Wimmera Southern Mallee (region)

Wimmera Southern Mallee Region Victoria
Mount Arapiles rises above the flat Wimmera plain.
Population	54,645 (2011 census)[Note 1]
• Density	1.302219/km2 (3.37273/sq mi)
Area	41,963 km2 (16,202.0 sq mi)[Note 2]
LGA(s)	Shire of Hindmarsh Rural City of Horsham Shire of Northern Grampians Shire of West Wimmera Shire of Yarriambiack
Region	Grampians
State electorate(s)	Lowan Ripon
Federal division(s)	Mallee
Localities around Wimmera Southern Mallee Region: Murray Mallee Mallee Loddon Limestone Coast Wimmera Southern Mallee Region Goldfields Limestone Coast Western District Central Highlands

The Victorian government's Wimmera Southern Mallee subregion^[1] is part of the Grampians region in western Victoria.^[2] It includes most of what is considered the Wimmera, and part of the southern Mallee region. The subregion is based on the social catchment of Horsham, its main settlement.

The Wimmera district covers the dryland farming area south of the range of Mallee scrub, east of the South Australia border and north of the Great Dividing Range.

Most of the Wimmera is very flat, with only the Grampians and Mount Arapiles rising above vast plains and the low plateaux that form the Great Divide in this part of Victoria. The Grampians are very rugged and tilted, with many sheer sandstone cliffs on their eastern sides, but gentle slopes on the west.

The Wimmera does not include the southern Mallee area in the north part of the Shire of Yarriambiack (around Hopetoun). It does include the southern part of the Shire of Buloke, which is not part of the Victorian government's aforementioned subregion (around Wycheproof, Birchip, Donald and Charlton). This latter area, plus the St Arnaud area, makes up the East Wimmera region.^[3][4]

In the context of the Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia, the Wimmera is a sub-region of 2,145,380 hectares (5,301,300 acres) located within the Murray Darling Depression bioregion.^[5]

The Wimmera is one of the nine districts in Victoria used for weather forecasting by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.^[6][7]

The Victorian Department of Environment and Primary Industries defines the Wimmera as a 30,000-square-kilometre (12,000 sq mi) region for agricultural production purposes encompassing the Buloke, Hindmarsh, Horsham City, Northern Grampians, West Wimmera and Yarriambiack local government areas.^[8]

The Victorian Government's Wimmera Catchment Management Authority^[9] serves the catchment of the Wimmera River, and that of the Yarriambiack Creek south of the Mallee.

The Shire of Wimmera originally covered a large part of the Wimmera and southern Mallee, but retracted over time to cover only land near Horsham. It was later abolished, with most of being becoming part of the Rural City of Horsham.

The federal government Division of Wimmera originally covered roughly the same area as the Division of Mallee does today, but ended its life covering only the Wimmera area.

At the 2011 census, the six local government areas (LGAs) that are thought to comprise the Wimmera had a combined population of 54,645. The area of these same six LGAs is 41,963 square kilometres (16,202 sq mi).

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