Renmark, South Australia
Renmark is a town in South Australia's rural Riverland area, and is located 254 km (157.83 mi) northeast of Adelaide, on the banks of the River Murray. The Sturt Highway between Adelaide and Sydney runs through the town; Renmark is the last major town encountered in South Australia when driving this route. It is a few kilometres west of the SA–Victoria and SA–NSW borders. It is 31 m (101.71 ft) above sea level.
| Renmark South Australia | |||||||||||||||
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 A view of Renmark from the Murray River | |||||||||||||||
  Renmark | |||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 34°10′27″S 140°44′30″E[1] | ||||||||||||||
| Population | 4,703 (UCL 2021)[2] | ||||||||||||||
| Established | 1904 (town) 16 March 2000 (locality)[3] | ||||||||||||||
| Postcode(s) | 5341 | ||||||||||||||
| Elevation | 31 m (102 ft) | ||||||||||||||
| Location | |||||||||||||||
| LGA(s) | District Council of Renmark Paringa[1] | ||||||||||||||
| Region | Murray and Mallee[1] | ||||||||||||||
| County | Hamley[1] | ||||||||||||||
| State electorate(s) | Chaffey[4] | ||||||||||||||
| Federal division(s) | Barker[5] | ||||||||||||||
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| Footnotes | Adjoining localities[1] | ||||||||||||||
History
It has been suggested that the name Renmark refers to a local Aboriginal word meaning "red mud" (the original inhabitants of the area were the Erawirung people). However, the mud at Renmark is not red. Alternatively, it could be derived from the name Bookmark, later Calperum, the station founded by the Chambers brothers, from which 20,000 acres (8,100 ha) was excised for the town and irrigation project. Another possibility is the name of an early settler in the district, William Renny.[6] The first unambiguous use of the name (as "Renmark Flat") in newspapers was in October 1888.[7]
Captain Charles Sturt was the first European to pass through the area in January 1830, as he navigated the length of the Murray River from the Great Dividing Range, eventually reaching Lake Alexandrina.
A settlement began to grow in 1887, when the Renmark Irrigation Settlement was established by George and William Chaffey, who created a system of open drains using water from the Murray River, (called Renmark Irrigation Trust) to allow orchards to be planted in the area. By pumping water onto the hot red sand they transformed it into a fruit growing area similar to California. The Chaffey brothers' business collapsed in 1893, and the Renmark Irrigation Trust was created to manage the irrigation scheme.[6]
Renmark was proclaimed a town in 1904 and a municipality in 1935.[6]
The Renmark Hotel was the first community-owned hotel in the British Empire and became the town's major landmark.[8]
Renmark was connected to Adelaide by rail on 31 January 1927,[9] when the railway line across the bridge to Paringa was opened. It was later extended west as far as Barmera, and known as the Barmera railway line, but then closed in 1983 then the last scheduled train to cross the bridge was on 31 December 1990.[10]
Heritage listings
Renmark has a number of heritage-listed sites, including:
- Murray Avenue: Renmark Hotel[11]
- 149 Murray Avenue: Renmark Irrigation Trust Office[12]
- 24 Ral Ral Avenue: Renmark Post Office[13]
- Renmark Avenue: Renmark Distillery Bridge[14]
- Renmark Avenue: Olivewood[15]
- Sturt Highway: Paringa Bridge[16]
Governance
Renmark is located within the federal division of Barker, the state electoral district of Chaffey and the local government area of the Renmark Paringa Council.[5][1][4]
Tourism, industry and facilities
Renmark is a multicultural centre for the Riverland area. The river itself offers excellent spots for fishing, waterskiing and boating. The area is known for the cultivation of grapes, citrus fruits, tomatoes, vegetables, wheat and wool. Orange trees stretch for hectares as do vineyards and stone fruit orchards. Other industries include almond growing and pistachio nut cultivation.
Renmark is also home to the region's only restored paddle steamer, wine companies and the rose industry. Renmark hosts the Renmark Rose Festival every October.
There is a shopping centre known as Renmark Square, camping grounds, and a 380 metres (420 yd) dirt oval speedway known as the Riverland Speedway.
Murray River National Park
The Murray River National Park includes two locations near Renmark:[17][18]
- Paringa Paddock (1,161 ha (2,870 acres)), including Goat Island, between Renmark and Paringa; and
- Bulyong, or Bulyong Island, on the west side of the river upstream from Renmark, accessible only by boat.
Paringa Paddock (which includes Goat Island) contains areas of riverine woodlands, wetlands and river flats. The floodplain is lined by huge river red gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) and river box (Eucalyptus largiflorens). The wetland complex provides habitat for koalas, birds and reptiles, and the park provides recreation for people of all ages and abilities. There are walking and biking trails developed by the Renmark Paringa Council and the local community. Bulyong is home to many wildlife species, such as western grey kangaroos, emus, pelicans, kingfishers and parrots.[17]
Media
The Murray Pioneer, a newspaper founded in 1892 as the Renmark Pioneer,[19] is printed in Renmark.[20]
Channels from the following television networks are available in Renmark:
- ABC Television (ABC)
- SBS Television (SBS)
- WIN Television (7, 9 & 10) as RTS-5A & LRS-34 relays the programming from Seven Network (Seven SA), Nine Network (Nine SA) & Network Ten (Ten SA), Sky News Regional and Fox Sports News, with local commercials inserted
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) broadcasts a local radio station, ABC Riverland (1062 AM), along with national stations ABC Radio National (1305 AM); ABC News Radio (93.9 FM); ABC Classic (105.1 FM) and Triple J (101.9 FM).
In addition, there are commercial radio stations, including 5RM (801 AM); Wild Country Radio (1557 AM); Magic FM (93.1 FM); TAB Racing Network (95.5 FM) and Riverland Life (100.7 FM).
Sporting teams
- Renmark Olympic (football)
- Renmark Rovers (australian rules)
- Renmark Royals (cricket)
Notable people
- Thomas Angove, a winemaker from Renmark, invented the process for packaging cask (box) wine,[6] patented by his company on 20 April 1965.[21]
- Gordon Bilney – politician
- Rob Bredl – documentary film maker
- Rick Burr – former Chief of Army
- John Cock (RAF officer) – flying ace of the Second World War
- Syd Heylen – performer
- Rex Hobcroft – musician
- Ruby Hunter, Aboriginal singer-songwriter and partner of Archie Roach, was born in 1955 on Goat Island.[22]
- John Percival Jennings – horticulturist
- Cecil Madigan – explorer and geologist
- Mark Mickan – AFL footballer
- Patricia Mickan – basketballer
- Bush poet and soldier Breaker Morant lived in the area in the 1890s, before serving in the Boer War.[23] Confirmation of his employment at J. F. Cudmore's Paringa Station has not been found.
- Anne Ruston – politician
- Nicole Seekamp – basketballer
- Dean Semler – cinematographer
- Ross Story – politician
- Jack Wade – AFL footballer
Climate
Renmark experiences a cold desert climate (BWk), bordering on a cold semi-arid climate (BSk) with hot, dry summers (though which are subject to cold fronts on account of the western longitude); warm to mild springs and autumns; and cool, sometimes cloudy winters. Renmark is surrounded by mallee scrub, and is situated in a grassland location, north of Goyder's Line.
Due to its geographical location, summers are a few degrees hotter than those of Adelaide; although it has many more touches of frost in the winter, and it also lacks Adelaide's sizeable winter precipitation. The average rainfall of Renmark is 239.1 millimetres (9.4 in), peaking somewhat in spring; falling as thunderstorms and/or cold fronts in summer; cold fronts and Northwest cloudbands in winter, and a combination of the three in spring and autumn.
