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 Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, 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 River sh ...

local government area A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a State (administrative division), state, province, divi ...

. 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 altit ...

(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 foll ...

(HWY B23). It is on the southern end of the

Great Dividing Range The Great Dividing Range, also known as the East Australian Cordillera or the Eastern Highlands, is a cordillera system in eastern Australia consisting of an expansive collection of mountain ranges, plateaus and rolling hills, that runs rough ...

, at the west of the

Monaro Range Monaro ( ), once frequently spelled "Manaro", or in early years of settlement "Maneroo" is a region in the south of New South Wales, Australia. A small area of Victoria near Snowy River National Park is geographically part of the Monaro. While t ...

, and lies west of the

Wadbilliga National Park Wadbilliga National Park is a national park that is located in high country spanning the Monaro and South Coast regions of south-eastern New South Wales, Australia. Location and features Wadbilliga National Park is located southwest of Sydney ...

. 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 compoun ...

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 Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...

''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 gas) ...

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 * Chris ...

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 A courthouse or court house is a building that is home to a local court of law and often the regional county government as well, although this is not the case in some larger cities. The term is common in North America. In most other English-spe ...

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 tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

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