The Murray around Barham was settled by graziers, mainly from Victoria, in the 1840s. By 1850 all the really desirable water-frontages on both sides of the Murray had been taken up as far upstream as Barham while the open plain to the north in New South Wales was only notionally divided into undeveloped backblocks. Barham station itself (named after the maiden name of the wife of the first grazier, E. B. Green, had a frontage on the Murray, carrying a modest head of cattle in the mid-Victorian period under a series of owners. With similar developments on the Loddon River, which converges with the Murray north of Barham, a crossing of the Murray was needed and a ferry was provided for stock and people.
