About Shepparton, VIC

Shepparton () (Yortayorta: Kanny-goopna) is a city located on the floodplain of the Goulburn River in northern Victoria, Australia, approximately 181 kilometres (112 mi) north-northeast of Melbourne. As of the 2021 census, the estimated population of Shepparton, including the adjacent town of Mooroopna, was 53,841.It began as a sheep station and river crossing in the mid-19th century, before undergoing a major transformation as a railway town. Today it is an agricultural and manufacturing centre, and the centre of the Goulburn Valley irrigation system, one of the largest centres of irrigation in Australia. It is also a major regional service city and the seat of local government and civic administration for the City of Greater Shepparton, which includes the surrounding towns of Tatura, Merrigum, Mooroopna, Murchison, Dookie, Toolamba and Grahamvale. == Toponymy == The name of Shepparton is derived from the surname of one of the area's first European settlers, Sherbourne Sheppard, and not, as is sometimes imagined, from Shepperton, England.The Yorta Yorta name for the area is 'Kanny-goopna' with 'goopna' meaning 'deep waterholes by which people camped'. The name for the junction of the Broken and Goulburn rivers is 'Marangan', meaning deep pond or lagoon in an unknown Eastern Kulin language.Colloquially (and not inconsistent with the Australian propensity for name-shortening or diminutives ), the city is also known as "Shepp" (), as adopted by community entities that incorporate the abbreviated form into their name. eg. The Shepparton Agricultural Society "Sheppshow".For example: "Are you going to Shepp for the holidays?" "I'm off to Shepp for work." "My family comes from Shepp." "I'm a Shepp town boy" Hip Hop group Shepp Town Boy — Young Ugess == History == Prior to the European settlement of Australia, the area was inhabited by the Yorta Yorta, the indigenous Australian people whose country covers the junction of the Goulburn and Murray Rivers in present-day northern Victoria and southern New South Wales. The town of Shepparton and surrounds are on the country of the Kailtheban clan of the Yorta Yorta nation.Surveyor General Thomas Mitchell was the first European to be recorded traveling through the area, crossing the Goulburn River in 1836 on his return to Sydney from an expedition to survey the Darling River and its tributaries. On Mitchell's recommendation, Joseph Hawdon and Charles Bonney would follow two years later, camping on the town site by the Goulburn River in 1838 while droving cattle from Albury to Adelaide.The first permanent settlement in the area was the "Tallygaroopna" sheep station, established in the early 1840s.