Ulupna History Guide: Yorta Yorta Country, Old Runs And River Towns

Why A History Weekend Suits Ulupna

Ulupna is not a town in the usual sense. There is no main street, no row of shops and no visitor centre. It is a rural district on the Victorian side of the Murray between Strathmerton, Cobram and Tocumwal, and its character comes from the river, the forest and a century and a half of farming.

That is exactly why a history-minded trip works so well here. Instead of looking for attractions, you read the landscape: the anabranch that made Ulupna Island, the sand hills where early settlers built, the irrigation channels that changed the district after the Second World War, and the railway towns that grew up to carry cream, cheese and fruit to market.

Spring adds something extra. The weather is mild enough for time outdoors without the heat of a Murray summer, the river country is green, and a couple of seasonal events nearby give a reason to come in October and November rather than waiting for the holidays.

Start With Yorta Yorta Country And The River

Long before any pastoral run was drawn on a map, this stretch of the Murray was, and remains, Yorta Yorta Country. The Yorta Yorta Traditional Owner Land Management Board describes the life source and spirit of Yorta Yorta people as centring on the land along the Murray River, which they know as Dunghala, in the Murray Goulburn region. You will also see the name written as Dhungala or Dhungalla on park maps and local signs.

That connection is not only historical. In 2010 the Yorta Yorta community and the State of Victoria agreed to develop a Joint Management Plan for Barmah National Park, the red gum forest that stretches downstream from Ulupna. According to the board, that outcome followed a long history of attempts by Yorta Yorta people to have a say in the management of their traditional land, with claims going back to the 1970s and 1980s.

Parks Victoria states that it respects the deep and continuing connection Yorta Yorta Traditional Owners have to Barmah National Park and recognises their ongoing role in caring for Country. For a visitor, the practical meaning is simple: this is living cultural landscape, and the scar trees, middens and old camp sites that survive along the river deserve the same respect you would give any heritage site.

Victorian Places notes that the name Ulupna was probably derived from an Aboriginal word of uncertain meaning. Tocumwal's name, according to Aussie Towns, likely comes from a word meaning deep hole, linked to the landmark known as the Blowhole. Place names like these are a quiet reminder, on every road sign, of who named this country first.

River Red Gums: The Oldest Things You Will See This Weekend

If you only look at one thing closely on an Ulupna stay, make it the river red gums. Parks Victoria says these trees can reach 45 metres and live for more than 500 years. That means some of the big trees on the river flats were already standing when the first sheep came through in the 1840s.

Red gums are also shaped by water. Parks Victoria explains that they need periods of flooding and can survive inundation for months. The forest you see downstream in Barmah exists because the river spreads out across low country when it runs high, and the sand hills that sit above flood level have always been prized ground, for camps, for homesteads and later for simple river shacks.

Red gums drop limbs without warning, especially in heat or after wind. Do not linger, picnic or park directly beneath large overhanging branches, and keep children back from the base of old trees during windy weather.

Ulupna Island And Ulupna Creek: How The Landscape Was Made

The district's name survives most clearly in Ulupna Creek, an anabranch of the Murray River. Victorian Places explains that the land between the creek and the river forms Ulupna Island, and that the western part of the island contains a State forest reserve where a 1995 survey identified Aboriginal archaeological sites.

Parks Victoria lists several Ulupna Island camping areas on its Barmah National Park page, including Carters Beach and Labbets Beach. From Bob's River House, the listing gives Carter's Beach as about 6 minutes by car, with Point Beach about 5 minutes and Ulupna Beach about 13 minutes. These sandy bends are easy places to see the river country up close without a long drive.

The same Parks Victoria page says most tracks and visitor sites in Barmah National Park are open, but that some areas remain inaccessible to motorised vehicles after recent flooding. Check the current park page before heading down any forest track, and never drive into water over a track.

