Looking across the Murrumbidgee Valley at Gundagai

Gundagai
Charming historic township on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River
Gundagai, forever associated with the dog on the tuckerbox in Australian folklore, is situated on the Murrumbidgee River at the foot of Mt Parnassus, 387 km south-west of Sydney. It is located just off the Hume Highway about halfway between Yass and Holbrook at an elevation of 225 m.

Perhaps more than any other Australian town, Gundagai has proved an irresistible subject with writers of popular verse. This perhaps relates to the fact that Five Mile Creek, to the north of town, was a popular meeting place with teamsters, drovers, shearers and bush travellers. The famous story of the Dog on the Tuckerbox is discussed in Things to See. 'Lazy Harry', 'On the Road to Gundagai' and 'Flash Jack from Gundagai' are three anonymous poems relating to the town. The latter two were first published in 'Banjo' Paterson's Old Bush Songs (1905). Paterson himself also wrote a ballad called 'The Road to Gundagai'. Capitalising on this tradition, Jack O'Hagan, who had never been to Gundagai, wrote the nostalgic and highly sentimental song 'Along the Road to Gundagai' which, in 1922, became an international success and the signature tune for the popular radio show 'Dad and Dave'. Knowing a good thing when he felt it in his wallet, O'Hagan later wrote 'Where the Dog Sits on the Tuckerbox' and 'When a Boy from Alabama Meets a Girl from Gundagai'. The hero of Henry Lawson's 'Scots of the Riverina' also has a farm 'by Gundagai' wile C.J. Dennis mentions the town in 'The Traveller'.

Gundagai is situated in what is still sheep and cattle country although wheat, lucerne and maize are also produced.

Prior to European occupation the Wiradjuri Aborigines were the local tribe. It is thought the town's name derives from the Aboriginal word 'gundabandoobingee' which has unconvincingly been interpreted as meaning 'cut with a hand-axe behind the knee'.

The first known whites in the area were explorers Hamilton Hume and William Hovell who passed through on their way to Port Phillip Bay in 1824. The first European settlers arrived around 1826. Charles Sturt passed through the present site of Gundagai in 1829 during an exploration of the Murrumbidgee River. A cairn on the northern riverbank (in the Gundagai River Caravan Park) denotes the spot at which he crossed the river.

A village developed in the 1830s on the road to Melbourne. Despite warnings by local Aborigines, a town plan was approved in 1838 on the low-lying alluvial flats on the northern side of the Murrumbidgee. Gundagai was gazetted in 1840. A number of the early streets were given literary references - Homer, Virgil, Ovid, Sheridan, Pope, Byron and Punch. By 1843 there were four hotels, a post office, several stores, a school, a blacksmith, 20 houses and a number of tents.

The first flood hit the town in 1844 and prompted debate but no action. Gundagai was finally moved to higher ground after a flood virtually destroyed the settlement in 1852, killing 83 of the 250 residents and destroying 71 buildings. Many were saved by local Aborigines, notably Yarri who paddled about throughout the night in his bark canoe saving stranded people. The locals were deeply appreciative and there are numerous contemporary memorials about town in his honour. At the time Yarri was described, in the Sydney Morning Herald, as 'belonging to Mr Andrews'. He was buried in the Catholic cemetery at Gundagai in 1880. Near the cemetery gates is his black marble headstone, recently erected by the Aboriginal Lands Council.

In the 1850s the town acted as a service centre to a prosperous pastoral and agricultural area and it benefited greatly from travellers headed to the Victorian goldfields. When Francis Cadell took his steamer up the Murrumbidgee as far as Gundagai, hopes emerged that the settlement would become an inland river port, thereby facilitating access of local producers to new markets. However, Gundagai proved to be too far upstream and nothing ultimately came of the plan.

Visitors walk across the historic road bridge

A gold rush swept the area in 1861, lasting about 15 years (another rush took place in 1894) and the first bridge over the Murrumbidgee - one of the longest in NSW - replaced the ferry service in 1867.

The famous Ben Hall bushranging gang was active in the Gundagai area in 1863-64. Hall, John Dunn and Johnny Gilbert bailed up the mail coach between Gundagai and Jugiong in 1864. They charged down a hill with guns firing. In the fracas Gilbert killed Sgt Edmund Parry who is buried at Gundagai cemetery.

At the end of 1879 Andrew George Scott, better known as bushranger 'Captain Moonlite', and three companions, were tried at Gundagai courthouse after holding up Wantabadgery station (see entry on Wagga Wagga).

During the trial Scott eloquently and wittily defended himself in court. Nonetheless all four men were sentenced to death, although two were later given hard labour for life on appeal. Scott and Thomas Rogan were hung. Scott's last request was to be buried near his friends James Nesbitt and Augustus Wernicke at Gundagai. Both were killed in the shoot-out at McGlede's Hut. Wernicke was just 15 years old and Nesbitt was Scott's best friend. The request was ignored at the time but, in 1995, his remains were exhumed from Rookwood cemetery in Sydney and his remains were re-interred near Nesbitt's grave at Gundagai cemetery.

