Buffalo River
Buffalo River is a rural locality in north-east Victoria, situated on the western side of the Mount Buffalo plateau and 8 km south of Myrtleford.
The Buffalo River runs northwards from alpine areas between Mounts Despair and Selwyn and enters the Ovens River a few kilometres west of Myrtleford. It occupies an agriculturally rich valley about 2 km wide.
Farm selections were taken up along the Buffalo River in the early 1870s and a school was opened in 1875. Some farmers took irrigation water from a river tributary, Nug Nug Creek, which runs off the Buffalo plateau. The farm community maintained a population of around 200 people for most of 1900-60. In 1965 a dam was built on the Buffalo River for augmentation of water supply for Wangaratta and for farm irrigations in the Ovens Valley.
Buffalo River’s census populations have been:
| area | census date | population |
|---|---|---|
| Buffalo River | 1911 | 219 |
| 1954 | 183 | |
| Buffalo River and environs | 2006 | 568 |
| 2011 | 487 |
Farming accounted for 16% of employment, including 11.9% for non-cereal crops at the 2006 census. At the 2011 census, all farming accounted for 9.0% of employment.
Further Reading
Sydney S. Bell, Pioneers of yesteryear: history of the Buffalo River Valley, the author, 1993
