Bundanoon is a town in the
Southern Highlands of
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
Wingecarribee Shire
Wingecarribee Shire is the local government area of the Southern Highlands in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The Wingecarribee Shire is around southwest of the Sydney central business district and is part of regional Capital Country ...
, on
Gandangarra
The Gundungurra people, also spelt Gundungara, Gandangarra, Gandangara and other variations, are an Aboriginal Australian people in south-eastern New South Wales, Australia. Their traditional lands include present day Goulburn, Wollondilly Shire ...
and
Dharawal
The Dharawal people, also spelt Tharawal and other variants, are an Aboriginal Australian people, identified by the Dharawal language. Traditionally, they lived as hunter–fisher–gatherers in family groups or clans with ties of kinship, s ...
Country (where these two countries meet). It is an Aboriginal name meaning "place of deep gullies" and was formerly known as ''Jordan's Crossing''.
Bundanoon is colloquially known as ''Bundy/Bundi''.
Bundanoon, like its fellow Southern Villages of the Southern Highlands, has had a boom-and-bust
economic cycle
Business cycles are intervals of expansion followed by recession in economic activity. These changes have implications for the welfare of the broad population as well as for private institutions. Typically business cycles are measured by examini ...
. The town became a well-known tourist destination early in the 20th century; its picturesqueness and the scenery of what is now
Morton National Park
The Morton National Park is a national park located in the Southern Highlands, South Coast and Illawarra regions of New South Wales, Australia, situated approximately south southwest of Sydney.
Location and features
The most notable attractio ...
, combined with being served by the railway network, made it a pleasant and convenient holiday area for city dwellers who could not afford more expensive accommodations at the popular
Blue Mountains resort area. By the 1950s, however, changes in lifestyle, particularly the affordability of the
motor car
A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods.
The year 1886 is regarded as t ...
, gave city dwellers more options and Bundanoon declined.
The Sydney real estate boom of the early 21st century made Bundanoon an affordable haven within commuting distance of the city. Property values increased several-fold, and houses in Bundanoon were selling for over a million dollars by 2007.
Several houses in the town were destroyed by a
bushfire in January 2020.
Population
At the
2021 census there were 2,869 people residing in Bundanoon.
The recorded 2,729 people living in Bundanoon. The town's population was significantly older than the general population: their median age was 56 years, 18 years older than the national median age of 38. Children aged under 15 made up 13.8% of the population (fewer than the national average of 18.7%) and people aged 65 years and over made up 36.0% of the population (more than double the national average of 15.8%). This is reflected in the low workforce participation, with only 1,078 of the 2,729 people reporting themselves as being in the labour force. Of these, 49.6% were employed full-time, 41.7% were employed part-time and 4.2% were unemployed. 76.6% of people living in Bundanoon were born in Australia; the next most common countries of birth were England 8.7%, New Zealand 1.4%, and Germany 1.1%. 92.5% of people only spoke English at home. The most common responses for religion were No Religion 29.4%, Anglican 27.4% and Catholic 18.7%.
Annual events
*
Brigadoon
''Brigadoon'' is a musical with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, and music by Frederick Loewe. The song " Almost Like Being in Love", from the musical, has become a standard. It features two American tourists who stumble upon Brigadoon, a ...
Highland Gathering – every April (established 1977) – attracts Scottish participants and tourists from around the world.
* Garden Ramble – every October (established 1996)
* Bundanoon hosts the Sydney Gilbert & Sullivan Opera every spring over 1 weekend. Performances are a sellout at the Soldiers' Memorial Hall and are a much loved annual event.
Churches
Anglican: Part of the Sutton Forest parish.
In 1879, Holy Trinity Anglican church was built on its present site. (The timber church was destroyed by bushfire in December 1904; rebuilt in stone in 1905.)
Catholic: Part of the parish of St Paul's in Moss Vale.
St Brigid's Catholic Church was built in 1895. Prior to that, Roman Catholic services were conducted at Sutton Forest.
Uniting: Part of the Moss Vale–Bundanoon–Robertson parish.
By 1870 the Primitive Methodist Church was established on the corner where the Soldiers' Memorial Hall now stands. The Primitive Methodists moved to a new building in 1885 (now the Uniting Church) and leased the original site to shop owners.
File:Holy Trinity Church, Bundanoon 4.jpg, Holy Trinity Anglican Church
File:St Brigid's Catholic Church, Bundanoon.jpg, St Brigid's Catholic Church
File:Uniting Church, Bundanoon.jpg, Uniting Church
Other places of worship
Theravada Buddhist
''Theravāda'' () ( si, ථේරවාදය, my, ထေရဝါဒ, th, เถรวาท, km, ថេរវាទ, lo, ເຖຣະວາດ, pi, , ) is the most commonly accepted name of Buddhism's oldest existing school. The school' ...
