Bit of history about the 2 towns
In 1845, Maiden established a punt & an inn on the northern side of the Murray, in an area soon known as Maidens Punt. The area became known as Moama in 1851.
Henry Hopwood had been convicted for receiving stolen silk & sentenced to 14 years transportation.
After two stints as a policeman, he arrived on the southern side of the river in 1850 & set up a rival punt & pub in 1853
The site became known as Echuca in 1854, a term meaning "meeting of the waters".
The town's links had been forged, however, when Maiden & Hopwood were sentenced on the same day in the same court in Lancashire in 1834. Hopwood the more enterprising of the former convicts. His suggestion of a river port formed the basis of the river trade which was paramount to the economic development of the nation, opening up inland Australia for settlement.
Echuca soon became Australia's largest inland port & was even nominated as a possible national capital in 1891
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