Gunnedah, New South Wales
Encyclopedia
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. 7,542 people lived in the town of Gunnedah in 2006, including 931 indigenous people (12.3%).
Gunnedah is located on the Oxley
Oxley Highway
The Oxley Highway is a rural highway in New South Wales, Australia. It starts at Nevertire where it joins the Mitchell Highway. It links Warren, Gilgandra, Coonabarabran, Gunnedah, Carroll, Tamworth, Bendemeer, Walcha, Yarrowitch, Ellenborough, Long Flat, Wauchope and ends at Port Macquarie on the...
and Kamilaroi
Kamilaroi Highway
Kamilaroi Highway is a state highway in New South Wales. It has been given the national route number 37. Its status as a highway is fairly new....
Highways providing road links to the state capital Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
at a distance of 475 kilometres (295.2 mi) and the nearest regional centre Tamworth
Tamworth, New South Wales
Tamworth is a city in the New England region of New South Wales, Australia. Straddling the Peel River, Tamworth, which contains an estimated population of 47,595 people, is the major regional centre for southern New England and in the local government area of Tamworth Regional Council. The city...
is 75 kilometres (46.6 mi). It is also linked to Sydney by rail. The town is served by the daily Countrylink
CountryLink
CountryLink is the operator of passenger rail services in country New South Wales, Australia and into Queensland and Victoria. It is an operating brand of the Rail Corporation New South Wales, a government-owned entity...
Xplorer service between Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
and Moree
Moree, New South Wales
Moree is a large town in Moree Plains Shire in northern New South Wales, Australia. It is located on the banks of the Mehi River in the centre of the rich black-soil plains....
.
The major industry is agriculture, with 80% of the shire area devoted to farming. Gunnedah's primary exports are cotton, coal, beef, lamb and pork, and cereal and oilseed grains. Gunnedah is also home to AgQuip
AgQuip
AgQuip is Australia's largest and premier primary industry field days and one of the largest agricultural events in the world. The nation's biggest agricultural event showcases over 3,000 individual compan ies and attracts over 100,000 visitors from across the nation and overseas...
, Australia's largest annual exhibition of agricultural equipment
Field day
Field days in Australia usually take place as part of an agricultural show, though field days focus on agricultural industry and equipment rather than livestock....
.
It claims the title "Koala Capital of World".
History
Gunnedah and the surrounding areas were originally inhabited by Aborigines who spoke the KamilaroiKamilaroi
The Kamilaroi or Gamilaraay are an Indigenous Australian people who are from the area between Tamworth and Goondiwindi, and west to Narrabri, Walgett and Lightning Ridge, in northern New South Wales...
(Gamilaraay
Gamilaraay language
The Gamilaraay or Kamilaroi language is a Pama–Nyungan language of the Wiradhuric subgroup found mostly in South East Australia. It was the traditional language of the Kamilaroi people, but is now moribund—according to Ethnologue, there were only 3 speakers left in 1997...
) language. The area now occupied by the town was settled by Europeans in 1833 or 1834, who were sheep farmers. With settlement in the area focused on wool production, Gunnedah was initially known as 'The Woolshed' until taking its name from the local Indigenous people who called themselves the Gunn-e-darr, the most famous of whom was Cumbo Gunnerah.
Dorothea Mackellar
Dorothea Mackellar
Isobel Marion Dorothea Mackellar, OBE was an Australian poet and fiction writer.The only daughter of noted physician and parliamentarian Sir Charles Mackellar, she was born in Sydney in 1885...
wrote her famous poem My Country
My Country
"My Country" is an iconic patriotic poem about Australia, written by Dorothea Mackellar at the age of 19 while homesick in England. After travelling through Europe extensively with her father during her teenage years she started writing the poem in London in 1904 and re-wrote it several times...
(popularly known as I Love a Sunburnt Country) about her family's farm near Gunnedah. This is remembered by the annual Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Awards for school students held in Gunnedah.
Coal was discovered on Black Jack Hill in 1877. By 1891, 6,000 tons of coal had been raised from shafts. The Gunnedah Colliery Company was registered in May 1899 and by 22 June a private railway some 5.7 kilometres (3.5 mi) in length had been completed from the railway station to their mine. In September 1957, the Government Railway took over the working of the line.