: Santi Forest Monastery is at 100 Coalmines Rd, Bundanoon. Santi Forest
vihara is a Buddhist Nuns'
hermit
A hermit, also known as an eremite (adjectival form: hermitic or eremitic) or solitary, is a person who lives in seclusion. Eremitism plays a role in a variety of religions.
Description
In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Ch ...
age
meditation
Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally cal ...
and contemplative
monastery
A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...
, a place of practice for
Bhikkhunī
A bhikkhunī ( pi, 𑀪𑀺𑀓𑁆𑀔𑀼𑀦𑀻) or bhikṣuṇī ( sa, भिक्षुणी) is a fully ordained Nun, female monastic in Buddhism. Male monastics are called bhikkhus. Both bhikkhunis and bhikkhus live by the Vinaya, a ...
nuns in the Theravada Forest tradition of Buddhism.
School
Bundanoon Public School was established in 1871. It had an enrolment of 190 students as at 2016, which had dropped to 160 in 2020.
The Primitive Methodist Church hall served as the first school, with Mrs Dinah Osborne as teacher. A new school of two rooms was built in 1880 and is still used as the school library.
Transport
Bundanoon railway station
Bundanoon railway station is a heritage-listed railway station on the Main South line in New South Wales, Australia. It serves the small town of Bundanoon. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.
History
T ...
is located on the Southern Highlands line. Most services terminate at Moss Vale, meaning Bundanoon only receives limited services. Sydney to Canberra services also stop at the station.
Local bus services are provided by Berrima Bus Lines.
On the day of the , 4.1% of employed people travelled to work on public transport and 65.3% by car (either as driver or as passenger).
Sport
*Football - Bundanoon Rebels Football Club (est 1991) enters junior and senior teams in the local Highlands competition. Soccer is the main winter sport played with 5 acres of fields provided at Ferndale Reserve.
*Cricket - Bundanoon Cricket Club enters junior cricket teams for boys and girls, and senior cricket teams, in the HDCA competition.
*Rolloff World Championships are held in Bundanoon.
Heritage listings
Bundanoon has a number of heritage-listed sites, including:
* Main Southern railway:
Bundanoon railway station
Bundanoon railway station is a heritage-listed railway station on the Main South line in New South Wales, Australia. It serves the small town of Bundanoon. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.
History
T ...
History
The town was originally named Jordan's Crossing. The change of name for post office was gazetted in April 1881, although it had been reported as "Bundanoon township at Jordan's Crossing" when a meeting was held in 1870 to establish the public school.
Bundanoon History Group
Established in the early 1980s, the Bundanoon History Group meets once a month in The Old Goods Shed, where its collection of photographs and written records are held.
Ban on bottled water
In July 2009 "Bundy on Tap", a community initiative in Bundanoon,
declared itself opposed to the sale of
bottled drinking water on environmental grounds; local businesses instead committed themselves to filling re-usable bottles with tap water on request.
The issue of bottled water was to protest against companies
Norlex and
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlanta ...
(that owns Australian bottled water brands
Neverfail and
Mount Franklin) extracting water from the town's groundwater.
2020 Bushfire
In January 2020, the town was affected by a bushfire during the
2019–20 Australian bushfire season
The 201920 Australian bushfire season (Black Summer), was a period of bushfires in many parts of Australia, which, due to its unusual intensity, size, duration, and uncontrollable dimension, is considered a megafire. The Australian National ...
. Several homes were destroyed.
Notable residents
*
David Foster
David Walter Foster (born November 1, 1949) is a Canadian musician, composer, arranger, record producer and music executive who chaired Verve Records from 2012 to 2016. He has won 16 Grammy Awards from 47 nominations. His music career spans mor ...
(born 1944) novelist
*
Margaret Jeffrey
Margaret Lilian Jeffrey (née Hines; 14 July 1896 – 24 June 1977) was an Australian police officer who was one of the first women to hold high rank in the New South Wales Police.
Jeffrey was born in Bundanoon, New South Wales, to Susan (née ...
(1896–1977) senior policewoman
References
External links
Bundanoon Village Website Brigadoon Highland Gathering at Bundanoon*
Sunnataram Forest Monastery Bundanoon Community Web Bundanoon Garden Ramble Bundy on Tap
{{authority control
Towns of the Southern Highlands (New South Wales)
Wingecarribee Shire