Birriwa

Birriwa Valley was a traditional home to Megafauna dating to the Miocene epoch, a period of mass extinction of species. The fossils discovered in this region prove that the area was once a temperate, mesic rainforest and that life was rich and abundant.

Its geology dates from the Devonian era. The contained source, encased in granitic and Cenozoic sedimentary rock, is part of a Paleozoic rock aquifer, bordering a quaternary colluvial and quaternary alluvium formation in the Lachlan Fold Belt.

 For over a hundred and fifty years, residents and visitors to the historic Birriwa Homestead have espoused the virtues of its water, drawn from a traditional water source in a corner of the garden. First European records of the area date from the 1840s, when the early explorer William Lawson discovered this verdant valley. However, across many thousands of years, it was a crossroads for Indigenous Australians' traditional boundaries. Its terrestrial waters and the freshwater middens are witness to it as a traditional meeting and camping place.

In the second half of the 19th century, the Homestead became a stopping post in the Australian Cobb and Co mail and transport network. Travelers could stay overnight in the (still standing) ‘strangers rooms’. Their horses and drivers were spelled and refreshed from the same ancient artesian source Birriwa Water is drawn from today.

Awards