Geography
Gunnedah Shire is situated 264 metres (866.1 ft) above sea level on the Liverpool PlainsLiverpool Plains
The Liverpool Plains is a geographical area and Local Government Area in the North West Slopes, New South Wales.The Shire was formed on 17 March 2004 by the amalgamation of Quirindi Shire with parts of three other shires: Parry, Murrurundi and Gunnedah.- Main towns :* Quirindi* Ardglen*...
in the Namoi River
Namoi River
The Namoi River is a major tributary of the Darling River in inland New South Wales, Australia.- Course :The headwaters of the Namoi, including the Macdonald River, the Peel River, the Cockburn River and the Manilla River, rise on the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range on the Northern...
valley. It is very flat; the tallest hills are 400 to 500 m (1,312.3 to 1,640.4 ft) above sea level. The climate is hot in summer, mild in winter and dry, although rainstorms in catchment areas occasionally cause flooding of the Namoi River. Major floods cut transport links to the town, briefly isolating it from the outside world.
The Gunnedah area is noted for its abundance of native wildlife, including kangaroo
Kangaroo
A kangaroo is a marsupial from the family Macropodidae . In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, especially those of the genus Macropus, Red Kangaroo, Antilopine Kangaroo, Eastern Grey Kangaroo and Western Grey Kangaroo. Kangaroos are endemic to the country...
s, echidna
Echidna
Echidnas , also known as spiny anteaters, belong to the family Tachyglossidae in the monotreme order of egg-laying mammals. There are four extant species, which, together with the platypus, are the only surviving members of that order and are the only extant mammals that lay eggs...
s and koala
Koala
The koala is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia, and the only extant representative of the family Phascolarctidae....
s. Koalas can often be found in trees within the town, as well as in the surrounding countryside with the help of signs placed by the local tourist centre.
Media
Local media include the Namoi Valley Independent newspaper and the radio stations 2MO and 2GGG. 2MO claims to be the first station established in Australia outside the capital cities.Railway station
Gunnedah railway station is situated on the Mungindi (or North West) railway lineMungindi railway line, New South Wales
The Mungindi railway line is a railway line in northern New South Wales, Australia. It branches from the Main North line at the town of Werris Creek and heads north-west through the towns of Gunnedah and Narrabri before reaching Moree which for many years was the railhead before the extension to...
, 475 kilometres (295.2 mi) from Sydney. The station, opened in 1879, consists of a substantial station building on a single side platform, a passing loop and small goods yard. Currently a single daily Xplorer diesel railmotor operating between Sydney and Moree
Moree, New South Wales
Moree is a large town in Moree Plains Shire in northern New South Wales, Australia. It is located on the banks of the Mehi River in the centre of the rich black-soil plains....
serves the station.
Notable Gunnedahians
- Erica PackerErica PackerErica Packer is an Australian singer and model. She is also the wife of Australia's third richest man, James Packer....
– model and singer, wife of James PackerJames PackerJames Douglas Packer is an Australian businessman.Packer is the son of the late media mogul Kerry Packer and grandson of Frank Packer. He inherited the family company, Consolidated Press Holdings Limited, which controls investments in Crown Limited, Consolidated Media Holdings and other companies...
. - Miranda KerrMiranda KerrMiranda May Kerr is an Australian model. She is best known as one of the Victoria's Secret Angels since mid-2007. She is the first Australian to participate in the Victoria's Secret campaign and also represents Australian fashion chain David Jones...
– supermodel - Ben Smith (rugby league)Ben Smith (rugby league)Benjamin William Smith is an Australian rugby league footballer currently playing for the Parramatta Eels in the National Rugby League....
– Rugby League Player - John O'Neill (rugby league) – Rugby League Player
- John "Dallas" Donnelly – Rugby League Player
- James Wynne (rugby league) – Rugby League Player
- Dorothea MackellarDorothea MackellarIsobel Marion Dorothea Mackellar, OBE was an Australian poet and fiction writer.The only daughter of noted physician and parliamentarian Sir Charles Mackellar, she was born in Sydney in 1885...
– poet - Cate Clark - author