According to official locality records used by Local and State Government, Nichols Point is a somewhat triangular shaped area bounded by Cowra Avenue, Eleventh Street and the Murray River. Nichols Point has a thriving community and is home to a dynamic primary school, general store and post office, recreation reserve and the popular tourist attraction Woodsies Gem Shop. It is also where you will find Kings Billabong Park, one of the most beautiful natural attractions in the region. The 2,153 hectare site borders a wide stretch of the Murray River and features a network of wetlands, abundant birdlife and is sheltered by a canopy of majestic river red gums. 

 Kings Billabong and local history enthusiast Marjorie Donnellan says a permanent population of hermits and fishermen settled in the area more than a century ago. But the first signs of modern civilisation came in 1889 when pumping stations were built at Psyche Bend, Kings Billabong and Nichols Point as part of George and WB Chaffey’s irrigation scheme for the region. According to Andrew C Ward’s The Desert Blooms, which recounts the history and development of the City and Shire of Mildura, the ‘Billabong’ system comprised of three pumping stations. The Psyche Bend Pumping Station elevated water from the river to Kings Billabong; the Billabong Pumping Station then pumped it to the Nichols Point station where it was dispersed to blocks throughout the region via a network of unsealed irrigation channels and other pump systems.

 “After the pumping stations were built, many workers’ cottages were built nearby,” Marj said. Two gorgeous little red brick homes stand side by side in Cooke Street, Nichols Point and offer a glimpse into the area’s early days. “There are a few different versions going round about what these houses were originally built for, but the Mildura and District Historical Society’s book Driving History states that the Chaffey’s erected some of them for pump engineers around the 1890s. One was also apparently the Customs House.” 

 As the population of irrigators in Nichols Point increased, so too did the need for services. A primary school was opened for 42 students in May 1892. Classes were initially held in a ‘bough shelter’ structure before the school moved into the Methodist Church in July of the same year. This site, on the corner of Fifth Street and Koorlong Avenue was used until 1907 when classes moved into a newly built brick building across the road. The Nichols Point Post Office opened in 1908.