Murchison
There used to be riverboats in Murchison when it was an inland port like Echuca with steam-powered boats moving goods up and down the Goulburn and along the Murray. It was once a busy town, the crossroad between the Bendigo and Ovens gold rushes, a place of two flour mills, blacksmiths, butchers and drapers. When the trains came, the river traffic stopped and Murchison became a quiet rural town. Today that boom era of wealth and growth remains in its legacy of once grand old pubs, fine churches, colonial-era state schools, and other stately buildings.
Flowing alongside the main thoroughfare of Stevenson Street is the Goulburn River, a quiet but powerful force meandering through the river gum forest and surrounding farmland. This mix of bush and heritage makes Murchison such an inviting place. Ancient river gums stand opposite historic hotels and quiet bush tracks head out into gold mining country. This is also the home of a world-famous meteorite, and some would say the equally famous Bakery and Tearoom, wines of Longleat and flowers by Avonlea. Get among it all, and the scenery of the rail trail, in beautiful Murchison.
Murchison Meteorite
In the spring of 1969, a great green flash was seen in the sky above Murchison, followed by a mighty boom. Locals thought it could be the RAAF. Scientists knew it was a meteorite. Soon the town was awash with boffins searching for pieces of the space rock. Amino acids found in fragments of the Murchison Meteorite helped form the theory that life on Earth came from outer space. Replicas of newspaper clippings in Meteorite Park help retell the story.
Murchison Heritage Centre
A sliver of the 4.6 billion-year-old Murchison Meteorite sits in a glass case surrounded by the town's history, including artefacts of the Indigenous people who lived in the area and those who were moved to the Aboriginal Protectorate on the edge of town. There are also records of the river port boom days and artworks from prisoners interned in the region’s World War Two prisoner-of-war camps.