Extreme temperatures have ranged from 48.6 °C (119.5 °F) on 20 December 2019 to −6.1 °C (21.0 °F) in June 1998 at the Aero site. However on 05 January 2020, Renmark registered a new record cold maximum of just 15.6 °C (60.1 °F) for any summer month, eclipsing the historically anomalous February 2005 low maximum of 17.5 °C (63.5 °F); this extraordinarily low maximum was nearly 4 degrees lower than its previous January record low maximum set back in 1983.
| Climate data for Renmark Aero (1995−2022); 32 m AMSL; 34.20° S, 140.68° E | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 47.1 (116.8) |
48.2 (118.8) |
42.2 (108.0) |
39.7 (103.5) |
29.9 (85.8) |
25.8 (78.4) |
27.6 (81.7) |
32.2 (90.0) |
37.6 (99.7) |
41.7 (107.1) |
45.3 (113.5) |
48.6 (119.5) |
48.6 (119.5) |
| Average high °C (°F) | 33.8 (92.8) |
32.6 (90.7) |
29.1 (84.4) |
24.6 (76.3) |
20.0 (68.0) |
16.8 (62.2) |
16.5 (61.7) |
18.5 (65.3) |
22.0 (71.6) |
25.4 (77.7) |
28.8 (83.8) |
31.3 (88.3) |
25.0 (76.9) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 25.2 (77.4) |
24.3 (75.7) |
21.1 (70.0) |
17.0 (62.6) |
13.3 (55.9) |
10.7 (51.3) |
10.2 (50.4) |
11.5 (52.7) |
14.4 (57.9) |
17.3 (63.1) |
20.6 (69.1) |
22.9 (73.2) |
17.4 (63.3) |
| Average low °C (°F) | 16.5 (61.7) |
16.0 (60.8) |
13.1 (55.6) |
9.3 (48.7) |
6.6 (43.9) |
4.5 (40.1) |
3.8 (38.8) |
4.5 (40.1) |
6.7 (44.1) |
9.1 (48.4) |
12.4 (54.3) |
14.4 (57.9) |
9.7 (49.5) |
| Record low °C (°F) | 6.3 (43.3) |
6.8 (44.2) |
4.2 (39.6) |
−1.6 (29.1) |
−5.1 (22.8) |
−6.1 (21.0) |
−5.4 (22.3) |
−5.6 (21.9) |
−3.7 (25.3) |
0.1 (32.2) |
2.3 (36.1) |
4.2 (39.6) |
−6.1 (21.0) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 18.1 (0.71) |
17.8 (0.70) |
11.4 (0.45) |
17.8 (0.70) |
16.9 (0.67) |
19.1 (0.75) |
17.9 (0.70) |
21.3 (0.84) |
26.2 (1.03) |
28.8 (1.13) |
23.4 (0.92) |
20.5 (0.81) |
239.1 (9.41) |
| Average precipitation days (≥ 0.2 mm) | 3.0 | 3.0 | 3.3 | 4.3 | 6.7 | 9.5 | 10.1 | 9.1 | 7.2 | 6.9 | 6.2 | 4.9 | 74.2 |
| Average afternoon relative humidity (%) | 22 | 25 | 29 | 34 | 44 | 52 | 51 | 42 | 37 | 29 | 26 | 24 | 35 |
| Average dew point °C (°F) | 5.3 (41.5) |
6.6 (43.9) |
6.0 (42.8) |
5.2 (41.4) |
5.8 (42.4) |
5.6 (42.1) |
4.6 (40.3) |
3.1 (37.6) |
3.5 (38.3) |
2.3 (36.1) |
3.4 (38.1) |
4.2 (39.6) |
4.6 (40.3) |
| Mean monthly sunshine hours | 341.0 | 288.4 | 297.6 | 255.0 | 204.6 | 168.0 | 182.9 | 222.0 | 254.2 | 291.4 | 297.0 | 331.7 | 3,133.8 |
| Source 1: Australian Bureau of Meteorology Renmark Aero[24] | |||||||||||||
| Source 2: Australian Bureau of Meteorology Mildura Airport (sunshine hours)[25] | |||||||||||||
References
- "Search results for 'Renmark, LOCB' with the following datasets selected - 'Suburbs and localities', 'Counties', 'Hundreds', 'Local Government Areas', 'SA Government Regions' and 'Gazetteer'". Location SA Map Viewer. South Australian Government. Retrieved 11 February 2019.
