Vinifera

Vinifera is a rural locality on the Murray Valley Highway in the Swan Hill district, 5 km south-east of Nyah West. The name was derived from an expression related to a place where grapes are grown, signifying the grape growing and orcharding in the area. Agriculture depends on irrigation water pumped from the Murray River.

In 1909 settlers at Nyah succeeded in raising water over 20 metres above river level by pumping, beginning the Nyah Irrigation District. The gradual expansion of farming and improved irrigation led to the settlement of the Vinifera area, mainly by returned soldiers from World War I. A school was opened in 1924 and a public hall was opened a few years later. Whilst the settlement had little more than those facilities, a store and a post office, it was favoured by being on an elevated area overlooking the Murray River and is relatively frost free. It is still one of the more reliable grape growing areas.

Vinifera’s school closed in the early 1990s and its census populations have been: