|
| Looking across the
Murrumbidgee Valley at Gundagai |
Gundagai
Charming historic township on the banks of the
Murrumbidgee River
Gundagai, forever associated with the dog on the tuckerbox
in Australian folklore, is situated on the Murrumbidgee
River at the foot of Mt Parnassus, 387 km south-west of
Sydney. It is located just off the Hume Highway about
halfway between Yass and Holbrook at an elevation of 225 m.
Perhaps more than any other Australian town, Gundagai has
proved an irresistible subject with writers of popular
verse. This perhaps relates to the fact that Five Mile
Creek, to the north of town, was a popular meeting place
with teamsters, drovers, shearers and bush travellers. The
famous story of the Dog on the Tuckerbox is discussed in
Things to See. 'Lazy Harry', 'On the Road to Gundagai' and
'Flash Jack from Gundagai' are three anonymous poems
relating to the town. The latter two were first published in
'Banjo' Paterson's Old Bush Songs (1905). Paterson himself
also wrote a ballad called 'The Road to Gundagai'.
Capitalising on this tradition, Jack O'Hagan, who had never
been to Gundagai, wrote the nostalgic and highly sentimental
song 'Along the Road to Gundagai' which, in 1922, became an
international success and the signature tune for the popular
radio show 'Dad and Dave'. Knowing a good thing when he felt
it in his wallet, O'Hagan later wrote 'Where the Dog Sits on
the Tuckerbox' and 'When a Boy from Alabama Meets a Girl
from Gundagai'. The hero of Henry Lawson's 'Scots of the
Riverina' also has a farm 'by Gundagai' wile C.J. Dennis
mentions the town in 'The Traveller'.
Gundagai is situated in what is still sheep and cattle
country although wheat, lucerne and maize are also produced.
Prior to European occupation the Wiradjuri Aborigines
were the local tribe. It is thought the town's name derives
from the Aboriginal word 'gundabandoobingee' which has
unconvincingly been interpreted as meaning 'cut with a
hand-axe behind the knee'.
The first known whites in the area were explorers
Hamilton Hume and William Hovell who passed through on their
way to Port Phillip Bay in 1824. The first European settlers
arrived around 1826. Charles Sturt passed through the
present site of Gundagai in 1829 during an exploration of
the Murrumbidgee River. A cairn on the northern riverbank
(in the Gundagai River Caravan Park) denotes the spot at
which he crossed the river.
A village developed in the 1830s on the road to
Melbourne. Despite warnings by local Aborigines, a town plan
was approved in 1838 on the low-lying alluvial flats on the
northern side of the Murrumbidgee. Gundagai was gazetted in
1840. A number of the early streets were given literary
references - Homer, Virgil, Ovid, Sheridan, Pope, Byron and
Punch. By 1843 there were four hotels, a post office,
several stores, a school, a blacksmith, 20 houses and a
number of tents.
The first flood hit the town in 1844 and prompted debate
but no action. Gundagai was finally moved to higher ground
after a flood virtually destroyed the settlement in 1852,
killing 83 of the 250 residents and destroying 71 buildings.
Many were saved by local Aborigines, notably Yarri who
paddled about throughout the night in his bark canoe saving
stranded people. The locals were deeply appreciative and
there are numerous contemporary memorials about town in his
honour. At the time Yarri was described, in the Sydney
Morning Herald, as 'belonging to Mr Andrews'. He was buried
in the Catholic cemetery at Gundagai in 1880. Near the
cemetery gates is his black marble headstone, recently
erected by the Aboriginal Lands Council.
In the 1850s the town acted as a service centre to a
prosperous pastoral and agricultural area and it benefited
greatly from travellers headed to the Victorian goldfields.
When Francis Cadell took his steamer up the Murrumbidgee as
far as Gundagai, hopes emerged that the settlement would
become an inland river port, thereby facilitating access of
local producers to new markets. However, Gundagai proved to
be too far upstream and nothing ultimately came of the plan.
|
| Visitors walk across the
historic road bridge |
A gold rush swept the area in 1861, lasting about 15
years (another rush took place in 1894) and the first bridge
over the Murrumbidgee - one of the longest in NSW - replaced
the ferry service in 1867.
The famous Ben Hall bushranging gang was active in the
Gundagai area in 1863-64. Hall, John Dunn and Johnny Gilbert
bailed up the mail coach between Gundagai and
Jugiong in 1864. They charged down a hill with guns
firing. In the fracas Gilbert killed Sgt Edmund Parry who is
buried at Gundagai cemetery.
At the end of 1879 Andrew George Scott, better known as
bushranger 'Captain Moonlite', and three companions, were
tried at Gundagai courthouse after holding up Wantabadgery
station (see entry on Wagga Wagga).