From Mundy's Run To Boyd's Strathmerton

European history at Ulupna starts with sheep. According to Outback Magazine's history of Ulupna Island Station, a settler named Mundy established the Ulupna run in 1840. Two years later the run was acquired by Benjamin Boyd, one of the best-known and most ambitious pastoralists of the era.

Victorian Places records that Boyd renamed the run Strathmerton: "strath" is Gaelic for a wide river valley, and "Merton" refers to his father's residence in Scotland. So the town you drive through 12 minutes from the house carries the name of a Scottish family home, while the older name, Ulupna, stayed attached to the creek, the island and the river district.

For decades, Outback Magazine notes, Ulupna Island operated as a sheep station before cattle, irrigation and cropping came later. The island station later passed through several owners, and today 40 hectares of it is protected through a Trust for Nature agreement, according to the same article.

Selectors, Creameries And A School: Ulupna's Village Years

The big runs began to break up once land selection opened the district to small farmers. Victorian Places says intensive settlement at Ulupna began in the 1870s, with farming, timber harvesting and fishing all part of the local economy.

A school opened in 1884. The district was described as a dairying district of small holdings, and at various times it had a hotel, a creamery and two schools. By the 1911 census Ulupna had 373 residents, which is hard to picture today when you look across the quiet paddocks.

The decline came gradually. Victorian Places explains that farms were consolidated and the area contracted, the Ulupna school closed in 1953, and the census population had dropped to 74 by 1961. Many small rural districts along the Murray followed the same path as tractors, irrigation and larger farms replaced the family dairy with a dozen cows.

Coonanga Homestead: A Slab House From The 1870s

One building from the selection era survives in unusually good shape. Coonanga Homestead, at 575 Bearti-Mywee Road, Strathmerton, is listed on the Victorian Heritage Database as one of the largest timber slab homesteads in Victoria.

The database records that in May 1874 Currie completed construction of a sawn timber slab house, and it highlights refined sawn horizontal slab work and unusual interior stud framing. The homestead was donated to the Numurkah Historical Society in 1976, which has managed it since.

Public access is not stated on the heritage listing, so contact the Numurkah Historical Society before planning a visit and do not enter the property without permission. Even without going inside, the homestead is a useful anchor for understanding the farming story you are driving through.

Strathmerton: Railway Town And Cheese Country

Strathmerton is the nearest town to Ulupna, about 12 minutes from Bob's River House by car. Victorian Places says the township emerged in 1887 ahead of the railway extension from Numurkah. A hotel had already operated for about a decade after the 1870s selections, a primary school opened in 1886, and a Wesleyan church and a mechanics' institute followed around 1889.

The bigger change came after the Second World War. Irrigation reached the district in the late 1940s and early 1950s, and Kraft Foods opened a dairy factory at Strathmerton in 1950. Victorian Places records that it grew from 35 suppliers to 215 by 1992 and produced Philadelphia cheese and 90 per cent of the Coon cheese made by Kraft. Bega Cheese acquired the factory in 2008.

For a modern stop with plenty of character, Cactus Country sits on the Murray Valley Highway at Strathmerton. Visit Victoria lists it at 4986 Murray Valley Highway, open Wednesday to Sunday from 10am to 5pm, with adult entry of $25, seniors $22.50, children aged 5 to 15 at $10 and a family ticket at $70. Melbourne Playgrounds notes a collection of more than 10,000 cacti and succulents and says flowering peaks in October and November, which makes the next few weeks a well-timed visit. Confirm hours and prices on the official site before you go.

Cobram: A Pastoral Station, A Punt And A 1902 Bridge

Cobram, about 19 minutes from the house, has the clearest town history in the area. Victorian Places says the name is believed to come from an Aboriginal word meaning head, as Cobram was the principal pastoral station in the district, and that Octavius Phillpotts established the Cobram station in 1845.

