps, transportation to and around Echuca - the ALL NEW Jasons Echuca Destination Travel Guide is your complete visitor guide for Echuca.
Echuca and its twin town of
Moama, on either side of the Murray River and the border between
Victoria and
New South Wales, are at the junction of the Murray, Campaspe and Goulburn Rivers. Now a city and once Australia's largest inland port, Echuca took its name from an Aboriginal word meaning 'meeting of the waters', while Moama means 'place of the dead'.
The towns were founded by the enterprising ex-convict Harry Hopwood, who established a punt, ferry crossings and an inn in 1853, and Echuca's Bridge Hotel during the height of the gold rush era in 1858. At the peak of the riverboat era, more than 100 paddle-steamers operated along the Murray, Darling and Murrumbidgee Rivers, carting wool, timber and other goods between Echuca and the Outback stations. When the railway line between
Melbourne and Echuca was opened in 1864, river trade declined and much of Echuca's kilometre-long red gum wharf complex was dismantled. What remains has retained the charm of this bygone era, with everything still in its original condition.
Population
10,000
Climate
Temperate
Summer: 14 – 30°C
Winter: 4 – 14°C
Rainfall: 430mm/year