- Australian Bureau of Statistics (28 June 2022). "Renmark (Urban Centre and Locality)". Australian Census 2021.
- "GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES ACT 1991, Notice to Assign Boundaries and Names to Places (to areas within the District Council of Renmark Paringa)" (PDF), The South Australian Government Gazette: 1433, 16 March 2000, retrieved 11 February 2019
- "Electoral district of Chaffey". Electoral Commission SA. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
- "Electoral division of Barker" (PDF). Australian Electoral Commission. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
- "River Murray Towns: Renmark". SA Memory. State Library of South Australia. 31 March 2010. Retrieved 30 December 2021.
- "River Navigation Improvement". South Australian Register. Adelaide. 28 October 1885. p. 5. Retrieved 3 July 2012 – via National Library of Australia.
- Brady, Maggie (30 December 2021). "How Australia's biggest wine-growing region came to pioneer alcohol control". The Conversation. Retrieved 30 December 2021.
- Rails into Renmark Shields, Brian Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin, February, 1999 pp43-51
- "History in the Renmark Paringa District". Renmark Paringa Council. Retrieved 13 January 2017.
- "Renmark Hotel". South Australian Heritage Register. Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources. Retrieved 28 May 2016.
- "Renmark Irrigation Trust Office". South Australian Heritage Register. Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources. Retrieved 28 May 2016.
- "Renmark Post Office (Place ID 106138)". Australian Heritage Database. Australian Government. Retrieved 15 May 2019.
- "Renmark Distillery Bridge (The first pre-stressed concrete bridge constructed in South Australia) [Concrete Girder]". South Australian Heritage Register. Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources. Retrieved 28 May 2016.
- "Olivewood Site, including dwelling ('Olivewood'), Chaffey packing shed, palm trees lining driveway, olive grove and garden". South Australian Heritage Register. Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources. Retrieved 28 May 2016.
- "Paringa Bridge over the River Murray [Metal Vertical Lift]". South Australian Heritage Register. Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources. Retrieved 28 May 2016.
- "Murray River National Park". National Parks and Wildlife Service South Australia. 15 November 2021. Retrieved 19 March 2022.
Text may have been copied from this source, which is available under a Attribution 3.0 Australia (CC BY 3.0 AU) licence. - Murray River National Park (PDF) (Map). Government of South Australia, National Parks and Wildlife Service South Australia. 2020.
- Wikipedia citation "Our Venture". Renmark Pioneer. South Australia. 16 April 1892. p. 3. Retrieved 20 March 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
- "About us". Murray Pioneer. Retrieved 20 March 2022.
- Crystal Ja; AAP reporters (13 September 2009). "Eclectic mix honoured on Australia Day". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
- Bradbrook, Sam (18 March 2022). "Push to rename Murray River island after iconic Aboriginal musician Ruby Hunter". Australia: ABC News. Retrieved 19 March 2022.
- "The Members of the Contingent". South Australian Register. Vol. LXV, no. 16, 601. South Australia. 27 January 1900. p. 9. Retrieved 2 July 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
- "Renmark Aero". Australian Bureau of Meteorology. Retrieved 5 June 2022.
- "Mildura Airport". Australian Bureau of Meteorology. Retrieved 13 December 2022.
External links
- Town map (2011), showing Renmark, Paringa and Paringa Paddock, with Goat Island
- The Age travel guide – Renmark (2004)