Shire of Wimmera

The Shire of Wimmera was a local government area in the Wimmera region of western Victoria, Australia. The shire covered an area of 2,611 square kilometres (1,008.1 sq mi), and existed from 1862 until 1995. Although its shire offices were located in Horsham, Horsham was governed by a separate city council.

History

Wimmera was incorporated as a road district on 3 March 1862, and became a shire on 4 March 1864. It was originally a very large district, including a significant portion of Walpeup, plus Arapiles, Dimboola, Dunmunkle, Kaniva, Kowree, Lowan, centred on the town of Horsham. By 1900, all of these areas had severed and separately incorporated, and Wimmera's boundaries remained largely unchanged for over 90 years.

On 20 January 1995, the Shire was abolished, and merged with City of Horsham, most of the Shire of Arapiles and part of Kowree into the Rural City of Horsham. The section within Grampians National Park became part of the Shire of Northern Grampians, whilst the Kewell West and Wallup districts joined the Shire of Yarriambiack.

Wimmera

The Wimmera is an ill–defined district, sometimes incorrectly referred to as an economic region, of the Australian state of Victoria. The district is located within parts of the Loddon Mallee and the Grampians regions; and covers the dryland farming area south of the range of Mallee scrub, east of the South Australia border and north of the Great Dividing Range. It can also be defined as the land within the social catchment of Horsham, its main settlement.

Most of the Wimmera is very flat, with only the Grampians and Mount Arapiles rising above vast plains and the low plateaux that form the Great Divide in this part of Victoria. The Grampians are very rugged and tilted, with many sheer sandstone cliffs on their eastern sides, but gentle slopes on the west.

In the context of the Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia, the Wimmera is a sub–region of 2,145,380 hectares (5,301,300 acres) located within the Murray Darling Depression bioregion. The Wimmera is one of the nine districts in Victoria used for weather forecasting by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. The Victorian Department of Environment and Primary Industries defines the district as a 30,000-square-kilometre (12,000 sq mi) region for agricultural production purposes encompassing the Buloke, Hindmarsh, Horsham City, Northern Grampians, West Wimmera and Yarriambiack local government areas.