Murringo is a small

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

in the southwestern slopes 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 ...

Hilltops Council Hilltops Council is a local government area in the South Western Slopes region of New South Wales, Australia. This area was formed on 12 May 2016 from the merger of Boorowa Council, Harden Shire and Young Shire. The local government area cove ...

. It was once better known as Marengo. The name is also applied to the surrounding area, for postal and statistical purposes.

History

The area now known as Murringo lies on the traditional lands of the

Wiradjuri The Wiradjuri people (; ) are a group of Aboriginal Australian people from central New South Wales, united by common descent through kinship and shared traditions. They survived as skilled hunter-fisher-gatherers, in family groups or clans, a ...

people, close to the boundaries with the lands of the

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-Nyun ...

and

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

peoples. The

and

peoples spoke closely related, if not identical, languages. Although the area was outside the

Nineteen Counties The Nineteen Counties were the limits of location in the colony of New South Wales, Australia. Settlers were permitted to take up land only within the counties due to the dangers in the wilderness. They were defined by the Governor of New Sou ...

, within which settler colonisation was allowed, it was settled relatively early, with the Marengo Station run taken up in 1827. There were 43 settlers on three properties in the area by 1840, 21 of whom lived at the Marengo Station.McHarg, p. 29. The village was known originally as Marengo. Taking its name from nearby Marengo Station, itself possibly named after the site of the

Battle of Marengo The Battle of Marengo was fought on 14 June 1800 between French forces under the First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte and Austrian forces near the city of Alessandria, in Piedmont, Italy. Near the end of the day, the French overcame General ...

, or more likely from a word of Aboriginal origin with its spelling applied by colonial settlers to resemble it. Naming a colonial-era landholding after a decisive victory of

Napoleon Bonaparte Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

—an enemy of Britain—seems improbable. The village was surveyed by colonial surveyor

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, Thomas ...

in 1849, and he seems to have used the name Murringo. It was first proclaimed a village, under that name, in 1850. In 1851, Larmer surveyed a road from the new village to Burrangong Station, near modern-day

Young Young may refer to: * Offspring, the product of reproduction of a new organism produced by one or more parents * Youth, the time of life when one's age is low, often meaning the time between childhood and adulthood Music * The Young, an America ...

. The village became an early centre for flour milling and a resting place for

teams A team is a group of individuals (human or non-human) working together to achieve their goal. As defined by Professor Leigh Thompson (academic), Leigh Thompson of the Kellogg School of Management, " team is a group of people who are interd ...

. It seems that the village still was most commonly known as Marengo, until around 1926. However, according to the Lands Department, the place name was Murringo, and it was proclaimed a village, for a second time under that name, in March 1885, as a consequence of the Crown Lands Act 1884. There is another locality, in the New England region of New South Wales, still known today as Marengo. Marengo Post Office opened on 1 January 1857 and was renamed Murringo in 1926. The village's public school opened in 1860; it too used the name Marengo, until 1926, when it became Murringo Public School. From 1917, there was also a Catholic Convent School at Murringo, operated by the

Sisters of Mercy The Sisters of Mercy is a religious institute for women in the Catholic Church. It was founded in 1831 in Dublin, Ireland, by Catherine McAuley. In 2019, the institute had about 6,200 Religious sister, sisters worldwide, organized into a number ...

, for which a new school building was erected in 1929. The opening of the convent saw an exodus of over half the existing pupils at the public school. The convent school closed in 1961. It was sold and became a private residence in 1974. The village ceased to grow much further in population, after the discovery of gold in 1860 at Lambing Flat, now known as

, Young was on the route of the Blayney-Demondrille railway line, from 1885, and grew to become the regional town. During the 1860s, the area around Murringo was the scene of criminal acts by the

bushranger Bushrangers were armed robbers and outlaws who resided in The bush#Australia, the Australian bush between the 1780s and the early 20th century. The original use of the term dates back to the early years of the British colonisation of Australia ...

Frank Gardiner Frank Gardiner (1830 – c. 1882) was an Australian bushranger who became notorious for his lead role in the largest gold heist in Australian history, at Eugowra, New South Wales in June 1862. Gardiner and Gardiner-Hall gang, his gang, which in ...

, Ben Hall, John Gilbert, John Dunn,

John O'Meally John O'Meally (June 1840 – 19 November 1863), known informally as 'Jack' O'Meally, was an Australia bushranger. He was recruited to join the Gardiner–Hall gang to carry out the Escort Rock, gold escort robbery near Eugowra in June 1862, ...

, and others. Gilbert had previously worked as a stock keeper on a property near Murringo and was well known in the area. The rough country near the Murringo Gap on the Murringo to Cowra road and the more distant Weddin Mountains were suitable hideouts for bushrangers. In 1862, a police search in the district led to a farcical arrest of two Murringo women, dressed in their brothers' clothes, who had been tracked by the police who were pursuing Gardiner. Murringo was one of the childhood homes of

Bill O'Reilly William O'Reilly or Bill O'Reilly may refer to: Government and politics * Bill O'Reilly (political commentator) (born 1949), American commentator, author and television host * William O'Reilly (MP) (1792–1844), UK MP for the Irish constituency o ...

, from 1908 to 1917, while his father, Ernest O'Reilly, was a teacher at the public school. O'Reilly became an Australian

Test cricket Test cricket is a Forms of cricket, format of the sport of cricket, considered the game’s most prestigious and traditional form. Often referred to as the "ultimate test" of a cricketer's skill, endurance, and temperament, it is a format of i ...

er and renowned as a leg spin bowler. Murringo was where he first played the game of cricket, and he later remembered his time there as one of the happiest of his life.

Present day

At the 2021 census, Murringo and the surrounding area had a population of 390, up from 365 in

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

and 322 in 2011. Murringo's appearance is little changed since its heyday, being described as a small but perfectly formed village. It is the oldest village in the region. Buildings such as its former inns, former convent and former police station remain. Its school building is still in use. The village has two churches—Christ Church Anglican (opened 1866) and Sacred Heart Catholic (commenced 1874, opened 1877)—a village hall—commemorating local soldiers of the First World War—and a relatively large and prominent cemetery for its size.

References

External links

Village Webpage
{{authority control Towns in New South Wales 1857 establishments in Australia Hilltops Council