North of the Murray: A brand for the NSW side of the Murray

Federation Council’s destination brand for the NSW side of the Murray: a page for each of six places, on ATDW Products, instant search, trails and What’s On.

Visit northofthemurray.com.au

Client: Federation Council
Region: New South Wales
Launched: 2026
Edition: Tourism Edition
Recognition: Gold, 2026 Sydney Design Awards

North of the Murray - Home page hero: ‘More to life’ in white serif over a couple walking in a river red gum forest

The challenge

Federation Council owns and manages the North of the Murray brand for the New South Wales side of the river: the river towns of Corowa, Mulwala and Howlong, and the plains that run north through Urana and Oaklands to a scatter of grain-country villages. The site’s own About page puts the position plainly: “We curate the ‘other side’ of the river, where there is more to see, do, and learn.”

That is a geography problem before it is a design problem. The brand had to make the region easy to place and give each town its own way in, and the website had to carry that idea structurally: show what is here in a way a first-time Visitor can hold, then send them on to the Operators who make the trip (the distiller, the houseboat, the lakeside café), within a council tourism team’s time and budget.

North of the Murray - Region map: navy illustrated map of North of the Murray with Urana highlighted in purple beside a photo card — The region map with Urana selected: six places, each with a page of its own.

What we built

A place-led structure

The information architecture starts with place. The Discover menu and the home page grid give six entries the same prominence: Corowa & Surrounds, Howlong, Mulwala & Surrounds, Urana, Oaklands and the Rural Villages. Every one opens on a full-width hero and an introduction in the brand’s unhurried voice, carries See & Do Product cards, and closes with links to the other five places. Each is then built to the depth its place can carry. Corowa’s shows the fullest build (Eat & Drink, the great outdoors, See & Do, a walk through history, What’s On and Stay), while Oaklands, “the perfect place to unhitch and stay a while” for caravanners, keeps to See & Do and camping highlights.

A Visitor who lands on Mulwala reads about waterskiing, wakeboarding and “paddling through the iconic flooded gums”; one who lands on Urana reads about a township “perfectly positioned between the Murrumbidgee and the Murray Rivers”, with the Lake Urana precinct and the aquatic centre at its heart. Corowa calls itself the Birthplace of Federation, and its page leads with heritage trails and grand architecture before its whisky distillery and chocolate makers. The Rural Villages page names all ten, Balldale to Boree Creek, home to some of the region’s biggest grain producers. Every page ends with a link to the next place.

North of the Murray home page, captured top to bottom — northofthemurray.com.au home page, full length

Five ways to see and do

Across the places sits a second axis: five See & Do pillars that match how people visit. History & Heritage. Nature & Wildlife, with wetlands, birdwatching, parks and reserves. Arts & Culture, home to the Shearing the Rams, Sculpture and Mural trails. Outdoor Activities, covering walking and cycling, water, fishing and sport. And Eat & Drink: restaurants and cafés, wine, spirits and produce, markets, country pubs and clubs. Stay is split into four plain categories (caravan and camping through to resort and luxury), with houseboats and a boatel among them.

The Shearing the Rams Trail shows the editorial depth. Tom Roberts sketched at Brocklesby Station in 1888, and the trail walks a Visitor through four stops from the Corowa Visitor Information Centre to the Corowa Federation Museum, with directions, drive times and a downloadable guide. Maps & Guides collects ten self-guided trail and touring guides, five town maps and the official visitor guide as PDFs for the glovebox.

The platform underneath

Operators appear as Products. ATDW-sourced Products stay current on their own (descriptions, imagery, contact details and, where an Operator offers one, a booking link) alongside Products the council adds itself. Each Product page places the Operator on a location map, carries a gallery and tags its facilities and activities. Where the visit crosses the river, so does the site: the Lake Mulwala Product is tagged “Border NSW/VIC”, Tuileries at De Bortoli’s Rutherglen estate has a Product of its own, and the Rutherglen Wine Show shares a What’s On with Corowa’s own events, because Visitors do not stop at the border.

What’s On runs as live event cards, from the monthly Corowa Rotary Federation Farmers and Variety Market to Music on the Murray at St Leonards Vineyard, with a monthly calendar to download. Instant search sits in the header. A blog carries the brand’s longer stories (“Golden Hours, Simple Pleasures”, “Winter Reclaimed”, “Family Discovery”), and a newsletter sign-up closes every page.

AI Discovery is on by default, as on every Roam site: northofthemurray.com.au publishes its own llms.txt, with quick facts, accommodation, attractions, food and drink, events, trip planning and FAQs laid out for AI assistants to read.

North of the Murray - Where to Stay carousel with cards for Heritage Motor Inn, Howlong Old Post Office and Lake Mulwala Boatel — Where to Stay: a motel, an old post office and the Lake Mulwala Boatel as Products in one carousel.View all 6 images

The outcome

North of the Murray launched in 2026, with the region’s geography as the site’s structure: the river in the south, the plains to the north, and six named places, each with its own Operators. The council marked the launch on its own website: “We’ve reimagined the way you plan your escape,” it wrote, and the new site is “packed with inspiration to help you unplug, recharge and rediscover river and lake life”.

For a rural council’s team, the platform shows itself in the details: a wine show from across the border shares a What’s On with the town’s cruise nights and its art prize, and every feature Roam builds for another destination arrives here too, with no rebuild to fund.