Croppa Creek is a very small village and railway location in the

Gwydir Shire Gwydir Shire is a local government area located in the New England region of New South Wales, Australia. The northern boundary of the Shire is located adjacent to the border between New South Wales and Queensland. The Shire was established on 1 ...

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 ...

. Before European colonisation, it was part of the lands of the

Gamilaraay The Gamilaroi, also known as Gomeroi, Kamilaroi, Kamillaroi and other variations, are an Aboriginal Australian people whose lands extend from New South Wales to southern Queensland. They form one of the four largest Indigenous nations in Austr ...

or Kamillaroi people, who had inhabited the area for tens of thousands of years. Croppa Creek was the site of a railway station on the Boggabilla branch line, between Moree and

North Star Polaris is a star in the northern circumpolar constellation of Ursa Minor. It is designated α Ursae Minoris ( Latinized to ''Alpha Ursae Minoris'') and is commonly called the North Star or Pole Star. With an apparent magnitude t ...

, from 1932 until 1976, and is still a seasonal loading point for freight trains carrying bulk grain. In the 2016 census, the area surrounding Croppa Creek had a population of 120. Material was copied from this source, which is available under
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
The village was settled following the opening of the railway line and grew through the 1930s and 1940s, with new industry, agricultural areas and housing subdivisions established. Today, the main economic activity is

mixed farming Mixed farming is a type of farming which involves both the growing of crops and the raising of livestock. Such agriculture occurs across Asia and in countries such as India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Afghanistan, South Africa, China, Central Europe, ...

, with crops including

wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...

barley Barley (), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains; it was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent around 9000 BC, giving it nonshattering spikele ...

sorghum ''Sorghum bicolor'', commonly called sorghum () and also known as great millet, broomcorn, guinea corn, durra, imphee, jowar, or milo, is a species in the Poaceae, grass genus ''Sorghum (genus), Sorghum'' cultivated for its grain. The grain i ...

and

cotton Cotton (), first recorded in ancient India, is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure ...

. Sheep and cattle grazing is also common in the area.

Graincorp GrainCorp Limited is an Australian commodity trading company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. The company's core business is the receiving and storage of grain and related commodities. It also provides logistics and markets these ...

operates a wheat silo at Croppa Creek and the nearby Myola

feedlot A feedlot or feed yard is a type of animal feeding operation (AFO) which is used in intensive animal farming, notably beef cattle, but also swine, horses, sheep, turkeys, chickens or ducks, prior to slaughter. Large beef feedlots are called conc ...

, a facility capable of handling 20,000 head of cattle, further supports the local agriculture industry. Despite the size and isolation of Croppa Creek, recreational facilities and organisations are well represented in the village, including the local bowls club, a 9-hole golf course, tennis courts and Croppa Creek Crows

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

club, all built and upgraded with donations from the community. There is a small public school, catering for students from K–6, with an enrolment of just 11 students in 2014. Other amenities include the Croppa Creek General Store, the community hall and a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

church. The community relies on larger nearby towns such as North Star (28 km), Goondiwindi (95 km) and Moree (68 km) to provide services not available locally.

References

{{authority control North West Slopes Towns in New England (New South Wales) Gwydir Shire