Wagga Wagga ( ; informally called Wagga) is a major regional city in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. Straddling the Murrumbidgee River, with an urban population of more than 57,003 as of 2021, it is an important agricultural, military, and transport hub of Australia. The ninth largest inland city in Australia, Wagga Wagga is located midway between the two largest cities in Australia—Sydney and Melbourne—and is the major regional centre for the Riverina and South West Slopes regions.
The central business district is focused around the commercial and recreational grid bounded by Best and Tarcutta Streets and the Murrumbidgee River and the Sturt Highway. The main shopping street of Wagga is Baylis Street which becomes Fitzmaurice Street at the northern end. Wagga is accessible from Sydney via the Sturt and Hume Highways, Adelaide via the Sturt Highway and Albury and Melbourne via the Olympic Highway and Hume Highway. Wagga is in an alluvial valley and much of the city has a problem with urban salinity.
The original inhabitants of the Wagga Wagga region were the Wiradjuri people. In 1829, Charles Sturt became the first European explorer to visit the future site of the city. Squatters arrived soon after. The town, positioned on the site of a ford across the Murrumbidgee, was surveyed and gazetted as a village in 1849 and the town grew quickly after. In 1870, the town was gazetted as a municipality.
During the negotiations leading to the federation of the Australian colonies, Wagga Wagga was a contender for the site of the capital for the new nation.Morris, p. 115. During World War I, the town was the starting point for the Kangaroo recruitment march. The Great Depression and the resulting hardship saw Wagga Wagga become the centre of a secession movement for the Riverina region. Wagga Wagga became a garrison town during World War II with the establishment of a military base at Kapooka and Royal Australian Air Force bases at Forest Hill and Uranquinty. After the war, Wagga Wagga was proclaimed as a city in 1946 and new suburbs were developed to the south of the city. In 1982, the city was amalgamated with the neighbouring Kyeamba and Mitchell Shires to form the City of Wagga Wagga local government area.
Geography
Wagga Wagga is at the eastern end of the Riverina region where the slopes of the Great Dividing Range flatten and form the Riverina plain. Wagga straddles the Murrumbidgee River, one of the great rivers of the Murray–Darling basin, and the city centre is on the southern bank, protected by a levee from potential flooding.
Wagga sits halfway between the largest cities in Australia, being 452 kilometres southwest of Sydney and 456 kilometres northeast of Melbourne with the Sydney–Melbourne railway line passing through. The Sturt Highway, part of Australia's National Highway network, passes through Wagga on its way from Adelaide to its junction with the main Sydney–Melbourne route, the Hume Highway, a further 45 kilometres east.
This location astride some of Australia's major transport routes has made Wagga Wagga an important heavy truck depot for a number of companies, including Toll Group. Wagga Wagga itself is the major regional centre for the Riverina and for much of the South West Slopes regions, providing education, health and other services to a region extending as far as Griffith to the west, Cootamundra to the north and Tumut to the east.
Landform and salinity
Wagga Wagga is upstream from the Riverina plain in the mid-catchment range of the Murrumbidgee River in an alluvial valley confined by low bedrock hills. Much of Wagga Wagga is on heavy clay soils in a large drainage basin with a small catchment discharge point. Groundwater therefore cannot leave easily, leading to Wagga Wagga having a problem with waterlogged soil and soil salination. Urban salination in Wagga Wagga is now the subject of a large multi-pronged approach to prevent further salination and reclaim salt-affected areas.
City and suburbs
The location of Wagga Wagga's Central business district was already well established by the late 1800s and remains focused around the commercial and recreational grid bounded by Best and Tarcutta Streets and the Murrumbidgee River and the Sturt Highway. The main shopping street of Wagga Wagga is Baylis Street which becomes Fitzmaurice Street at the northern end. The Wollundry Lagoon is the water focus of the city centre and has been a key element in the development and separation of the north (older) and south (newer) parts of the city centre.
Most residential growth in Wagga Wagga has been on the higher ground to the south of the city centre, with the only residential areas north of the Murrumbidgee being the flood prone suburb of North Wagga Wagga and the university suburb of Estella. Major industrial areas of Wagga Wagga include the northern suburb of Bomen and the eastern suburb of East Wagga Wagga.
Thomas Mitchell, the surveyor who served under Lord Wellington, named many of the streets after Peninsular War veterans.
Climate Wagga Wagga has a temperate climate with hot dry summers and cool to cold winters. Under the Köppen climate classification, the city has a humid subtropical climate (Cfa), with a semi-arid influence in its vegetation. At a latitude of 35 degrees and altitude of , Wagga Wagga has four distinct seasons.
Winters can be cold by Australian standards. The mean maximum temperature falls in July to and a mean minimum of . The lowest temperature recorded at Wagga was on 21 August 1982. The lowest maximum temperature was on 16 July 1966. Fog and heavy frosts are common in the winter; while snow is now a very rare occurrence, with the last significant snowfall on 17 August 1970 (though with several occurrences prior to that year).
Summers in Wagga Wagga are hot and dry, with mean maximum temperatures ranging between . The highest temperature on record was on 4 January 2020. Relative humidity is low in the summer months with a 3 pm average of around 30%. Wagga Wagga is considerably sunny with 124.3 clear days annually, averaging 8.1 sunshine hours daily or 2,961.5 hours annually (with the majority in the warmer months).