Sgt Parry, killed by Gilbert, and Constable Webb-Bowen, killed by Scott, are buried adjacent each other at the cemetery. An obelisk marks the tomb of Webb-Bowen.

The railway arrived at Gundagai in 1886 and the town became a municipality in 1889.

The annual Dog on the Tuckerbox Festival is held over three days each November.

Things to see:  

The Dog on the Tuckerbox

The Dog on the Tuckerbox and Snake Gully Tourist Centre
The 'Dog on the Tuckerbox' is a famous bronze sculpture located out the front of a restaurant and gift-shop complex eight kilometres north of the town on the western side of the Hume Highway.

The Dog On The Tuckerbox first emerged into Australian folklore through an anonymous teamster's song of uncertain date. A version of this song appeared in the Gundagai Times in the 1880s in the form of a poem called 'Bullocky Bill' which focuses on a hardy, stoic and unlucky teamster who gets bogged at Five Mile Creek (a teamsters' meeting place five miles from Gundagai). The yoke of his bullock team breaks and, to make matters worse, 'the dog shat on the tucker-box/ Five miles from Gundagai'. Salesman and balladeer Jack Moses wrote a cleaned-up version in the 1920s in which the dog sits on and guards the tuckerbox. For unknown reasons he called it 'Nine Miles from Gundagai'. The lyric was very popular and inspired the commission of the sculpture for the 1932 'Back to Gundagai' celebrations. It was made by Frank Rusconi (see next entry) and unveiled by Prime Minister Joe Lyons.

Opposite is the Snake Gully Tourist Centre (tel: 02 6944 1156).

Tourist Information Centre and Marble Masterpiece
The Gundagai Tourist Information Centre is located in Carberry Park, Sheridan St. It is open daily, tel: (02) 6944 1341 or (02) 6944 2145.

It features the 'Marble Masterpiece' - an elaborately detailed Baroque Italian palace in miniature (1.2 m high) set within a formal square. The entire construction consists of 20 948 pieces of marble selected from 20 different varieties of marble which were collected throughout NSW. Each piece has been cut, turned and polished by hand. It was created by distinguished Gundagai mason Frank Rusconi who worked on it in the evenings for 28 years (1910-38).

The centre also contains another of his miniatures - a replica of the altar of St Marie's Cathedral outside Paris. Rusconi worked on the original in his youth. The replica took him seven years to complete.

Rusconi, born near Braidwood, NSW, in 1874, served an apprenticeship in the marble trade in Europe and worked around the continent as a foreman on projects which included the marble stairway at Westminster Abbey. He returned to Australia in 1901 and set up a marble quarry at Orange which proved a great success, supplying marble to major projects such as Central Railway Station in Sydney.

He settled at Gundagai in 1905 where he established a monumental-masonry business and earned a reputation as a distinguished craftsman, noted for his figurative work, tombstones and grand funerary monuments (some are at Gundagai cemetery). He also designed the marble altar at Tumut Catholic Church and the two war memorials at Gundagai.

His most famous work, however, is the Dog On The Tuckerbox. Rusconi worked into old age despite the loss of sight in one eye in 1922. When crippling arthritis put an end to his marble work, he made small plaster souvenirs of the Dog on the Tuckerbox for tourists. Rusconi died in 1964 and is buried in the Catholic section of Gundagai cemetery.

The centre also has a gemstone collection and a Flood Inundation Display. A National Trust Guide to the town's historic buildings is available for a small charge and the centre has its own Two Foot Tour of the town's history and architecture.

Walking Tour
Sheridan St
Opposite the information centre is the Services Club. The dining room was originally part of a flour mill (1870). Note the thick slate walls. There is a display of historic photographs in the foyer.

Head east along Sheridan St, over Otway St, and turn left into Kitchener St. At the south-western corner of Kitchener and First Ave is the former Literary Institute, a two-storey Italianate building with decorative facade built in 1870 as a single-storey structure.

Return along Kitchener St and turn left back into Sheridan St. Walk past the Art Deco theatre (1929) to the Family Hotel (1858). In the early days, when it was Fry's Hotel, the premises were shared by a Cobb & Co booking agency and the Commercial Bank. Note the typical country-town verandah.

Adjacent is the National Bank, built as the CBC Bank in 1877.

Gabriel Gallery
A little further along is the Gabriel Gallery on the first floor of Butcher & Roberts Mitre 10 store. Amongst its collection are Henry Lawson's walking stick, dictionary and chair, and his letters to Grace McManus who cared for him in 1920 at Coolac. There are also items relating to 'Banjo' Paterson, Jack Moses, Jim Grahame and Jack O'Hagan who wrote 'Along the Road to Gundagai'.

