Coleambally

Heritage buffs shouldn't expect too much of Coleambally as history is pretty thin in these parts south of the Murrumbidgee River.

And that is not all that surprising considering that Coleambally didn't come into existence until June 1968 - a little known fact that makes this town of 600 the youngest in the state.

The town was purpose built in the 1960s to serve as the administrative centre for the Coleambally Irrigation Area, which covers 87,600ha of cropping land producing rice, vegetables, grain, sorghum, safflower and soya beans.

About an hour's drive south from Griffith, Coleambally has a small, but modern shopping centre. The drag line displayed in Lions Park is one of four imported from the United States in 1935 to dig the main irrigation channels in the Murray Valley.

They were subsequently used in much of the regional irrigation excavations and, in 1958, began gouging out the waterways for the Coleambally system.