Bodalla is a small town on the South Coast of

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, and located in the

local government area A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a federated state, state, province, division (politica ...

Eurobodalla Shire Eurobodalla Shire is a Local government in Australia, local government area located in the South Coast (New South Wales), South Coast region of New South Wales, Australia. The Shire is located in a largely mountainous coastal region and situated ...

. The town sits on the

Princes Highway Princes Highway is a major road in Australia, extending from Sydney via Melbourne to Adelaide through the states of New South Wales, Victoria (Australia), Victoria and South Australia. It has a length of (along Highway 1) or via the former ...

, and is connected by road to

Moruya Moruya ( ) is a town located on the South Coast (New South Wales), far south coast of New South Wales, Australia, situated on the Moruya River. The Princes Highway runs through the town that is about south of Sydney and from Canberra. At the , ...

Narooma Narooma () is a town in the Australian state of New South Wales on the far south coast. The town is on the Princes Highway, which crosses the Wagonga Inlet to North Narooma. The heritage town of Tilba, New South Wales, Central Tilba is nearby t ...

, Nerrigundah, Eurobodalla and Potato Point. The

Yuin The Yuin nation, also spelt Djuwin, is a group of Aboriginal Australians, Australian Aboriginal peoples from the South Coast (New South Wales), South Coast of New South Wales. All Yuin people share ancestors who spoke, as their first language, ...

people are considered to be the

traditional owners Native title is the set of rights, recognised by Australian law, held by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups or individuals to land that derive from their maintenance of their traditional laws and customs. These Aboriginal title rig ...

of the region, and it is from their language that the town and the previous estate and station derived its name. Several meanings have been put forward including Boat Alley", "tossing a child up in the arms", "haven for boats", and "several waters".

Thomas Sutcliffe Mort

From 1856,

Thomas Sutcliffe Mort Thomas Sutcliffe Mort (23 December 18169 May 1878) was an Australian industrialist who improved the refrigeration of meat. He was renowned for speculation in the local sheep, pastoral industry as well as industrial activities such as his Ice-W ...

had been acquiring land in the

district, and eventually owned some 38,000 acres (150 km²), a very substantial holding. In 1860 he purchased Bodalla Station, where he planned to establish a country estate on which to retire, and demonstrate model land usage and rural settlement. He replaced the beef cattle station with an integrated and tenanted

dairy A dairy is a place where milk is stored and where butter, cheese, and other dairy products are made, or a place where those products are sold. It may be a room, a building, or a larger establishment. In the United States, the word may also des ...

estate. He cleared land, drained river swamps, erected fences, laid out farms, sowed imported grasses, and provided milking sheds,

cheese Cheese is a type of dairy product produced in a range of flavors, textures, and forms by coagulation of the milk protein casein. It comprises proteins and fat from milk (usually the milk of cows, buffalo, goats or sheep). During prod ...

, and

butter Butter is a dairy product made from the fat and protein components of Churning (butter), churned cream. It is a semi-solid emulsion at room temperature, consisting of approximately 81% butterfat. It is used at room temperature as a spread (food ...

-making equipment. He also provided two

bluestone Bluestone is a cultural or commercial name for a number of natural dimension stone, dimension or building stone varieties, including: * basalt in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, and in New Zealand * diabase, dolerites in Tasmania, ...

churches, one Anglican and the other Catholic, for his tenants. By the 1870s, his sharefarming tenants had become disgruntled and left. The estate fell into his sole control, and was run as three farms with hired labour. After he died in 1878, his trustees took over running the farms. In 1887, they set up the Bodalla Company to put the main asset of the estate on a business footing. Sometime around the end of 1883, the trustees constructed a horse tramway from near the Bodalla Post Office to the North

Wharf at Wagonga Heads to provide great savings in conveying the produce of the estate to market in Sydney. One horse by tramway could easily haul as much as three could by road. The tramway closed between 1889 and 1891 with the reconstruction of local coastal roads.''The Bodalla Cheese Tramway'' Longworth, Jim

Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin ''Australian Railway History'' is a monthly magazine covering railway history in Australia, published by the New South Wales Division of the Australian Railway Historical Society on behalf of its state and territory Divisions. History and pro ...

, November, 1995, pp. 322-324. Another initiative launched by the trustees was the establishment of a commercial outlet in the Strand Arcade in the Sydney CBD to sell the milk, butter, cheese and bacon manufactured on the estate. Eventually the factory was bought out by the Bodalla Dairy Co-operative, who ran it until it closed in 1987, when it was being supplied by only thirteen farms. These farms transferred their supply to the dairy company at Bega.

Bodalla Cheese Bodalla is a small town on the South Coast of New South Wales, Australia, and located in the local government area of Eurobodalla Shire. The town sits on the Princes Highway, and is connected by road to Moruya, Narooma, Nerrigundah, Eurobodalla ...

is now a brand associated with Fonterra Brands (Australia) Pty Ltd., formerly Bonland Dairies. Fonterra is a

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

-owned dairy company. The Big Cheese Visitors' Centre was once part of the old factory, and is one of Australia's many "big" roadside tourist attractions. It is located on the northern outskirts of the town, and was closed in 2007.

All Saints Church

All Saints Church, commemorating

and his wife Theresa Shepheard Mort, was designed by

Edmund Blacket Edmund Thomas Blacket (25 August 1817 – 9 February 1883) was an Australian architect, best known for his designs for the University of Sydney, St. Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney and Goulburn Cathedral (St. Saviour), St. Saviour's Cathedral, Goulbu ...

. The foundation stone was laid by Marianne Mort, Thomas' second wife, on 18 March 1880. It was completed in 1901. The church has one of seven small

Henry Willis & Sons Henry Willis & Sons is a British firm of pipe organ builders founded in 1845. Although most of their installations have been in the UK, examples can be found in other countries. Five generations of the Willis family served as principals of th ...

organs, built in 1881 and installed the following year. The church cost £13,000 to construct.

Demographics

In the 2021 Census, there were 808 people in Bodalla. Of these 51.1% were male and 48.9% were female. Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people made up 8.0% of the population. The median age of people in Bodalla was 53 years old. 46.8% of the population were married at the time. Of people aged 15 and over in Bodalla, 11.2% reported having completed Year 12 as their highest level of educational attainment, 21.6% had completed a Certificate III or IV and 9.5% had completed an Advanced Diploma or Diploma. The most common response for religion in Bodalla was 'No Religion' at 31.6%.

References

External links

*
Bodalla Village – 150 Year Celebration
{{authority control Eurobodalla Shire Tourist attractions in New South Wales Towns in the South Coast (New South Wales)