Shepparton

Shepparton (/ˈʃɛpərtən/) is a city located on the floodplain of the Goulburn River in northern Victoria, Australia, approximately 181 kilometres (112 mi) north-northeast of Melbourne. According to the 2011 Census, the population of the locality was 29,553, while the population of the entire Shepparton-Mooroopna urban centre was 42,741.

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.

Toponomy

The name of Shepparton is derived from the surname of the town's first European settler, Sherbourne Sheppard, and not, as is sometimes imagined, from Shepperton, England.