Greg Greg is a rural locality in the Snowy Valleys Council local government area of New South Wales, Australia. The locality lies on the route between

Tumbarumba Tumbarumba ( ) is a small town in New South Wales, Australia, about southwest of the state capital, Sydney. Tumbarumba is located on the periphery of the Riverina and South West Slopes regions at the western edge of the Snowy Mountains. The s ...

and

Corryong Corryong is a small town in Victoria, Australia east of Albury-Wodonga, near the upper reaches of the Murray River and close to the New South Wales border. At the , Corryong had a population of 1,348. The post office opened on 1 February 1 ...

. The western boundary of the locality is the

Murray River The Murray River (in South Australia: River Murray) (Ngarrindjeri: ''Millewa'', Yorta Yorta: ''Tongala'') is a river in Southeastern Australia. It is Australia's longest river at extent. Its tributaries include five of the next six longest ...

(N.S.W. - Victoria border). Greg Greg lies close to where the Murray's course changes direction from generally south-to-north to generally west-to-east. Its northern boundary is the left bank of the

Tooma River Tooma River, a perennial stream that has had some of its flow diverted as a result of the Snowy Mountains Scheme, is part of the Murray catchment within the Murray–Darling basin and is located in the Australian Alpine region of New South Wale ...

, and its eastern boundary is with Kosciuszko National Park. To its south lies the rural locality of Bringenbrong. The area of the locality includes the parish of the same name, but also includes part of the neighbouring parish of Welumba. The area now known as Greg Greg lies close to the boundaries of the traditional lands of the

Ngarigo The Ngarigo People (also spelt Garego, Ngarego, Ngarago, Ngaragu, Ngarigu, Ngarrugu or Ngarroogoo) are Aboriginal Australian people of southeast New South Wales, whose traditional lands also extend around the present border with Victoria. Langu ...

people and Jaimathang people. Greg Greg takes its name from an early grazing run operated by John Pierce (1817—1897), from at least the early 1860s. The origin of the name Greg Greg is the settlers' rendering of an Aboriginal word, said to imitate the croaking of frogs. The area is relatively well-watered cattle grazing country. It was later subject to

selection Selection may refer to: Science * Selection (biology), also called natural selection, selection in evolution ** Sex selection, in genetics ** Mate selection, in mating ** Sexual selection in humans, in human sexuality ** Human mating strateg ...

—although it seems there was some 'dummying' by the Pierce family to retain effective control of their land—and also to subdivision, resulting in the smaller landholdings still apparent today. The Pierce family and Greg Greg Station became well known for breeding of thoroughbred horses, providing horses to annual horse sales into the 1950s. Jack Riley (1841-1914), one of the men who are held to be the inspiration for the character in the poem, ''The Man from Snowy River'', was employed by the Pierce family of Greg Greg, although he lived for much of the time in an isolated cabin at Tom Groggin, where the Pierces had a grazing lease. It is known that the poet, A. B. 'Banjo' Paterson, had met Riley. There is no bridge across the Murray at Greg Greg—the nearest are upstream at Towong and downstream at Tintaldra—but the old fording location known as the 'Lighthouse Crossing', lies immediately south of the locality. This old crossing was the scene of many accidental deaths and near misses, before the construction of the bridge at Towong. Prior to

Federation A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government ( federalism). In a federation, the self-govern ...

, the area around the old crossing was the location of smuggling activities to evade inter-colonial customs duties and other border controls. The lands bordering the Murray were particularly affected by colonial-era customs policies. There was a school at Greg Greg from 1881 to 1887 and again from 1950 to 1968.

References

{{Localities in Snowy Valleys Council Snowy Valleys Council