The Whimera

The Whimera is a regional inland district in Victoria's West, predominantly characterized by dry flat farmlands. The 278 kilometer intermittent river that bears the same name passes through the region's unofficial capital city of Horsham. It winds west and then continues north to Antwerp, a tiny up-back town named after the Belgian home city of an early European settler. In the 1860s, two Protestant missionaries arrived in Antwerp and to build a church and mission where they aimed to convert the local indigenous population. Ralph Volmer had emigrated to Australia with his family when he was a teenager. He worked as a farmhand and performed odd jobs before meeting his first wife