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
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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)
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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)
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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)