Patho

Patho is a rural locality on the Murray Valley Highway, about midway between Echuca and Cohuna. It has a mixture of irrigated and dry farming on the Patho Plain.

The Patho district was taken up as the Gunbower and Torrumbarry pastoral runs in 1845 and 1842 respectively. In the 1870s the runs were partially subdivided for farm selections. One of the earliest local institutions was the Methodist chapel opened in 1876, which in the following year was also used as a school. Known as Gunbower Creek, the school was named Patho in 1888. It is thought that Patho was an Aboriginal name for a lagoon.

During the 1880s the Cohuna Irrigation Trust and water from the Kow Swamp were used for small irrigated holdings. Later they were supplemented by pumping from creeks. Substantial irrigation came with the construction of the Torrumbarry Weir during 1919-24. Patho was used as a transport depot for weir constructions materials by having a narrow gauge railway from Patho, which was on the Elmore-Cohuna railway (1915). Ultimately the weir irrigated all the Patho farms north of the Murray Valley Highway. The main activity is the grazing of dairy and meat cattle.

Patho’s census populations have been:

The school closed in 1979.