Waikerie - Culture and History

Prior to European settlement the area was probably inhabited by the Yuyu Aborigines. It is from their language that the town's name derived some sources believing that it means 'many wings or birds' or 'anything that flies'. The river provided abundant food and they lived well off a diet of kangaroos, emus, wombats, goannas, lizards, ducks, turtles, fish, snakes and bird eggs.

The first European into the area was Captain Charles Sturt who, being assigned to solve the great mystery of why so many rivers flowed westward from the Great Dividing Range (often known as the question of whether Australia had an 'inland sea') rowed a whale boat down the Murrumbidgee in late 1829 and reached the junction with the Murray River on 14 January 1830. He continued down Australia's largest river passing the site of modern day Waikerie and commenting on the grandeur of the cliffs in the area. He reached Lake Alexandrina, at the mouth of the river, on 9 February, 1830.

From this point onwards there was always the thought that the Murray River could be used for transportation and access to the western areas of New South Wales and Queensland. However it wasn't until the formal establishment of Goolwa as the port at the mouth of the Murray in the 1850s that this became a reality.

Because of the steepness of the cliffs Waikerie was never seriously considered as a Murray River port. It was not until the 1880s that people started moving into the area. In 1882 W.T. Shepard established the Waikerie station. His son has written: 'A pine hut was then the only building on the spot. Waikerie means 'anything that flies' or is a word that indicates a favourite spot for wildfowl ... he sank and equipped the first well. It is still known as Shephard's Well. He purchased the engine in Melbourne, and the whole concern cost him £1000. The natives called the well Marananga, meaning 'my hand', because the water could be drawn up by hand.

The township was established as an experiment in decentralisation (and partly to solve unemployment in Adelaide) when, in 1894, a readymade town of 281 people arrived in a paddlesteamer. Fortunately the experiment worked. By the end of the first year 3400 vines, 7000 lemon and 6000 stone fruit trees had been planted. By 1910 the township was named Waikerie (after the station) by Governor Bosanquet and by 1914 the farmers were so committed to their success that the first meeting of the Waikerie Co-Operative Fruit Company (later to become the Waikerie Producers Co-Operative) was held. Today the company has one of the largest fruit processing operations in the southern hemisphere.