The town itself arrived with the railway. Township sites were sold in 1887 and the railway terminus at Cobram was built in 1888. Aussie Towns lists the Masonic Lodge (1888), the Cobram Hotel (1892) and a house built in 1887 for James Grant among the older buildings, so a slow walk around the town centre shows how quickly it grew once the line opened.

Before 1902, crossing to Barooga meant a river punt. The old Cobram-Barooga Bridge, built between 1900 and 1902, was a timber truss lift-span bridge that could raise its central span for river traffic. A new road bridge was built beside it in 2006, and the old bridge was added to the NSW State Heritage Register in 2016. It is worth seeing from the riverbank, but check local signage for current access before walking onto it, as parts of the old footway decking have been removed.

Cobram's modern identity is fruit and dairy. Victorian Places connects post-war growth to the Hume and Yarrawonga weirs built in the 1930s, and notes orchards, mainly peach, pear and apple, on three sides of the town. The Cobram Peaches 'N Cream Festival began in 1973. The same source records that the Murray Valley Soldier Settlers' League resolved to establish a dairy goods factory in Cobram, which led to the formation of the Murray Goulburn Co-operative.

Thompsons Beach: Cobram's River History Meets A Modern Day Out

Cobram's river frontage is where the town's history and modern holiday life meet. Aussie Towns describes Thompsons Beach as Australia's largest inland beach, with wide sandy beaches, towering gums, native bushland, play areas, barbecue facilities and evening floodlighting.

The same source notes Quinn Island Wetland Sanctuary with birdlife and walking trails, and Cobram Regional Park with about 470 hectares of river red gums. These are good places to see the same red gum and river environment you have at Ulupna, but with more facilities for a family afternoon.

River conditions change through spring. Check the current water level, flow and any council notices, supervise children closely near the water, and remember that snags and cold currents can sit just below the surface even on a calm day.

Tocumwal: River Port, Big Cod And A Border Crossing

Tocumwal, across the river in New South Wales and about 23 minutes from the house, sits outside the close-in area but is worth the drive for its history. Aussie Towns records that a river ford was established near present-day Tocumwal by the 1850s, that Edward Hillson's land purchase in 1860 helped start the town, and that the Tocumwal Hotel was built in 1861.

The town became a border customs depot and a river port for shipping Riverina produce, and by the 1890s it was already a riverside holiday destination. The historic bridge dates from 1895, and the railway arrived in 1908, requiring the bridge to be strengthened.

The Big Murray Cod on the foreshore, erected in 1968 according to Aussie Towns, is the town's most photographed landmark. Visit NSW describes it as celebrating the prized local catch, and the Tocumwal Foreshore Park around it is a pleasant place for a coffee and a stroll along the river.

Visit NSW also notes the Tocumwal Blowhole and the Rocks, a granite outcrop north of town that is a significant Aboriginal site. Visit it quietly, stay on formed paths and treat it as a cultural place rather than a playground.

Tocumwal's Wartime Airfield And The Aviation Museum

The most surprising chapter of local history is in the sky. According to The Senior's report on the museum, the Tocumwal airport was established as an air force base in 1942 and at the time was the largest in the southern hemisphere. Aussie Towns adds that the United States commissioned it as a heavy bomber base, and that it later became RAAF Station Tocumwal, training Liberator bomber crews.

Much of what happened there was secret at the time. The same article records that everything going on at the base was either secret or top secret, and that much of the story was not widely known even after the war. The RAAF continued to use the base until 1960, and during the 1950s it was also used for crop dusting and commercial services.

The Tocumwal Aviation Museum, at 205 Burma Road, tells that story. Its website lists regular operating hours from 10am daily, which may vary with staff and volunteer availability. Admission is listed at $15 for adults, $10 for DVA or pension card holders and children aged 6 to 16, and $45 for a family of two adults and up to three children. Inside there is an exhibition gallery, a display hangar with a rotating selection of historic and vintage aircraft and a scale model of a B-24 Liberator, a cinema showing historic films, and a Memorial Hall honouring the 18 service personnel who lost their lives while serving at Tocumwal during the Second World War. The 'Drome Lounge serves drinks, cakes and slices.

