Victoria. Scots of the Riverina, a poem written by one of Australia's most renowned writers, Henry Lawson, is set in Gundagai. The poem describes a father's anger at his son's desertion at harvest time and later his grief when the son dies in battle in World War I. Hay and Hell and Booligal, written by Banjo Paterson, is a humorous take on life on the flat western Riverina plan. Today, major cultural institutions in the Riverina include the Museum of the Riverina, the Riverina Theatre Company and the Wagga Wagga Art Gallery, all located in the regional centre of Wagga Wagga with outreach to the smaller towns. Many regional towns including Hay, Deniliquin and Gundagai house museums of significant regional interest. The HotHouse Theatre group, based in Albury takes live theatre to small towns throughout the Riverina. The tiny town of Morundah holds an annual night at the opera, hosting performances by OzOpera and the Victorian Opera. Popular music groups from the Riverina include one of Australia's most distinctive and popular bands of the '90s and 2000s, Spiderbait who come from the southern Riverina town of Finley. The Riverina is currently home to two major regional LQBTQIA+ festivals, the Hay Mardi Gras established in 2018 and the Wagga Mardi Gras established in 2019. Notes References External links IBRA regions Newell Highway Regions of New South Wales Biogeography of New South Wales