During the trial Scott eloquently and wittily defended
himself in court. Nonetheless all four men were sentenced to
death, although two were later given hard labour for life on
appeal. Scott and Thomas Rogan were hung. Scott's last
request was to be buried near his friends James Nesbitt and
Augustus Wernicke at Gundagai. Both were killed in the
shoot-out at McGlede's Hut. Wernicke was just 15 years old
and Nesbitt was Scott's best friend. The request was ignored
at the time but, in 1995, his remains were exhumed from
Rookwood cemetery in Sydney and his remains were re-interred
near Nesbitt's grave at Gundagai cemetery.
Sgt Parry, killed by Gilbert, and Constable Webb-Bowen,
killed by Scott, are buried adjacent each other at the
cemetery. An obelisk marks the tomb of Webb-Bowen.
The railway arrived at Gundagai in 1886 and the town
became a municipality in 1889.
The annual Dog on the Tuckerbox Festival is held over
three days each November.
Things to see:
|
| The Dog on the Tuckerbox
|
The Dog on the Tuckerbox and Snake Gully Tourist
Centre
The 'Dog on the Tuckerbox' is a famous bronze sculpture
located out the front of a restaurant and gift-shop complex
eight kilometres north of the town on the western side of
the Hume Highway.
The Dog On The Tuckerbox first emerged into Australian
folklore through an anonymous teamster's song of uncertain
date. A version of this song appeared in the Gundagai Times
in the 1880s in the form of a poem called 'Bullocky Bill'
which focuses on a hardy, stoic and unlucky teamster who
gets bogged at Five Mile Creek (a teamsters' meeting place
five miles from Gundagai). The yoke of his bullock team
breaks and, to make matters worse, 'the dog shat on the
tucker-box/ Five miles from Gundagai'. Salesman and
balladeer Jack Moses wrote a cleaned-up version in the 1920s
in which the dog sits on and guards the tuckerbox. For
unknown reasons he called it 'Nine Miles from Gundagai'. The
lyric was very popular and inspired the commission of the
sculpture for the 1932 'Back to Gundagai' celebrations. It
was made by Frank Rusconi (see next entry) and unveiled by
Prime Minister Joe Lyons.
Opposite is the Snake Gully Tourist Centre (tel: 02 6944
1156). In the park outside the complex is a tribute in
copper to Steele Rudd's famous Snake Gully characters - Dad,
Dave, Mum and Mabel (in Rudd's stories, Snake Gully is on
the Darling Downs in Queensland). A series of early
Australian films were based on these tales and they became
the basis of a very popular radio serial which was
introduced by the song 'Along the Road to Gundagai'. Nearby
are the ruins of the old Five Mile Pub.
Tourist Information Centre and Marble Masterpiece
The Gundagai Tourist Information Centre is located in
Carberry Park, Sheridan St. It is open daily, tel: (02) 6944
1341 or (02) 6944 2145.
It features the 'Marble Masterpiece' - an elaborately
detailed Baroque Italian palace in miniature (1.2 m high)
set within a formal square. The entire construction consists
of 20 948 pieces of marble selected from 20 different
varieties of marble which were collected throughout NSW.
Each piece has been cut, turned and polished by hand. It was
created by distinguished Gundagai mason Frank Rusconi who
worked on it in the evenings for 28 years (1910-38).
The centre also contains another of his miniatures - a
replica of the altar of St Marie's Cathedral outside Paris.
Rusconi worked on the original in his youth. The replica
took him seven years to complete.
Rusconi, born near Braidwood, NSW, in 1874, served an
apprenticeship in the marble trade in Europe and worked
around the continent as a foreman on projects which included
the marble stairway at Westminster Abbey. He returned to
Australia in 1901 and set up a marble quarry at Orange which
proved a great success, supplying marble to major projects
such as Central Railway Station in Sydney.
He settled at Gundagai in 1905 where he established a
monumental-masonry business and earned a reputation as a
distinguished craftsman, noted for his figurative work,
tombstones and grand funerary monuments (some are at
Gundagai cemetery). He also designed the marble altar at
Tumut Catholic Church and the two war memorials at
Gundagai.
His most famous work, however, is the Dog On The
Tuckerbox. Rusconi worked into old age despite the loss of
sight in one eye in 1922. When crippling arthritis put an
end to his marble work, he made small plaster souvenirs of
the Dog on the Tuckerbox for tourists. Rusconi died in 1964
and is buried in the Catholic section of Gundagai cemetery.
The centre also has a gemstone collection and a Flood
Inundation Display. A National Trust Guide to the town's
historic buildings is available for a small charge and the
centre has its own Two Foot Tour of the town's history and
architecture.
Walking Tour
Sheridan St
Opposite the information centre is the Services Club. The
dining room was originally part of a flour mill (1870). Note
the thick slate walls. There is a display of historic
photographs in the foyer.
