Gundaroo is a small village in the

Southern Tablelands The Southern Tablelands is a geographic area of New South Wales, Australia, located south-west of Sydney and west of the Great Dividing Range. The area is characterised by high, flat country which has generally been extensively cleared and ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, Australia and in

Yass Valley Council Yass Valley Council is a local government area in the Southern Tablelands region of New South Wales, Australia. The area is located adjacent to the Hume and Barton Highways and the Main Southern railway line. The Shire includes the towns, an ...

. It is situated to the east of the

Yass River The Yass River, a perennial river that is part of the Murrumbidgee catchment within the Murray–Darling basin, is located in the Southern Tablelands and South Western Slopes districts of New South Wales, Australia. Course and features The ri ...

, about north of

Sutton Sutton (''south settlement'' or ''south town'' in Old English) may refer to: Places United Kingdom England In alphabetical order by county: * Sutton, Bedfordshire * Sutton, Berkshire, a location * Sutton-in-the-Isle, Ely, Cambridgeshire * ...

, about west of the Lake George range. At the , Gundaroo "state suburb" (including surrounding areas) had a population of 1,146. At the , its "urban centre/locality" had a population of 331.

History

The area now known as Gundaroo lies close to the boundaries of the traditional lands of the

Gandangara The Gundungurra people, also spelt Gundungara, Gandangarra, Gandangara and other variations, are an Aboriginal Australian people in south-eastern New South Wales, Australia. Their traditional lands include present day Goulburn, Wollondilly Shire ...

and

Ngunawal The Ngunnawal people, also spelt Ngunawal, are an Aboriginal people of southern New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory in Australia. Language Ngunnawal and Gundungurra are Australian Aboriginal languages from the Pama-Nyungan ...

peoples. The

and

peoples spoke closely related, if not identical, languages. The explorers

Charles Throsby Charles Throsby (1777 – 2 April 1828) was an English surgeon who, after he migrated to New South Wales in 1802, became an explorer, pioneer and parliamentarian. He opened up much new land beyond the Blue Mountains for colonial settlement ...

and

Joseph Wild Joseph Wild (1759–1837) held a number of titles throughout his life, namely a convict, explorer, shepherd, constable and conveyor. He was convicted of burglary and was eventually sentenced to transportation to Australia. This was a common pu ...

traveled through the Yass River valley in 1820. The Aboriginal people called the valley ''Candariro'', meaning "blue crane". This name may have been the origin of Gundaroo, or it may mean "big waterhole". Governor Lachlan Macquarie granted the first white settler, Peter Cooney, in 1825. Settlement proceeded fairly quickly and there were about 400 residents in the 1840s. The first non-residential building in Gundaroo was the Harrow Inn, built in 1834. The plan of the town made by

James Larmer James Larmer (b. 1808 or 1809 – d. 1886) was a government surveyor in the colony of New South Wales. Between 1830 and 1859, he surveyed land, roads and settlements in New South Wales. He was an Assistant Surveyor to the Surveyor-General, Sir Th ...

was gazetted in 1847. A post office was built in 1848 and an Anglican church, St Luke's in Upper Gundaroo (now part of a pottery business), in 1849. The first school opened in 1850 and a police station in 1852. A major impetus for the growth in the middle of the nineteenth century was the discovery of gold in the district in 1852. There was another short-lived phase of reef gold mining in the district in the 1890s. Gundaroo was one of the sites considered for a capital city, within the 'Yass-Canberra' district. However, following a survey of the various sites, by

Charles Scrivener Charles Robert Scrivener (2 November 1855 – 26 September 1923) was an Australian surveyor, and the person who surveyed numerous sites in New South Wales for the selection of a site for the Australian Capital Territory and Australia's capital ...

, in 1909, Canberra was selected as the site for the new national capital city.

World War II air crash

On 7 December 1943, a

RAAF "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = RAAF Anniversary Commemoration ...

Lockheed Ventura crashed three miles south-east of Gundaroo, killing all five crew members. A memorial to the victims was erected in the town.

Gallery

Image:Gundaroo courthouse.jpg, St Mark's Anglican Church in Cork St, formerly Gundaroo Court House, built in 1875 Image:Gundaroo royal hotel.jpg, The Royal Hotel Gundaroo Image:Gundaroo Community Church.jpg, Gundaroo Community Church was originally the Presbyterian Church (1864). It is now under a

Uniting Church The Uniting Church in Australia (UCA) was founded on 22 June 1977, when most congregations of the Methodist Church of Australasia, about two-thirds of the Presbyterian Church of Australia and almost all the churches of the Congregational Unio ...

. Image:Gundaroo NSW War Memorial.jpg, Gundaroo War Memorial Image:Entrance to Gundaroo Catholic Pioneer Cemetery.jpg,

Gundaroo Catholic Pioneer Cemetery The Gundaroo Catholic Pioneer Cemetery is on the Sutton Road opposite the beginning of Back Creek Road a few kilometres south of Gundaroo, New South Wales, Australia. A plaque at the entranceway reads: This cemetery was gifted to the Catholic c ...

established in 1857

Notable people

William Affleck William Affleck (5 March 1836 – 6 March 1923) was a Scottish-born Australian politician. He was born in West Wemyss in Fifeshire, Scotland; his father was storekeeper Arthur Affleck, while his mother's name is unknown. He received a prim ...

(1836–1923), a Scottish-born Australian politician. *

John Forrester-Clack John Forrester-Clack is an Australian artist who won the 2009 Capital Chemist Art Prize (formerly the Brindabella Art Prize) and was a finalist in the 2011 and 2012 Dobell Prize. Clack's signature is the sign of the cross plus the word Amen, s ...

, an Australian artist *

Jack Clemenger Jack Clemenger (1899–1964) was an Australian tennis player. He began his career in New South Wales and then moved to Victoria. In business (which took up a lot of his time) he rose to the rank of general sales manager at Allied motors in Aust ...

(1899–1964), an Australian tennis player * Charles Elliott (1870-1938), an Australian politician *

Les Haylen Leslie Clement "Les" Haylen (23 September 1898 – 12 September 1977), also known by the pen-name Sutton Woodfield, was an Australian politician, playwright, novelist and journalist. Early life Haylen was born on 23 September 1898 at Gundaroo, ...

(1898–1977), an Australian politician, playwright, novelist and journalist *

Maud Jeffries Maud Evelyn Craven Jeffries (14 December 186926 September 1946) was an American actress. A popular subject for a wide range of theatrical post-cards and studio photographs, she was noted for her height, voice, presence, graceful figure, attract ...

(1869–1946), an American actress * Dick Smith (born 1944), an Australian entrepreneur, aviator, philanthropist and political activist

References

External links

{{authority control Towns in New South Wales Southern Tablelands Yass Valley Council Mining towns in New South Wales Proposed sites for national capital of Australia