Gundagai Macquarie Dictionary, Fourth Edition (2005). Melbourne, The Macquarie Library Pty Ltd. is a town in the Riverina of New South Wales, Australia. Although a small town, Gundagai is a popular topic for writers and has become a representative icon of a typical Australian country town. Located along the Murrumbidgee River and Muniong, Honeysuckle, Kimo, Mooney Mooney, Murrumbidgee and Tumut mountain ranges, Gundagai is south-west of Sydney. Until 2016, Gundagai was the administrative centre of Gundagai Shire local government area. In the , the population of Gundagai was 1,970. Material was copied from this source, which is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
History Indigenous The Gundagai area is part of the traditional lands of the Wiradjuri people, and there is considerable folklore in the area associated with Aboriginal cultural and spiritual beliefs. The floodplains of the Murrumbidgee, below the present town of Gundagai, were a frequent meeting place of the Wiradjuri. Their name for this place was Willeblumma meaning Possum Island (wille = possum, blumma = island) referring to the area of land enclosed by the Murrumbidgee River and Morleys Creek.
British explorers and colonists In November 1824, Australian-born Hamilton Hume and British immigrant William Hovell passed close to the spot where Gundagai now stands, near the future site of Tumut. Hovell recorded seeing trees already marked by steel "tommyhawks".Hovell, W.H. nyg. 'W.H.Hovell Papers' Frames 16-27, pages 20-42, CY Reel 529, Safe 1/32B (Database no. 37) Manuscript Collection, State Library of New South Wales
On 25 September 2011, the Right Reverend Trevor Edwards, Vicar General of the Anglican Church and Assistant Bishop of the Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn, dressed in traditional white mid-nineteenth century garb, led the commemorative church service for the 150th anniversary of the laying of the foundation stone of St John's Anglican (formerly Church of England), Church, Gundagai. Bishop Edwards noted that following on the path of the explorers "Hume and Hovell, the first Gundagai settlers found a wonderful land on which to establish a town, which was gazetted in 1838 but until 1850, relied on ministry from Yass".Gundagai Independent, Sheridan Street Gundagai, Thursday 29 September 2011, p.1.
A local settler named Warby is recorded as having "followed Hume and Hovell's tracks to the junction of the Murrumbidgee and Tumut Rivers" and having taken "up a pastoral lease of 19,200 acres ... at a rent of thirty-three pounds per annum. ... He called the property 'Minghee' later called 'Mingay'."Bell, O., 1979, 'Tales of Old Gundagai' by Oscar I. Bell, B.E.M. President of the Gundagai and District Historical Society, Published on the occasion of the Sturt Sesqui-Centenary, 1979, p.3. Bell says it was Ben Warby at Mingay but cites 67-78 below establish that it was William Warby, Ben Warby's brother At 'Minghee'/'Mingay'.
Charles Sturt travelled through the area in 1829 at the start of his voyage in search of an inland sea, then believed to exist in outback Australia. Sturt again passed through Gundagai in 1830, on the return leg of his journey, and returned in 1838 in company with the Hawdon and Bonney overlanding parties.Sturt, C. 1844 'Course of the Hume River, From the Hilly Districts to the Junction of the Morumbidgee', in "Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London", Vo. 14, pp.141-144 At the time of Sturt's 1829–1830 journey, he found several squatters in the district, all beyond the "limits of location": Henry O'Brien at Jugiong, William Warby at Mingay and the Stuckey brothers, Peter and Henry at Willie Ploma (the name of which is derived from the Wiradjuri word Willeplumma used to describe the area around what is now South Gundagai) and Tumblong. Peter Stuckey at Willie Ploma is regarded as the first British pastoralist to take up land in the true Gundagai region.
In April 1835, William Adams Brodribb junior moved to New South Wales and became a partner in a cattle station at Maneroo. In 1836, he overlanded the second draft of cattle to Melbourne. On returning from Port Phillip, Brodribb relocated to what later became the site of Gundagai. In August, Brodribb petitioned for a punt over the Murrumbidgee river near his Gundagai hut and, in January 1838, Deputy Surveyor General Samuel Perry reported, in reference to Gundagai, that "a better site could not have been chosen for a Town of the first class".
Lady Jane Franklin, the wife of the governor of Tasmania, Sir John Franklin, travelled through Gundagai on 27 April 1839 and noted Andrews' store and public house establishment, that had a neat verandah and shuttered hut.Russell, P. (ed.), (2002), 'This Errant Lady, Jane Franklin's Overland Journey to Port Phillip and Sydney, 1839, National Library of Australia, Canberra, 2002, p.76.
Edward John Eyre, Australian explorer and later Governor of Jamaica, left Sydney in late 1838 in an effort to find a practical route to overland stock to Adelaide, and then on to open communication between Adelaide and West Australia.EYRE, Edward John – Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand Eyre left the Limestone Plains near today's Canberra with stock on 5 December 1838. On reaching the Murrumbidgee River at Gundagai, Eyre, accompanied by two aboriginal youths, Yarrie and Joey, "turned down the river to the westward instead of following further south" and travelled along the northern bank of the river for the better supply of water and feed available for his stock. Eyre crossed the river twice at Gundagai to "avoid some ranges".
Whilst living and working at William Warby's establishment, Caroline McAlister (wife of Thomas McAlister) gave birth to a son, John, on 21 June 1832, who may have been one of the first known children of European descent born in the Gundagai area.
