However, just downstream of Barmah the Murray winds to the south and east for a short distance before resuming its westward course.

The flood is enhanced by the geological features of the riverbed, as the channel narrows at an area known as the Barmah choke.

Trade picked up later, with the expansion of the railway network and a new sawmill was opened by R. Evans, who shipped the sawn timber to Echuca on his steamboat, the Edwards.

[5] The geography at Barmah is explained by a geological event that occurred 25,000 years ago, when an uplift of land along the Cadell Fault forced the Murray River onto a new course for 500 km.

[6] The uplifted land that led to these changes is noticeable as a continuous, low, earthen embankment along the road leading into Barmah from the west, which may appear to the untrained eye as man-made.