In 2009 the city recorded an anomalous maximum of , which was above the country's average of and the highest anomalous maximum in Australia for 2009. This preceded the early 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave, in which Wagga Wagga recorded 13 consecutive days over .
Wagga Wagga has a mean annual rainfall of per year. This rainfall is distributed fairly equally over the 12 months, with a slight peak in winter and spring. On 8 March 2010, Wagga Wagga Airport recorded of rain. This broke the previous all-time daily record of set on 16 March 1966, with of rain recorded at Gurwood Street in the city's CBD. In December 2010, the city recorded its wettest year on record and the first yearly rainfall recording of .
History
European settlement The original inhabitants of the Wagga Wagga region, who maintain a relationship with the area to this day, are the Wiradjuri people and the word wagga in the Wiradjuri language was thought to mean 'crow', so wagga wagga could be taken to mean 'the place of many crows'. Other interpretations had wagga to mean 'reeling' (a sick man or a dizzy man); 'to dance, slide or grind'. In August 2019, the City of Wagga Wagga dropped the definition 'crow' and adopted the city's Aboriginal meaning as 'dance and celebrations'. The new meaning was officially enshrined in the city's first Reconciliation Action Plan.
European exploration of the future site of Wagga Wagga began in 1829 with the arrival of Captain Charles Sturt during his expedition along the Murrumbidgee River.Morris, pp. 15–16. Settlers arrived shortly thereafter with Charles Tompson establishing the Eunonyhareenyha 'run' in 1832 on the north bank of the river, and also in 1832 the Wagga Wagga 'run' established by Robert Holt Best (died September 1853), His father, also named Robert Holt Best, died in 1833. on the south bank. Other settlers followed, all squatting illegally, but by 1836 the colonial government regulated the tenure of land and established a licensing scheme.Morris, pp. 17–20. Within a few years settlers' numbers increased greatly and before 1850 a local bench of magistrates and a place for holding petty sessions was established.Morris, pp. 33–34. The beginnings of a village formed near the ford used by most traffic passing through the area and included a crude blacksmith's shop, a hotel, and a post office. By 1849 the town was marked out by surveyor Thomas Scott Townsend and formally gazetted as a village.Morris, pp. 34–36.
Wagga Wagga grew quickly, reaching a population of 627 in 1861 and during that decade a number of hotels and stores opened, as well as professional services in the form of banks, solicitors, doctors and dentists.Morris, pp. 56–64. The Wagga Wagga Advertiser (today's Daily Advertiser) commenced publication in 1868. Until the 1860s most goods were transported to markets by bullock wagon. For a short time, the arrival of faster, cheaper and more reliable riverboats allowed goods to be transported more easily to export markets. The riverboat era ended when the New South Wales government extended the railway line to North Wagga Wagga in 1878 and across the river to Wagga Wagga itself in 1881.Morris, p. 76.
As in most rural towns Chinese people made a significant contribution as storekeeper, scrub clearers and in other occupations. As observed in 1879: "Chinamen seem to pervade everywhere. It is evident that the yellow agony doesn't annoy the good folks of Wagga Wagga much. Chinese cooks, Chinese 'boots' Chinese labourers, Chinese servants are everywhere. [...] Most of the 'ringing' on the surrounding runs and selections is in the hands of Chinamen, who, be it noted, have so far advanced in the civilisation of the west as to understand fully the advantage of a fair day's pay for a fair day's work. Chinese cheap labour is unknown here. The Celestial business establishments seem well patronised by Europeans as well as by their compatriots."Wagga Wagga Advertiser 26 March 1879, p.3
On 15 March 1870, Wagga Wagga was incorporated as a municipality and George Forsyth was chosen as the first mayor of Wagga Wagga. Gas lighting was installed throughout the streets of Wagga Wagga in 1881, although once again North Wagga Wagga was neglected. By 1885, a town waterworks and reservoir was established although water quality remained a problem. Poor sanitation caused a horrific stench in the town and was blamed for a large increase in infectious diseases such as typhoid fever in the 1890s and early 1900s. In 1908 the council approved a sewerage scheme and by 1914 most of the main streets were sewered. A free public library was opened in 1875 and the council began to establish parklands such as Bolton Park and the Town Hall Gardens.Morris, pp. 89–92.
In September 1859 local residents formed a committee for the construction of a pile bridge over the Murrumbidgee River. After the New South Wales Government refused to support this type of bridge the committee decided to finance it themselves. The bridge was completed in October 1862 and opened on 27 October at just over 91 metres long and 7 metres wide. In 1884 the New South Wales Government purchased the bridge and it was demolished in 1895.Morris, p. 78. In 1895 a truss bridge called the Hampden Bridge, was built across the Murrumbidgee River at Wagga. The bridge served the Wagga Wagga community for over 100 years until 16 August 2006 when it was closed and fenced off to the public due to the bridge being declared a safety risk after one of the trusses failed.The Daily Advertiser Hampden Bridge is falling down – Page 3–17 August 2006 In 2014 the Hampden Bridge was demolished.