Murray River

Distinguished and Famous people from Murray River

⛴️ James Maiden

James Maiden helped develop the colonial settlement at Moama through the practical business of getting people and stock across the Murray. After working at Perricoota Station, he established a punt and an inn at a useful crossing point. The settlement was initially known as Maiden’s Punt. His enterprises served drovers and travellers moving towards Victorian markets, linking the riverbank to wider pastoral trade. Competition from crossings on the opposite bank later changed the commercial picture. The developing colonial town occupied Yorta Yorta Country, with a much longer history of life along the river.

📐 Ernest de Burgh

Engineer Ernest de Burgh designed the bridge linking Barham and Koondrook across the Murray, opened in October 1904. Its central lifting span allowed river traffic to pass, while composite timber-and-steel approach trusses carried road users towards it. The design had to accommodate two forms of transport sharing the same crossing, a problem rather more demanding than simply laying a road over water. De Burgh worked for the New South Wales Public Works Department; this is a professional connection, preserved in a major piece of regional infrastructure. His name also identifies the characteristic truss design used in the bridge.