Head east along Sheridan St, over Otway St, and turn left
into Kitchener St. At the south-western corner of Kitchener
and First Ave is the former Literary Institute, a two-storey
Italianate building with decorative facade built in 1870 as
a single-storey structure.
Return along Kitchener St and turn left back into
Sheridan St. Walk past the Art Deco theatre (1929) to the
Family Hotel (1858). In the early days, when it was Fry's
Hotel, the premises were shared by a Cobb & Co booking
agency and the Commercial Bank. Note the typical
country-town verandah.
Adjacent is the National Bank, built as the CBC Bank in
1877. The Chan Kong Chinese Restaurant nearby was built as a
doctor's residence in 1875.
Gabriel Gallery
A little further along is the Gabriel Gallery on the first
floor of Butcher & Roberts Mitre 10 store. Amongst its
collection are Henry Lawson's walking stick, dictionary and
chair, and his letters to Grace McManus who cared for him in
1920 at Coolac. There are also items relating to 'Banjo'
Paterson, Jack Moses, Jim Grahame and Jack O'Hagan who wrote
'Along the Road to Gundagai'.
The main exhibit is a photographic collection of works by
Dr Charles Louis Gabriel who lived at Gundagai from 1887
until his death in 1927. Cliff Butcher, who established the
gallery, found about 1000 ten-centimetre glass negatives
after Gabriel died, donating 450 to the National Library of
Canberra in 1971. Prints of those photographs, which capture
Gundagai at the turn of the century, now line the walls.
Also on display is a portion of Gabriel's library, along
with his medical instruments, personal possessions and
letters.
The gallery also retains the first X-ray brought into
country NSW by the brother of famous Antarctic explorer Sir
Douglas Mawson. It is open weekdays and Saturday mornings
and admission is free.
Police Station and Gaol
Turn left into Byron St. On the left are the police station
and gaol. The first stage of the gaol was built as a
watch-house in the 1860s. The cell block, residence and
slate wall were built in 1880 (it is not open for
inspection). Until the 1920s the police station (also built
in the 1860s) was occupied by mounted troopers who escorted
the mail coach and fought bushrangers such as Ben Hall,
Johnny Gilbert and Captain Moonlite.
Courthouse
Return along Byron St and turn left back into Sheridan St.
On the left is a prominent feature of the town's streetscape
- the courthouse (1859). This was one of the first stone
buildings to be erected after the 1852 flood and was the
site for the trial of Captain Moonlite. Unfortunately the
red cedar interior was destroyed by a fire in 1943, although
it was rebuilt with mountain ash. There is a Boer War
monument atop the steps.
Sheridan St Continued
Further along Sheridan St is St Patrick's Catholic Church
(1885). To inspect the interior ring (02) 6944 1029. Over
the road, at 116 Sheridan St, is the decorative entrance to
'Surrey', built c.1880 by Billie Payne, a Cobb & Co. coach
driver who owned the adjacent Royal Hotel.
On the other side of Homer St is the three-storey brick
post office and residence (1879-80).
|
| Gundagai Historical
Museum |
Gundagai Historical Museum
To the rear of the post office in Homer St is the historical
museum. It contains old coins and crockery recovered from
the original townsite after the devastating floods of 1852,
gorgets presented to Yarri and another Koori in appreciation
of their tremendous efforts in saving the townsfolk during
the flood, a first-hand account of the floods by James
Gormly, a sundial that the Horsley family erected as a
tribute to Yarri's rescue of Fred Horsley and an inscribed
marble plaque in Yarri's memory.
The collection also includes a T-model ford, machinery,
wagons, equipment, clothing, gold scales, household items
and other paraphernalia from the 19th century. The
photographic display includes shots of Captain Moonlite's
'gang' and the troopers who captured them.
It is open from 9.00 a.m. to 12.00 p.m. weekdays, until
2.00 p.m. on Saturdays and from 11.00 a.m. to 3.00 p.m. on
Sundays, tel: (02) 6944 1995 or (02) 6944 1361. Entry is $2
for adults, $1 for children and $5 for a family.
Niagara Cafe
A classic old Greek country town cafe which in 1942, in the
middle of the war, played host to the Prime Minister John
Curtin who asked it to open up and commented that he had a
wonderful meal. It still is an authentic Greek cafe with the
same food and the same atmosphere. It is now newly owned.
Old Flour Mill
Turn left into Sheridan Lane. On the right is the town's
oldest intact building, the three-storey former flour mill
built in 1849 on what were clearly very solid stone
foundations as it is the only building remaining from the
original townsite. It became a rabbit-freezing works in
1918.
|
| The railway bridge across
the Murrumbidgee River |
Cenotaph and Bridges
Continue along Sheridan Lane back to Sheridan St. On the
south-western corner is 'Araluen' where Frank Rusconi
finished the 'Marble Masterpiece'. On the roadside is a
cenotaph designed and built by Rusconi.