The main exhibit is a photographic collection of works by Dr Charles Louis Gabriel who lived at Gundagai from 1887 until his death in 1927. Cliff Butcher, who established the gallery, found about 1000 ten-centimetre glass negatives after Gabriel died, donating 450 to the National Library of Canberra in 1971. Prints of those photographs, which capture Gundagai at the turn of the century, now line the walls. Also on display is a portion of Gabriel's library, along with his medical instruments, personal possessions and letters.

The gallery also retains the first X-ray brought into country NSW by the brother of famous Antarctic explorer Sir Douglas Mawson. It is open weekdays and Saturday mornings and admission is free.

Police Station and Gaol
Turn left into Byron St. On the left are the police station and gaol. The first stage of the gaol was built as a watch-house in the 1860s. The cell block, residence and slate wall were built in 1880 (it is not open for inspection). Until the 1920s the police station (also built in the 1860s) was occupied by mounted troopers who escorted the mail coach and fought bushrangers such as Ben Hall, Johnny Gilbert and Captain Moonlite.

Courthouse
Return along Byron St and turn left back into Sheridan St. On the left is a prominent feature of the town's streetscape - the courthouse (1859). This was one of the first stone buildings to be erected after the 1852 flood and was the site for the trial of Captain Moonlite. Unfortunately the red cedar interior was destroyed by a fire in 1943, although it was rebuilt with mountain ash. There is a Boer War monument atop the steps.

Sheridan St Continued
Further along Sheridan St is St Patrick's Catholic Church (1885). To inspect the interior ring (02) 6944 1029. Over the road, at 116 Sheridan St, is the decorative entrance to 'Surrey', built c.1880 by Billie Payne, a Cobb & Co. coach driver who owned the adjacent Royal Hotel.

On the other side of Homer St is the three-storey brick post office and residence (1879-80).

Gundagai Historical Museum

Gundagai Historical Museum
To the rear of the post office in Homer St is the historical museum. It contains old coins and crockery recovered from the original townsite after the devastating floods of 1852, gorgets presented to Yarri and another Koori in appreciation of their tremendous efforts in saving the townsfolk during the flood, a first-hand account of the floods by James Gormly, a sundial that the Horsley family erected as a tribute to Yarri's rescue of Fred Horsley and an inscribed marble plaque in Yarri's memory.

The collection also includes a T-model ford, machinery, wagons, equipment, clothing, gold scales, household items and other paraphernalia from the 19th century. The photographic display includes shots of Captain Moonlite's 'gang' and the troopers who captured them.

It is open from 9.00 a.m. to 12.00 p.m. weekdays, until 2.00 p.m. on Saturdays and from 11.00 a.m. to 3.00 p.m. on Sundays, tel: (02) 6944 1995 or (02) 6944 1361. Entry is $2 for adults, $1 for children and $5 for a family.

Niagara Cafe
A classic old Greek country town cafe which in 1942, in the middle of the war, played host to the Prime Minister John Curtin who asked it to open up and commented that he had a wonderful meal. It still is an authentic Greek cafe with the same food and the same atmosphere. It is now newly owned.

Old Flour Mill
Turn left into Sheridan Lane. On the right is the town's oldest intact building, the three-storey former flour mill built in 1849 on what were clearly very solid stone foundations as it is the only building remaining from the original townsite. It became a rabbit-freezing works in 1918.

The railway bridge across the Murrumbidgee River

Cenotaph and Bridges
Continue along Sheridan Lane back to Sheridan St. On the south-western corner is 'Araluen' where Frank Rusconi finished the 'Marble Masterpiece'. On the roadside is a cenotaph designed and built by Rusconi.

The railway bridge, erected in 1901, heads off to the south-west from this point while the Prince Alfred Bridge extends southwards over Morley Creek and the Murrumbidgee. Work started on the road bridge in 1866 and it was opened in 1867, although it was not completed until 1869. The iron section spans the river proper while the approaches over the river flats are of timber. The piers were cast at the country's first foundry, at Mittagong. Possibly the first wrought-iron truss bridge in NSW it was, at the time, one of the longest in the state. New spans were added from 1896-99 to take it right across the flat, tripling its length. It was part of the old Hume Highway until 1976 and is now open to pedestrian traffic only.

If you walk along the bridge and gaze down, it is possible to see, adjacent O.I. Bell Drive, a cairn on the floodplain where the National School stood before it, along with the headmaster and pupils, was washed away by the 1852 flood. The foundations remain.

First Ave
From the cenotaph head north along Virgil St and take the first left into First Ave. On the corner, at no.45, is 'Gunyah Karadgee'. This brick residence, with its decorative cast-iron verandah, was built in 1884 by the aforementioned Billie Payne. It has a 15-m hall, doors and woodwork of solid cedar, cellars, stables and wunderlick ceilings.

