The Riverina is an agricultural region of south-western New South Wales, Australia. The Riverina is distinguished from other Australian regions due to the combination of flat plains, warm to hot climate and an ample supply of water for irrigation. This combination has allowed the Riverina to develop into one of the most productive and agriculturally diverse areas of Australia. Bordered on the south by the state of Victoria and on the east by the Great Dividing Range, the Riverina covers those areas of New South Wales in the Murray and Murrumbidgee drainage zones to their confluence in the west. Home to Aboriginal groups for over 40,000 years, the Riverina was originally settled by Europeans in the mid-19th century as a pastoral region providing beef and wool to markets in Australia and beyond. In the 20th century, the development of major irrigation areas in the Murray and Murrumbidgee valleys has led to the introduction of crops such as rice and wine grapes. Major population and service centres in the Riverina include the cities of Wagga Wagga, Albury and Griffith. Albury and Wagga Wagga are home to campuses of Charles Sturt University, the only local provider of higher education for the region.
Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riverina
_________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1896:
Glasgow Subway, the third oldest below-ground metro system in the world after the London Underground and the Budapest Metro, began operations in Glasgow, Scotland.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasgow_Subway)
1911:
Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and his team became the first people to reach the South Pole. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Amundsen)
1918:
The German Empire's defeat in World War I, and the stated fact that none of the Allies would ever accept a German-born prince as the King of Finland, led Frederick Charles to renounce the throne. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Frederick_Charles_of_Hesse)
1962:
NASA's Mariner 2 became the world's first spacecraft to successfully fly by Venus. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariner_2)
1995:
The Dayton Agreement was signed in Paris, France to end the Bosnian War. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dayton_Agreement)
_______________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
coda (n)
1. (*music*) A passage which brings a movement or piece to a conclusion through prolongation. 2. (*linguistics*) The optional final part of a syllable, placed after its nucleus, and usually composed of one or more consonants. 3. The conclusion of a statement.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/coda)
______________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
I had determined to go as far as declaring in abstruse and puzzling utterances the future causes of the "common advent", even those truly cogent ones that I have foreseen. Yet lest whatever human changes may be to come should scandalise delicate ears, the whole thing is written in nebulous form, rather than as a clear prophecy of any kind. --Nostradamus (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nostradamus)