The railway bridge, erected in 1901, heads off to the
south-west from this point while the Prince Alfred Bridge
extends southwards over Morley Creek and the Murrumbidgee.
Work started on the road bridge in 1866 and it was opened in
1867, although it was not completed until 1869. The iron
section spans the river proper while the approaches over the
river flats are of timber. The piers were cast at the
country's first foundry, at
Mittagong. Possibly the first wrought-iron truss bridge
in NSW it was, at the time, one of the longest in the state.
New spans were added from 1896-99 to take it right across
the flat, tripling its length. It was part of the old Hume
Highway until 1976 and is now open to pedestrian traffic
only.
If you walk along the bridge and gaze down, it is
possible to see, adjacent O.I. Bell Drive, a cairn on the
floodplain where the National School stood before it, along
with the headmaster and pupils, was washed away by the 1852
flood. The foundations remain.
First Ave
From the cenotaph head north along Virgil St and take the
first left into First Ave. On the corner, at no.45, is
'Gunyah Karadgee'. This brick residence, with its decorative
cast-iron verandah, was built in 1884 by the aforementioned
Billie Payne. It has a 15-m hall, doors and woodwork of
solid cedar, cellars, stables and wunderlick ceilings.
At 49 First Avenue is 'Kiora' (1860) and at 55 is
'Moonlite Cottage' (c.1880-85), so named as it was built by
a policemen with reward money received for the capture of
Captain Moonlite. At no.59 is 'Tara', built for the first
mayor of Gundagai. 'Fontenoy', on the north-western corner
of First Ave and Homer St, was the home of Dr Gabriel.
Catholic Group
Diagonally opposite is the former Catholic presbytery (now
an administration office). Note the stone wall. Head along
Homer St, across First Ave, to the polychrome brickwork of
the Catholic convent (1867-70).
Punch St
Turn right into Punch St. The house on the left, at no.53,
was built in 1879 and 'Croydon', at no.45, is also
noteworthy. Over the road, at no.48 is 'Janeva', built in
1895.
Turn back along Punch St, headed west. To the right, just
past Homer St, are 'the Plantation Cottages' - three
interesting brick and weatherboard double-storey houses. The
building in the next block, at no.88, was built prior to
1873. It is thought to have been the home of the first
Anglican minister. The community centre at the Otway St
corner was built in 1858 as a school.
St John's
On the other side of Punch St is a sandstone gateway which
leads up to the Anglican rectory (1883) and the Gothic
Revival design of St John's Church (completed in 1867),
built of local asbestos stone. It was renovated and extended
in 1926. Much of the interior and roof were destroyed by
fire in 1975 but it was thoroughly restored. To inspect the
interior ring (02) 6944 1063. The church hall dates from
1897.
Old Hospital
The second building past the church is the town's first
hospital, built of local slate in 1858. The original plaster
stucco has been removed and it is now a residence. Over the
road, at 44 Otway St, is the first masonic lodge (1904).
Scenic Lookouts
The summit of Mt Parnassus can be reached by car (via Hanley
St), offering fine views of the town and river flats.
Another way of reaching the summit is by a walking track (3
km return).
Rotary Lookout lies at the end of Luke St in South
Gundagai. For hikers, there is Mt Kimo above the Gundagai
Caravan Village.
Reno, 12 km north of town on the Burra Rd, offers a
panoramic view of Gundagai and the surrounding countryside.
Fishing
Fishing (especially for trout) is popular in the
Murrumbidgee River and there is a boat ramp close to the
Gundagai Caravan Village on Nangus Rd.
Broadwalk
Business Brokers
Broadwalk Business
Brokers specialise in General Businesses for Sale, Caravan Parks for
Sale, Motels for Sale, Management Rights & Resorts for Sale, Farms for
Sale, Hotels for sale,Commercial & Industrial Properties for Sale.
Phone:
1300 136 559
Email:
enquiries@broadwalkbusinessbrokers.com.au
AUSTRALIAN BUSINESSES FOR SALE
COFFS HARBOUR BUSINESS BROKERS
BROADWALK BUSINESS BROKERS
GOLD COAST BUSINESSES FOR SALE
BRISBANE BUSINESSES FOR SALE
SYDNEY BUSINESSES FOR SALE
CARAVAN PARKS FOR SALE
BUSINESSES FOR SALE
MOTELS
FOR SALE
HOTELS
FOR SALE
Disclaimer
We advise prospective purchasers that we take no
responsibility for the accuracy of any information in the business
provided by vendors or their professional advisers and that they should
make their own enquiries as to the accuracy of this information,
including obtaining independent legal and/or accounting advice
Gundagai