Visit NSW also describes Tocumwal as a renowned gliding destination, so on a clear spring day there is a good chance of seeing gliders over the airfield while you are there.

A Self-Guided Heritage Loop From Ulupna

The loop below keeps the driving short and follows the story in order. It works as one full day or can be split across two mornings.

Morning: The River And The Red Gums

Start on the riverbank. Walk the frontage, look at the red gums and the sand hill country, then take the short drive to Point Beach or Carter's Beach (about 5 and 6 minutes by car). This is Yorta Yorta Country and the landscape the first runs were drawn across.

Late Morning: Strathmerton

Drive about 12 minutes to Strathmerton. Look at the railway town layout and the dairy factory that shaped the district after 1950, then spend an hour at Cactus Country if it is open that day.

Lunch And Afternoon: Cobram

Continue to Cobram for lunch. Walk the older part of town, see the old Cobram-Barooga Bridge from the riverbank and finish at Thompsons Beach or Quinn Island.

Optional Second Day: Tocumwal

Give Tocumwal its own morning. Visit the Aviation Museum, then the Big Murray Cod and the foreshore, and come back to the house for a long afternoon by the river.

What Is On Nearby In October And November

A heritage weekend does not need an event, but a few dates are worth knowing about for the next couple of months.

Visit NSW also lists the Cobram Lions Club Log Cabin Community Market from 31 October. Community markets often change dates with the weather, so check the organiser's page before you go.

Why Bob's River House Suits A History Weekend At Ulupna

Bob's River House is a fitting base for this kind of trip because it is part of the story. The owners explain that their Great Uncle Bob once farmed this land and had a simple shack on the sand hill here in the 1950s, which is the same decade the Ulupna school closed and the Strathmerton cheese factory changed the district. The family purchased the property in January 2026 to reconnect with that piece of their history.

The listing describes absolute Murray River frontage on approximately 6.5 hectares, with direct river access, established lawns running towards the water and mature trees throughout. That puts the red gums and the river, the first chapter of this guide, right outside the door rather than at the end of a drive.

For evenings, there is a river-facing verandah with elevated water views, a BBQ and outdoor dining for 12, and a fire pit with a waterside picnic table seating up to 8. Inside, the open-plan living area has a wood fire and a 75-inch Smart TV, and there is a book nook with swivel seating, which suits a group that likes to talk over the day's finds or read up on the district.

Practical details matter too. The listing notes that the jetty is not currently available for guest use and that the outdoor areas are not fenced, so families with young children should plan supervision near the river. You can see the full details on the Bob's River House listing.

How A Group Of Up To 12 Can Share A Heritage Weekend

History trips often work best with a mixed group, because not everyone has to love every stop. The listing describes a main house plus a separate unit, sleeping up to 12 across two queen beds and two bunks in the main house, and a queen bed and pull-out sofa bed in the unit.

That split is useful. Grandparents or a couple can take the unit, which has its own ensuite, laundry, dining area for four and a 50-inch TV, while families use the main house. One part of the group can head to the Aviation Museum while another stays by the river, and everyone meets again at the verandah for dinner.

The kitchen has an oven, cooktop, microwave, fridge, freezer and coffee machine, and the main dining area seats eight, so a big shared meal after a day out is straightforward. Linen, towels and basic toiletries are supplied according to the listing.

Before You Leave Home: Your Ulupna Heritage Check

Plan Your Ulupna Stay

Ulupna's history is best explored slowly: an hour by the river, a morning in Strathmerton or Cobram, a museum visit in Tocumwal and long evenings back on the verandah. Staying on the river itself means the oldest part of the story is right outside the door.

To check dates and details, visit the Bob's River House page or head to book your stay with WTP Holiday Homes. For more local ideas, browse the WTP holiday home guides.