It is bounded by the River Murray[note 1] on its north and west sides and the Victorian border on the east.

[3] A village settlement was established at Murtho, 2–3 miles (3–5 km) upstream of Renmark (on the opposite bank) in the 1890s as a socialist colony.

[4] The Village Settlements established under Part VII of the Crown Lands Amendment Act 1893[5] were mostly used by unemployed people seeking a fresh start during an economic depression.

This was initially seen as an advantage, as the land sloped away from the banks, thus easier to irrigate[8] but the double-acting plunger pump used to raise water to this height was expensive, inefficient, and could barely cope with 20 feet (6.1 m) of suction lift during "normal" low river levels, and failed utterly when the river dropped further.

Further, the cost of transporting provisions and produce by river was exorbitant (dearer per ton than from London to Adelaide); and rabbits, which bypassed wire netting fences by scaling the cliffs, took much of the crops.