Both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people appreciated the beauty of rivers.

Rivers were also boundaries, often demarcating the territory of different Aboriginal clan groups.

This picture was taken in 1872 on the Loddon River. Before colonisation the Loddon River was lived on and managed by the Dja Dja Warrung (Upper Loddon) and Wemba Wemba (Lower Loddon) speaking peoples. Colonisation had a rapid impact in Central Victoria and by the 1870s few Aboriginal people remained living tribal lifestyles on their traditional land.

In 1872 a Dja Dja Wurrung man known as ‘Tommy Clarke’ or ‘King Tommy’, whose tribal name was Yereep or Equinhup, was the last known tribal inhabitant of the Upper Loddon river area. He adapted to settlement and lived alongside the gold miners and farmers, and was known locally as “the last King of the Loddon.” A newspaper report of September 1871 notes he brought his bark canoe to the celebrative festive opening of the Laanecoorie Bridge on the Loddon.  [1]  

[1] ‘Laanecoorie Bridge’, Tarnagalla Courier, 30^th September 1871.