The town of Barham straddles the Murray River to form the commercial centre for an area rich in tourism and agriculture. It has also been an important river centre for the once busy paddle steamer trade that abounded along the length of the Murray. A number of paddle steamers and barges were built from locally milled Red Gum. The area is also renowned for the significance of the Barmah Forest wetlands, attracting international recognition as one of the ten most important wetlands in the Murray-Darling Basin.