Loddon River

BIRD: linking the biodiversity community

The middle Loddon above the weir at Bridgewater.

Winding through the plains: the Loddon near Serpentine.

The lower Loddon splits into many smaller channels.

The Loddon River drains a substantial portion of central Victoria. The Loddon rises near Trentham (80 km north-west of Melbourne, roughly half-way between Daylesford and Woodend) and flows north for about 320 kilometres, eventually joining the Murray system north of Kerang.

The Loddon has a catchment area of 15,320 km², stretching from the relatively well-watered highlands around Daylesford, through gently rolling country to the north and west, to the dry expanses of the northern Victorian plains. Major population centres in the catchment include Bendigo, Daylesford, Castlemaine and Maryborough. These four centres account for roughly half of the total catchment population of 133,000.

In the south, the terrain is a hilly patchwork of tall eucalypt forest and cleared land primarily used for grazing. Average rainfall can be as high as 750 mm per year. In the central part of the catchment, the terrain is rolling, mostly cleared, and rainfall is lower. The Loddon is joined by its major tributary, Tullaroop Creek, at Laancoorie Reservoir, east of Donolly. The two major artifical water storages in the Loddon Catchment, Lake Cairn Curran and the Tullaroop Reservoir, were constructed during the 1950s. Both in this central part of the catchment.

North of Laancoorie Reservoir the terrain becomes flat and the Loddon flows on through the northern Victorian plains toward the Murray, passing through the townships of Newbridge, Bridgewater on Loddon, Serpentine, and Kerang. Average rainfall is around 400 mm, and because the landform is so flat there is very little runoff. North of Serpentine, the stream divides into a number of distributaries.

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Loddon River

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