| Historical notes: | STATEMENT OF COUNTRY
Wooden Wicket - Berembed Weir Site is located on the Murrumbidgee River on Wiradjuri Country (AIATSIS, 2016), and associated with the Narrungdera clan (NSW Government, 2026). Berembed derives from a Wiradjuri word meaning 'heap of rocks' (City of Wagga Wagga 2021). Wiradjuri are known as the people of the three rivers including the Murrumbidjeri/Murrumbidgee, Kalari/Lachlan and Wambooll/Macquarie. Wiradjuri use of the riverine environment includes the traditional construction of fish traps to both catch and manage fish stocks (Extent Heritage 2025). Despite the impacts of colonisation, including the 1840 Narrandera massacre (Gapps 2025), Wiradjuri people remain one of the largest Aboriginal communities in NSW and maintain strong continuing connection to Country.
MURRUMBIDGEE IRRIGATION AREA
Settlement along the Murrumbidgee River began in the 1820s, but efforts to establish farms on the floodplains were thwarted by cycles of drought and flood. Irrigation efforts in NSW were small in scale and privately funded, with no coordination across individual sites. The understanding of hydrology in NSW was not sophisticated at this time, with very little government led evidence gathering or research (Engineers Australia, Heritage Committee of Sydney Division 1999).
The Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area commenced in 1903 with the construction of canals west of Narrandera and construction of Burrinjuck Dam in 1906. These constructions preceded work on the Murray irrigation system, making it the first large scale irrigation area in Australia. The Barren Jack Dam and Murrumbidgee Canals Construction Act 1906 was passed to authorise building of the new dams, weirs and canals, and also to create the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Trust to administer and collect revenue for the scheme. This was one of the first major public works projects in NSW after federation and was embraced as a reflection of Australia's image as a land of opportunity and equality. Low rainfall had made large farming blocks a necessity, whereas irrigation would allow for closer settlement on smaller parcels of land (State Library of NSW 2013, Murray Darling Basin Authority 2025, Extent Heritage 2024).
The first phase of the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area was on the northern side of the river. Here the government divided land into small irrigation blocks, and migrants and returned servicemen were encouraged to take up farming land. New towns of Leeton and Griffith were created, and the poet Henry Lawson was appointed by the Premier as the publicity officer for the new irrigation communities in 1916-1917 (Narrandera Shire, 2023).
The state government funded investment in town and industrial infrastructure, but farmers struggled to find successful crops for their small blocks. There had been experiments in the 1880s and 1890s to show what might be grown on an irrigated farm, and efforts had concentrated on various fruits. Yanco Experiment Farm was established in 1909 to test the suitability of crops. They started experimenting with rice in 1915, initially using Japanese varieties provided by Victorian farmer Isaburo Takasuka. A Royal Commission into the operation of the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area in 1916 recommended larger farm sizes (although still not nearly as large as the pre-irrigation pastoral lots) (Liston 2019, O'Gorman, 2013).
NSW Department of Agriculture representatives travelled to California and in 1920 recommended Californian varieties of rice. The plantings of medium grain Caloro rice in 1922-24 was so successful that the Water Conservation and Irrigation Commission encouraged farmers to grow rice and reducing the price of water. By 1933-1934 rice was grown on 20,500 acres producing 40,290 tons. The success of rice was particularly important because it could be grown on the shallower clay soils and mixed with other crops (Liston 2019, O'Gorman, 2013).
BEREMBED WEIR
Berembed Weir is one of a number of weirs built throughout the early to mid-20th century along the Murrumbidgee River to service the region. It was one of the first elements constructed under the Barren Jack and Murrumbidgee Canals Construction Act 1906 and remains as one of the earliest key components in the development of the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area. Developed in conjunction with Burrinjuck Dam, the construction of Berembed Weir between 1907 and 1911 was a major public works initiative championed by the NSW Government for the control and flow of water from the Murrumbidgee River to irrigate agricultural land. Berembed Weir forms part of a group of historic water assets associated with this early development of the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area (Extent Heritage 2024).
The weir was designed to divert water from the Murrumbidgee River into the newly built Main Canal via an offtake regulator. The weir was designed and its construction supervised by the Rivers, Water Supply and Drainage Branch of the Department of Public Works, including notable engineers Ernest Macartney de Burgh and Chief Engineer Leslie Augustus Burnton (known as L.A.B.) Wade.
Berembed is likely to be a Wiradjuri word meaning 'a heap of rocks'. It was where the low hills near the river stood well above the flood levels and a solid granite bar extended under the riverbed and banks, making it an ideal location for a weir. It was also seen as a suitable experiment before attempting to control the Murray River. Unlike the Murray, the Murrumbidgee River was located within NSW state boundaries, so there was not the issue of cross border rivalries and issues to contend with (NGH Environmental 2013).
Over the course of its construction, an average of 500 men worked day and night shifts, six days a week. Labour was structured by the day labour principle, which defines the starting and ending hours for a worker's 'day', an early adoption of this practice in NSW public works. Workers employed on the project lived in temporary accommodation (tents, bag huts and bark roofed slab houses) on the sand hill (Extent Heritage 2024).
THE BEREMBED WOODEN WICKETS
The Berembed wicket is the only surviving example of 55 collapsible wooden gates originally incorporated into the Berembed Weir on the Murrumbidgee River between Wagga Wagga and Narrandera. The wickets or gates are known as 'Chanoine weir wickets', a weir system that was invented in France by Jacques Chanoine in 1852 and adapted for Australian river conditions by NSW Department of Public Works engineers. The wickets were constructed in 1910 at the NSW government owned Fitzroy Dock located on Cockatoo Island in Sydney to form part of the weir to manually control river flows and divert water into the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area.
The dam wicket system and hydraulics were considered to be technically innovative at the time, for the precise control of water and flow diversion that they facilitated and the use of Australian tallowwood which could survive for long periods underwater without deteriorating. The wickets were reported to be of exceptional quality (Sydney Morning Herald, 26 March 1910).
The original intention was that the wickets at Berembed should tip automatically with a rising river. This idea was abandoned and the wickets were raised manually from a punt, working on a wire rope stretched across the river immediately above the weir. This meant that operating and repairing the dam was more dangerous to workers than other types of dams, especially in difficult weather conditions (Irrigation Record Leeton 1917; Schroder 2022).
The wickets were replaced in 1976-1977 during a weir upgrade that replaced the manual system with automation. The timber wickets were replaced with fixed concrete which extends across the southern two-thirds of the river's width.
This single wooden wicket was the sole example retained. It was mounted on a concrete plinth with interpretive material in the picnic area of Berembed Weir. On 23 September 1977, a bronze plaque was unveiled by Alan Robert Lindsay (known as Lin) Gordon, Minster for Conservation and Water Resources (1970-1984). |