Murray Bridge, South Australia, Australia

🇦🇺 Murray Bridge is a city in the Australian state of South Australia, located 78 km east-south-east of the state's capital city, Adelaide, and 77 km north of the town of Meningie. The city is the fifth most populous city in the state.

The city is called Pomberuk by the traditional owners of the land, the Ngarrindjeri people. It was later known as Mobilong and later as Edwards Crossing, before being renamed as Murray Bridge in 1924, deriving its name from the then Murray River road/rail bridge crossing over the Murray River. The city is situated on the Princes Highway, the main road transport link between Adelaide and Melbourne.

The city services a farming area including dairy, pigs, chickens, cereal crops and vegetables.

History Murray Bridge is in the traditional lands of the Ngarrindjeri people, who refer to Murray Bridge as Pomberuk. The first European explorer was Charles Sturt, who camped there on 8 February 1830.

The first road bridge across the lower Murray was known as The Murray Bridge and completed at Edwards's Crossing in 1879. To distinguish this bridge with the many other bridges that cross the Murray River, this bridge is known as the Murray River road bridge, Murray Bridge. The bridge became a shared road and rail bridge in 1886 until the separate rail bridge was completed in 1925. The bridge was designed for 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) rail track gauge though in actuality, only 1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in) gauge trains ever used it.

The District Council of Mobilong was established in 1884, bringing local government to the township, then known as Mobilong, and the surrounding land within the Hundred of Mobilong. By 1923, the council had absorbed the southern two-thirds of the neighbouring Hundred of Burdett across the river, the Hundred of Ettrick further east, and part of the Hundred of Brinkley to the south. The Mobilong township by then had its own ward. The township seceded from Mobilong council in 1924, calling itself the Corporate Town of Murray Bridge, effectively renaming the township.

In 1920, there was a picture theatre in Murray Bridge known as the Lyric Theatre, leased by Dan Clifford Theatres. At that time, audiences were dwindling owing to only silent films being able to be shown, but there were plans to upgrade to enable screening of "talkies".

In 1977 the two local councils recombined as the District Council of Murray Bridge.

In 1979 the Swanport Bridge, carrying the South Eastern Freeway across the Murray River was completed 5 km (3 mi) downstream, removing most through traffic from the historic road and rail bridge.

In 1993 the local municipal council crossed a population threshold, enabling it to be declared a city, the Rural City of Murray Bridge. The bounded locality of Murray Bridge remained the majority population centre and seat of the city council.

Murray Bridge contains a number of heritage-listed sites, including the Murray Bridge Transport Precinct, listed on the South Australian Heritage Register.

Geography: Location Murray Bridge is located 76 km south-east of Adelaide and is the population centre of the Murraylands region. The city has an urban area of 97.5 km2, making up 5.3% of the Rural City of Murray Bridge council area of 1,832 km².

Water Situated along the Murray River, the river is the lifeblood of the city and surrounding areas. The river flows into nearby Lake Alexandrina and Lake Albert. Adelaide receives 55% of its water supply from the Murray on average. In the 1982/83 drought, 90% of Adelaide's supply was pumped from the Murray. The "Iron Triangle" industrial area receives 90% of its water from the Murray.

Suburbs Suburbs within the city include Northern Heights, Murray Bridge North, Murray Bridge East, Murray Bridge South, Riverglades, Gifford Hill, and Avoca Dell.

Murray Bridge also has a number of unofficially named neighbourhoods including: Westside, Southside, Birdsville (also known as Bird Cage, due to the streets being named after birds), Pathways, and Narooma Waters. The latest development to Murray Bridge includes a new estate called Newbridge.

The city used to have a number of neighbourhoods, now part of the wider Murray Bridge township, these included: Hornsey Park, Bridgeport, Riverview, Murray Bridge Estate, Murray Gardens, Totness Park, Dunoon Park, Morningside, South Mobilong, Kerkanya, Ruglea Park, Sladdentown, Glenview, Westland, Slade Park, Rundleville, Railway Land, Myrleville, Ritterville, Riverdene, Hawkelea, Murray Bridge Extension, Pine Park, Laneville, Murray Park, and Esmond Park. Some of these names have been retained as streets, parks or businesses.