Prior to the 1830's, the aborigines enjoyed the benefits of the
Murray River and its environs, which provided an abundant food source,
and still does. The first white men in the area were most likely 
Charles
Sturt, who with 13 others, drove 300 head of cattle along the north
side of the river to South Australia, although the 'Sturt Memorial' is
on the south side of Cobram!
Squatters followed the explorers with Colonel Gwynne to Boomanoomana Station (80,000 acres) and George Hilas to Barooga Station (110,000 acres), while 10 kms east of the present Cobram, Octavius Phillpotts established ‘Cobram’ (120,000 acres). These holdings were legalized in 1847 but the next forty years were to see their break-up by Selectors with the Land Acts necessitated by the increased population after the Gold Rushes. By 1881, for example, ‘Cobram’ was 2,300 acres, and is now smaller with further subdivisions and the site of the 'Cobram Estate Olive Oil' plantation, an international exporter and an example of the continuing changes in agriculture.
For the farmers of the last decades of the 1800s, transport was a concern. The early produce was taken generally by bullock wagon to Avenel, Benalla or Shepparton or by river to Echuca. The coming of the train to Cobram in 1888 was a blessing. On the northern side growers could bring their produce by horse teamster to the river which could be used when dry, although N.S.W. growers had to face a Customs House on the Victorian bank until Federation in 1901. A punt was built in 1889 and in 1902 a bridge, which has now been superseded by the 2006 bridge.
The first signs of a town appeared for Cobram in 1887, spurred on by the coming of the railway in 1888. Barooga slowly developed from the 1890's onward. A major incentive to both areas was the coming of irrigation.
It
first appeared in 1892 with a windmill pumping water from the river to
a nearby orchard, while in 1907 a steam engine at 'Cobram' pumped water
to a large vineyard at 'Seven Hills'. In 1915 the Cobram Irrigation
Company was formed and a pump house built. The Hume and Yarrawonga
Weirs of the 1930's also proved a boost for agriculture in the area and
after World War II, the Soldier Settlement area west of Cobram lead to
a prosperous dairy industry, and the foundation of the
now-international Murray Goulburn Co-operative. In Barooga, a major
agricultural development had been the foundation of the 'Tarn Pirr'
vineyard by Seppelts and Son, more lately owned by Southcorp.
With the area's rich agricultural heritage and the growing number of excellent facilities in the Cobam-Barooga communities, the lure of the Murray River continues.
Members of the Cobram-Barooga Accommodation Group wish to acknowledge the following local organisations for their support:
