Moruya, 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...
, situated on the Moruya River
Moruya River
The Moruya River is in southern New South Wales, Australia. Its freshwater reaches are known as the Deua River.The headwaters of the Moruya River rise as the Deua River south of Braidwood...
, approximately 300 kilometers south of 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 the 2006 census
Census in Australia
The Australian census is administered once every five years by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The most recent census was conducted on 9 August 2011; the next will be conducted in 2016. Prior to the introduction of regular censuses in 1961, they had also been run in 1901, 1911, 1921, 1933,...
, Moruya had a population of 10,278 people. The town relies predominantly on agriculture, aquaculture, and tourism. Moruya is administered by the Eurobodalla Shire
Eurobodalla Shire
Eurobodalla Shire is a Local Government Area in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located in a largely mountainous coastal region on the South Coast of New South Wales. It is on the Pacific Ocean, the Princes Highway and the Kings Highway....
council and the shire chambers are located in the town.
History
The name Moruya is derived from an Indigenous AustralianIndigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
word, mherroyah, meaning "home of the black swan
Black Swan
The Black Swan is a large waterbird, a species of swan, which breeds mainly in the southeast and southwest regions of Australia. The species was hunted to extinction in New Zealand, but later reintroduced. Within Australia they are nomadic, with erratic migration patterns dependent upon climatic...
". Black swans can still be seen in the lakes and rivers around Moruya, and the black swan is used locally as an emblem (nationally, the black swan is known as an emblem of Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
).
The area was the traditional home of two Indigenous Australian tribes: the Walbanga and the Brinja-Yuin. European settlement commenced in the 1820s following the extension of the limits of location
Nineteen Counties
The Nineteen Counties were the limits of location in the colony of New South Wales defined by the Governor of New South Wales Sir Ralph Darling in 1826 in accordance with a government order from Lord Bathurst, the secretary of State. Counties had been used since the first year of settlement, with...
in 1829. The coast from Batemans Bay to Mherroyah was surveyed in 1828 by Surveyor Thomas Florance. The first European settler was Francis Flanagan from Ireland who settled at Shannon View in 1829. John Hawdon from England established a property named Kiora in 1831 and a village named after the property grew.
The town centre was surveyed in 1850 and the town gazetted in 1851. Moruya was proclaimed a municipality in 1891. Local industries were timber getting, gold mining, dairying and quarrying for granite. The granite for the Sydney Harbour Bridge
Sydney Harbour Bridge
The Sydney Harbour Bridge is a steel through arch bridge across Sydney Harbour that carries rail, vehicular, bicycle and pedestrian traffic between the Sydney central business district and the North Shore. The dramatic view of the bridge, the harbour, and the nearby Sydney Opera House is an iconic...
pylons was quarried in the area.
Quarrying for granite commenced in the district in the late 1850s by the brothers Joseph and John Flett Loutitt who were from the Orkney Islands
Orkney Islands
Orkney also known as the Orkney Islands , is an archipelago in northern Scotland, situated north of the coast of Caithness...
. Their quarry on the south side of the river produced stone for many Sydney landmarks including the pillars of the General Post office in Martin Place, and the base of the Captain Cook
James Cook
Captain James Cook, FRS, RN was a British explorer, navigator and cartographer who ultimately rose to the rank of captain in the Royal Navy...
statue in Hyde Park.
The Moruya Quarry, also known as the Government Quarry, opened in 1876 on the northern bank of the Moruya River. From 1925 to 1932, the Harbour Bridge works saw 250 stonemasons employed and relocated to Moruya by the contractor to produce 18,000 cubic metres of dimension stone for the bridge pylons, 173,000 blocks, and 200,000 yards of crushed stone that was used as aggregate for concrete. During the seven years of this work, a small town of about 70 houses grew up near the quarry called Granitetown; little remains of the town today. The Moruya Quarry is still operated by the New South Wales Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Natural Resources. There was a third quarry west of the Moruya Quarry operated by the Ziegler family.
The first bridge across the Moruya River was erected in 1876 though frequent flooding saw new bridges erected in 1900 and 1945 and, most recently, in 1966.
During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
Moruya aerodrome was used as an advanced operational base. A trawler was attacked offshore between Moruya and Batemans Bay by the Japanese in 1942. In 1944 a US freighter was torpedoed off Moruya by the German submarine U-862
Unterseeboot 862
German submarine U-862 was a German Type IXD2 U-boat of the Kriegsmarine during World War II. She was the only German submarine to operate in the Pacific Ocean during World War II...
.
Shops
It has 2 Supermarkets a 8 Aisle FoodWorks which opened on May 24th 2005 and a 10 aisle Woolworths which opened in 2000. Moruya has many shops along the main street while the supermarkets are on the side streets. Also Moruya is home to the regional telco Southern Phone.Landmarks
Moruya has a small airport (Moruya AirportMoruya Airport
Moruya Airport is an airport located Moruya, New South Wales, Australia.-History:Built in 1942, at Moruya Heads by the RAAF consisting of three runways...
, code MYA) located on the north side of Moruya Heads. The strip adjoins the beachfront, and flights to Moruya offer a slow and picturesque descent along the coastline. Regional Express
Regional Express Airlines
Regional Express Pty Ltd is an airline based in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia. It operates scheduled regional services. It is Australia's largest regional airline outside the Qantas group of companies and serves New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria, North Queensland and Tasmania...
(REX) flies mostly Saab 340B aircraft from Moruya to Sydney and Moruya to Merimbula
Merimbula, New South Wales
Merimbula is a coastal town on the Far South Coast or Sapphire Coast of New South Wales, Australia. At the 2006 census, the population within a 10km radius of the Merimbula Post Office was over 8,775, Merimbula has a town population of 3,851 people...
, with connecting flights to Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
.
Notable residents
- Phillip Norman RyanPhillip Norman RyanPhillip Norman Ryan , known as Norm Ryan, was an Australian politician, affiliated with the Australian Labor Party. He was elected as a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly and served as Minister for Public Works from 1959-1965.He was born at Moruya, on the south coast of New South...
- Josh CunninghamJosh CunninghamJoshua "Josh" Hayden Cunningham is an Australian guitarist, vocalist and songwriter who is one-third of folk rock band The Waifs. His involvement with The Waifs has resulted in a total of four Australian Recording Industry Association Award wins, all in 2003 for Up All Night and ten further...
- Bill WoodsBill WoodsWilliam "Bill" Woods is an Australian television broadcaster.Woods is currently the presenter of Network Ten's Ten News at Five in Sydney, alongside Sandra Sully.-Early Career:...
- Michael WeymanMichael WeymanMichael Weyman is an Australian professional rugby league footballer for the St. George Illawarra Dragons of the National Rugby League...
- Chris HoustonChris Houston (rugby league)Chris Houston is an Australian professional rugby league footballer for the Newcastle Knights of the NRL. His usual positions are at lock and in both the second-row and front-row. He previously played for the St...