At 49 First Avenue is 'Kiora' (1860) and at 55 is 'Moonlite Cottage' (c.1880-85), so named as it was built by a policemen with reward money received for the capture of Captain Moonlite. At no.59 is 'Tara', built for the first mayor of Gundagai. 'Fontenoy', on the north-western corner of First Ave and Homer St, was the home of Dr Gabriel.

Catholic Group
Diagonally opposite is the former Catholic presbytery (now an administration office). Note the stone wall. Head along Homer St, across First Ave, to the polychrome brickwork of the Catholic convent (1867-70).

Punch St
Turn right into Punch St. The house on the left, at no.53, was built in 1879 and 'Croydon', at no.45, is also noteworthy. Over the road, at no.48 is 'Janeva', built in 1895.

Turn back along Punch St, headed west. To the right, just past Homer St, are 'the Plantation Cottages' - three interesting brick and weatherboard double-storey houses. The building in the next block, at no.88, was built prior to 1873. It is thought to have been the home of the first Anglican minister. The community centre at the Otway St corner was built in 1858 as a school.

St John's
On the other side of Punch St is a sandstone gateway which leads up to the Anglican rectory (1883) and the Gothic Revival design of St John's Church (completed in 1867), built of local asbestos stone. It was renovated and extended in 1926. Much of the interior and roof were destroyed by fire in 1975 but it was thoroughly restored. To inspect the interior ring (02) 6944 1063. The church hall dates from 1897.

Old Hospital
The second building past the church is the town's first hospital, built of local slate in 1858. The original plaster stucco has been removed and it is now a residence. Over the road, at 44 Otway St, is the first masonic lodge (1904).

Scenic Lookouts
The summit of Mt Parnassus can be reached by car (via Hanley St), offering fine views of the town and river flats. Another way of reaching the summit is by a walking track (3 km return).

Rotary Lookout lies at the end of Luke St in South Gundagai. For hikers, there is Mt Kimo above the Gundagai Caravan Village.

Reno, 12 km north of town on the Burra Rd, offers a panoramic view of Gundagai and the surrounding countryside.

Fishing
Fishing (especially for trout) is popular in the Murrumbidgee River and there is a boat ramp close to the Gundagai Caravan Village on Nangus Rd.

	Tourist Information
	Gundagai Tourist Information Centre Sheridan St Gundagai NSW 2722 Telephone: (02) 6944 1341 Facsimile: (02) 6944 1409
	Motels
	Bushman's Retreat Motel Cnr Mount & Cross Sts Gundagai NSW 2722 Telephone: (02) 6944 1433 Rating: **
	Gabriel Motor Inn Cnr Sheridan & Otway Sts Gundagai NSW 2722 Telephone: (02) 6944 1311 Facsimile: (02) 6944 1811 Rating: ***1/2
	Garden Motor Inn West St Gundagai NSW 2722 Telephone: (02) 6944 1744 Rating: ***
	Gundagai Motel Cnr West & Sheridan Sts Gundagai NSW 2722 Telephone: (02) 6944 1066 Rating: **
	Poets' Recall Motel Cnr West & Punch Sts Gundagai NSW 2722 Telephone: (02) 6944 1777 Rating: ***
	Hotels
	Criterion Hotel 172 Sheridan St Gundagai NSW 2722 Telephone: (02) 6944 1048
	Hotel Gundagai 213 Sheridan St Gundagai NSW 2722 Telephone: (02) 6944 1019
	Hume Hotel 1 Tumut St Gundagai NSW 2722 Telephone: (02) 6944 1031
	Royal Hotel 116 Sheridan St Gundagai NSW 2722 Telephone: (02) 6944 1024
	Star Hotel Mount St Gundagai NSW 2722 Telephone: (02) 6944 1030
	Caravan Parks
	Gundagai Auto Cabins & Motel 108 West St Gundagai NSW 2722 Telephone: (02) 6944 1318 Rating: **
	Gundagai River Caravan Park Middleton Dve Gundagai NSW 2722 Telephone: (02) 6944 1702 Rating: **
	Gundagai Tourist Park Junee Rd Gundagai NSW 2722 Telephone: (02) 6944 1620 Facsimile: (02) 6944 2758 Rating: ****
	Restaurants
	Bushman's Retreat Motel Restaurant Cnr Mount & Cross Sts Gundagai NSW 2722 Telephone: (02) 6944 1433
	Garden Motor Inn Restaurant West St Gundagai NSW 2722 Telephone: (02) 6944 1744
	Poets' Recall Motel Restaurant Cnr West & Punch Sts Gundagai NSW 2722 Telephone: (02) 6944 1777
	The Train Stop Restaurant Hume Hwy Gundagai NSW 2722 Telephone: (02) 6944 1076