Taggerty River


The Taggerty River, a minor inland perennial river of the Goulburn Broken catchment, part of the Murray-Darling basin, is located in the lower South Eastern Highlands bioregion and Northern Country/North Central regions of the Australian state of Victoria. The headwaters of the Taggerty River rise on the northwestern slopes of the Yarra Ranges, below Lake Mountain and descend to flow into the Steavenson River near.

Location and features

The river rises below Lake Mountain on the northwestern slopes of the Yarra Ranges, part of the Great Dividing Range, within the Yarra Ranges National Park. The flows generally west, through rugged national park as the river descends, joined by one minor tributary, before reaching its confluence with the Steavenson River near the settlement of Marysville. The river descends over its course.
Much of the catchment area of the river was destroyed by the Black Saturday bushfires that passed through the area on 7 February 2009, destroying almost all of the man made infrastructure and causing extensive damage to the forest in the area.

Etymology

The river derives its name from the Australian Aboriginal Taungurong word taggarty. It is recorded that Aborigines used to gather a blue pigment or clay on the banks of the Taggerty River and use the stain on their bodies.
It is believed that the lower reaches of the Steavenson River, from the confluence of the Taggerty River with the Steavenson River, at the locale of Vic Oak, until the river mouth near Buxton, may have been initially named as the Taggerty River, until the Steavenson was officially named.