The herds of John Macarthur, Throsby and Ellis, were along the Murrumbidgee by late 1831. The 'Ellis' referred to is likely Hillas as noted in a court case at the NSW Supreme Court involving him. Also, what is now 'Hillas Creek' was also once referred to as 'Ellis Creek'.
Township The first move to establish Gundagai as a township was in 1838, when plans for the new settlement of "Gundagae [sic] on the Murrumbidgee, about 54 miles beyond Yass ..." were advertised for viewing at the office of the Surveyor-General in Sydney.
Origin of name The name "Gundagai" may derive from "Gundagair", an 1838 pastoral run in the name of William HutchinsonRJE Gormly Index, Letter from the Deputy Surveyor-General, 22 January 1838, in 'Gundagai A Track Winding Back', Cliff Butcher, 2002, A.C. Butcher, Gundagai, p.11 to the immediate north of current day Gundagai. The Aboriginal word "gair" was recorded at Yass in 1836 by the naturalist George Bennett and means "bird", as in budgerigar or "good bird". In that context "Gundagai" means place of birds but that place name may refer to the area to the north of Gundagai not to Gundagai town. The word "gundagai" is also said to mean "cut with a hand-axe behind the knee".NSW Geographic Names Board, Available [online]
Notable residents In the 1830s, Horatio Wills and his family lived near Gundagai. The Wills' son, Thomas Wills who was born in the Gundagai area,Family history states 19 August near Gundagai (reference ) is credited with co-inventing Australian Rules football and for being coach and captain to the first Australian Aboriginal cricket team.
Gundagai Aboriginal elders, Jimmy Clements and John Noble, attended the 1927 opening of the new Federal Parliament House in Canberra by the Duke of York (later George VI). Jimmy Clements, also known as King Billy, whose traditional name was Yangar, walked forward to respectfully salute the Duke and Duchess of York (later Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother), and after that the two elders were formally presented to the royal couple as prominent citizens of Australia.
Post office Gundagai Post Office opened on 1 April 1843 as the township, gazetted in 1838, developed.
Railway The railway reached Gundagai in 1886 as a branch line from Cootamundra on the Main Southern railway line. The branch line was later extended, reaching Tumut in 1903 and Batlow and Kunama, at the end of the Tumut and Kunama railway lines, in 1923. The line was closed after flood damage in 1984.
Floods
The original town gazetted as Gundagai in 1838 was situated on the right hand bank of the Murrumbidgee River floodplain at the place colloquially known as "The Crossing Place". That town was hit by several large floods of the Murrumbidgee River. The Crown Commissioner for the Murrumbidgee District, Henry Bingham, praised the heroic actions of Aboriginal people at Gundagai in rescuing settlers from the 1844 flood. Bingham also requested a reward for local Aboriginal people.
Gundagai was still considered a frontier town in 1852. The Murrumbidgee flood of 25 June 1852 swept the first colonial town of Gundagai away, killing at least 78 people (perhaps 89) of the town's population of 250 people, making it one of the worst natural disasters in colonial Australia's history. Local Aboriginal men, Yarri, Jacky Jacky, Long Jimmy and one other played a role in saving many Gundagai people from the 1852 floodwaters, rescuing more than 40 people using bark canoes. A bronze sculpture of Yarri and Jacky Jacky with a canoe was unveiled in Gundagai in 2017. The number of people whom they saved is estimated as 68, one third of the town's population. With video. The historical novel Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray (2021) by Anita Heiss is set around the time of the flood, and depicts some of the Wiradjuri people and settlers living in Gundagai at the time, using the Wiradjuri language.
Yarri was also known as Yarree or Coonong Denamundinna, A number of stories circulate suggesting that Yarri is the same as the native of that name mentioned as being responsible for the death of John Baxter at Caiguna in Western Australia during the expedition made by Edward John Eyre in 1841. This identification would place Yarri a long way from his traditional lands. The association of the two goes back to newspaper reports at the time. Yarri is also believed to have killed a young part Aboriginal woman 'Sally McLeod' near Gundagai in 1852. Warrants for Yarri/Yarree's arrest were issued by NSW Police after Brungle Aboriginal people reported him to the police over the Sally McLeod murder.
Following an even higher flood in 1853, North Gundagai was redeveloped at its current site, above the river, on Asbestos Hill and Mount Parnassus, and at South Gundagai on the slopes of Brummies Hill, using pre-existing survey plans made by James Larmer in 1850.State Records of NSW, The Surveyor General's Maps and Plans, map G.7.1028, 1850, Showing the Proposed Extension of the Town of North and South Gundagai, Surveyor Larmer, and map G1028d, 1845, Survey of the Site proposed by Commissioner Bingham as an addition to the town of Gundagai on the South Bank of the Murrumbidgee River, Surveyor J. Larmer The town commemorated the sesquicentenary of the 1852 flood in 2002.
The flood of June 1891 left several pastoral workers and four rescuers, who set out in a boat, stranded in trees just to the south of Gundagai. Edward True dragged a light skiff several miles over hills to the rescue site and managed to save several men from drowning.Bannister, C., 1996, 7000 Brave Australians: A History of the Royal Humane Society of Australasia 1874–1994, Case Number 1054, Royal Humane Society of Australasia Inc., Victoria, p.46 True also saved a young boy from drowning in a waterhole in 1887 and was awarded a Royal Humane Society of Australasia bravery award for that rescue as well. Edward True could not swim.