Nimmitabel is a small town in the Monaro region in southeast

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, in the

Snowy Monaro Regional Council The Snowy Monaro Regional Council is a local government area located in the Snowy Mountains and Monaro regions of New South Wales, Australia. The council was formed on 12 May 2016 through a merger of the Bombala, Cooma-Monaro and Snowy Riv ...

local government area. At the , Nimmitabel had a population of 320.

Etymology

Nimmitabel means "the place where many waters start or divide" in the local Aboriginal language. Many various spellings were adopted for the town, including: Nimmytabell (1837), Nimmitabool (1841), Nimmittybel (1844), Nimmitabel(1845), Nimmitybelle, Nimithybale, Nymytable (all in 1848), Nimmitabil(1851), Nimitabille and Nimithy Bell(1856), Nimaty-Bell(1857), Nimmitabel(1858)

Geography

The town is south of

Cooma Cooma is a town in the south of New South Wales, Australia. It is located south of the national capital, Canberra, via the Monaro Highway. It is also on the Snowy Mountains Highway, connecting Bega with the Riverina. At the , Cooma had a po ...

and west of Bega. Nimmitabel is on a stretch of highway shared between the

Snowy Mountains Highway Snowy Mountains Highway is a state highway located in New South Wales, Australia. Its two sections connect the New South Wales South Coast to the Monaro region, and the Monaro to the South West Slopes via the Snowy Mountains. The higher a ...

(HWY B72) and the

Monaro Highway Monaro Highway is a highway in Victoria, New South Wales, and the Australian Capital Territory, in Australia, linking in Victoria to Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) via the Monaro region. From its southern terminus, it f ...

(HWY B23). It is on the southern end of the Great Dividing Range, at the west of the Monaro Range, and lies west of the Wadbilliga National Park. The area around Nimmitabel has the only true

chernozem Chernozem (from rus, чернозём, p=tɕɪrnɐˈzʲɵm, r=chernozyom; "black ground"), also called black soil, is a black-colored soil containing a high percentage of humus (4% to 16%) and high percentages of phosphorus and ammonia compo ...

soil in Australia, a very rich, fertile and dark colored soil.

Climate

Nimmitabel has a cool

maritime climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate, is the humid temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring cool summers and mild winters ...

( Köppen ''Cfb'') with mild summers and cold, frosty winters, with evenly-spread moderate rainfall throughout the year.

Frost Frost is a thin layer of ice on a solid surface, which forms from water vapor in an above- freezing atmosphere coming in contact with a solid surface whose temperature is below freezing, and resulting in a phase change from water vapor (a g ...

s occur regularly during autumn, winter and spring, and occasionally occur even in summer. It is decently sunny, with 102.2 clear days annually. Because of its elevation and southerly latitude, several

snowfalls Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water throughout ...

can be expected each year from May through to October; on rare occasions, snow flurries may even occur in December (early summer).

History

* 1840 Locals started calling the village Nimoitebool * 1845 Appears on Townsend's map as Nimmitabel * 1858

Church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Ch ...

was built * 1857 Renewal of licence for

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...

* 1858

Post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...

arrives * 1861 Bell's Store * 1863 Separate Courthouse built * 1865 Geldmacher builds windmill * 1866 Cameron's Store opens * 1869 Nimmitabel Public School opens * 1912

Railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in Track (rail transport), tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the ...

arrives * 1921 Area's first saw-mill opens * 1959 Used as location for multi-Oscar nominated film '' The Sundowners''"America's Best, Britain's Finest: A Survey of Mixed Movies" - Google Books
John Howard Reid, pub. Lulu.com, March 2006. , p.241 * 1986 Railway closes

Gallery

File:Geldmacher's windmill.jpg, Geldmacher's windmill tower at Nimmitabel File:Elephant Bakery Nimmitabel.JPG, The concrete elephant “George” at the Nimmitabel Bakery File:Nimmitabel_Station_2009-03-31.JPG, Nimmitabel railway station 21 years after the last train

References

External links

Aerial photo of Nimmitabel from Terraserver

{{authority control Towns in New South Wales Snowy Monaro Regional Council Bombala railway line