Gunnedah ()[ Macquarie Dictionary, Fourth Edition (2005). Melbourne, The Macquarie Library Pty Ltd. ] is a town in north-central New South Wales, Australia and is the seat of the Gunnedah Shire local government area. In the the town recorded a population of 8,338.
The Gunnedah area is a significant producer of cotton, coal, beef, lamb and pork, and cereal and oilseed grains. Gunnedah is also home to AgQuip, Australia's largest annual agricultural field day.
Gunnedah is located on the Oxley Highway and Kamilaroi Highways providing convenient road links to much of the northern sector of the state including to the regional centre Tamworth, distant. The town has a station on the Mungindi railway line and is served by the daily NSW TrainLink Xplorer passenger service to and from Sydney and Moree.
It claims the title of being the "Koala Capital of World", although recently there have been concerns over the health of the local koala population and the impacts of climate change on koala habitat.
History
Gunnedah and the surrounding areas were originally inhabited by Aboriginal Australians speaking the
Kamilaroi (Gamilaraay) language. The name of the town in Kamilaroi means "Place of White Stones".
In 1818, English surveyor general
John Oxley traversed the district, for which a monument pays tribute to him at the base of Mullaley Mountain.
The area now occupied by the town was settled by European sheep farmers in 1833 or 1834. 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,
[ Gunnedah . About New South Wales. Retrieved 19 March 2013.] the most famous of whom was
Cumbo Gunnerah.
Coal was discovered on Black Jack Hill in 1877.[ A Short History of the Gunnedah Colliery Co. Ltd. Railway Eardley, Gifford Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin, March 1977 pp58-67]
Dorothea Mackellar wrote her famous poem My Country (popularly known as I Love a Sunburnt Country) about her family's farm near Gunnedah.
In early 2012, Gunnedah experienced a mining boom resulting in rental properties being leased by mining companies for up to $1,350 per week.
Heritage listings
Gunnedah has a number of heritage-listed sites, including:
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Werris Creek-Moree railway: Gunnedah railway station
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Gunnedah Leather Processors
Population
According to the 2016 census of Population, there are 9,726 people in Gunnedah.
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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 13.7% of the population.
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86.2% of people were born in Australia and 90.2% of people only spoke English at home.
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The most common responses for religion were Anglican 28.8%, Catholic 27.3% and No Religion 20.3%.
Sports
The most popular sport in Gunnedah by a wide margin is
Rugby league. The local team, the Gunnedah Bulldogs, play out of Kitchener Park. They compete in the Group 4 Rugby League competition, in which they have won seven premierships.
Other sports teams include the Gunnedah AFL Bulldogs competing in AFL North West NSW, Gunnedah Red Devils RUFC competing in the Central Northern Rugby Union and Gunnedah FC competing in the Northern Inland Football.
Geography
Gunnedah Shire is situated above sea level on the
Liverpool Plains in the
Namoi River valley. It is very flat; the tallest hills are 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 town is located on a rich coal seam and within the northern New South Wales wheat belt.
The Gunnedah area is noted for its abundance of native wildlife, including , and . 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. The koala population is considered to be the largest koala colony in the state, west of the Great Dividing Range.
Climate
Gunnedah has a textbook subtropical climate with characteristics of a hot semi-arid climate (
BSh), with temperatures regularly exceeding 40 °C in summer and dropping below 0 °C in winter. This is due to the town's far inland location on the North West Slopes. Its average annual rainfall is ,
which is spread throughout the year, however severe thunderstorms in the summer months often cause heavy downpours which boost rainfall totals.
The highest daily maximum temperature recorded was on 24 January 1882, while the lowest daily maximum temperature recorded was on 4 August 1921. Snow is very rare, with the most recent occurrence in 1984.
Education
Gunnedah has three secondary schools: Gunnedah High School, Carinya Christian school and St Mary's College. There are three government (Gunnedah Public School, Gunnedah South Public School, and G.S. Kidd Memorial School) and two non-government (St Xavier's Catholic School and Carinya Christian School) primary schools. A campus of the New England Institute of TAFE is also located within the town.
Media
Local media include the
Gunnedah Times and
Namoi Valley Independent newspapers and the radio stations 2MO and 2GGG. The
Namoi Valley Independent, published by Australian Community Media, switched to a digital-only newspaper model in 2020. The
Gunnedah Times started as a print newspaper in November 2020 and is published by the Dunnet family, of Narrabri, who also publishes the bi-weekly
The Courier newspaper in Narrabri.
Radio stations that broadcast to Gunnedah are ABC New England North West, 2YOU FM and the 2MO began broadcasting in 1930 and was only the fourth Radio Licence issued in Australia, being the first station established in Australia outside a capital city.
Network television that is broadcast in Gunnedah are:
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Seven Network (formerly branded as Prime7), 7two, 7mate, 7flix, 7Bravo – Seven Network owned and operated channels.
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Nine Network (NBN), 9Go!, 9Gem, 9Life – Nine Network owned and operated channels.
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10, 10 Drama, 10 Comedy – Network Ten owned and operated channels.
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ABC, ABC Family, ABC Kids, ABC Entertains and ABC News, part of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
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Special Broadcasting Service, SBS, SBS Viceland, SBS Food, SBS WorldWatch, SBS World Movies and NITV.
Subscription Television services are provided by Foxtel.
Transport
The
Oxley Highway and the Kamilaroi Highway both pass through Gunnedah, for a short distance, concurrently. The Oxley Highway leads to Tamworth in the east and
Coonabarabran to the west. The Kamilaroi Highway leads to
Quirindi to the south-east and
Boggabri to the north-west.
Railway station
Gunnedah railway station is situated on the Mungindi railway line, from Sydney.
[ Gunnedah Railway Station . NSWrail.net. Accessed 1 April 2008.] The station, opened in 1879, consists of a substantial station building on a single side platform, a passing loop and small goods yard. There are also sidings serving an adjacent flour mill. To the west of the station there are extensive sidings serving grain silos and loop sidings serving coal loading facilities. For a brief three-year period after the railway arrived in Gunnedah it was the railhead until construction was completed to Boggabri and then to Narrabri South Junction in 1882. Currently a single daily Xplorer diesel railmotor operating between Sydney and Moree serves the station.
Notable Gunnedahians
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Greg Hickman – (Horse Racing) Group 1 winning Horse Trainer Sydney Trained Pierata Eleven Eleven
See also
External links
