Wednesday, Mar 30, 2005 at 18:45
Hi Glenn
I to was calling it the Murray based on the same info you have until recently a number of things happened to point out that the majority of maps are actually listing the river under the wrong name.
The name Indi is actually the aboriginal name for whats now being called by some as The Upper Murray.
The first was an employee of mine who was a resident of Khancoben for many many years and when I spoke about
Tom Groggin he said straight away that it was not the Murray, that the locals still call it by it's proper name the "Indi" and that the Murray does not start officially until the bridge on the Corryong - Khancoben Rd.
In fact if you look in this area you will still see the Indi Road runs along the river.
The second thing was a group of surveyors from Vic Lands Dept,
Melbourne Uni, Parks Victoria and associated others interested people recently relocated and completed the survey of the spring that marks the begining of the river. It is also marks the west end of the Black - Allan line which is the straight bit of the Victorian border.
This line had not been properly re surveyed since Black & Allan did the work ex number of hundred years ago apparently so it was in need of re survey.
They located and marked the spring with a cairn and a
rock line in accordance with proper survey practice.
The second part of the survey is to properly name the spring and the most likely name being suggested is the "Indi Spring" named for the river it supplies. It is expected that this name will be ratified by Survey Vic shortly.
The third point is the wilderness area near the Buckwong
camp area south of
Tom Groggin called the Indi Wilderness area, named after the river it borders.
I was up there a couple of weeks ago and one guy in our group who was using Ozi Explorer had the map with the name "Indi" marked.
The river is marked on some maps correctly but as time has passed then it obviously seems easier to place only one name on the map and so the Murray has taken precident.
Probably a little sad in some respects that a little part of local history seems to be slowly lost by current practice maybe if the spring is confirmed as the Indi Spring in name then it will prompt some proper name applications elsewhere.
An article on this spring was in the Melb Age last November I think, good story about the whole survey issue.
A couple of other small points is the Murray distance swim always starts at the above mentioned bridge as the official start of the
Murray river.
And if you do a web search on say Alta Vista for the name "Indi" you will find numerous items references to the Indi River, especially for canoe and kayak web sites.
Just an interesting little point of history I think and one that is not
well known by most of us, if it is called The Murray for ever and a day
well so be it I won't lose any sleep over it, but it is still a misnomer.
Cheers
John
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