Urana is a small town in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. The town is in the Federation Council local government area. Urana is located between Lockhart and Jerilderie, about southwest of the state capital,

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

. To the west lies Lake Urana and the

Lake Urana Nature Reserve The Lake Urana Nature Reserve is a protected nature reserve situated adjacent to Lake Urana, a salt lake, that is located in the Riverina region of New South Wales in eastern Australia. The reserve is situated near the rural locality of . The ...

. To the east lies a smaller lake, Lake Uranagong. Urana was the major town and headquarters of the former

Urana Shire Urana is a small town in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. The town is in the Federation Council local government area. Urana is located between Lockhart and Jerilderie, about southwest of the state capital, Sydney. To the wes ...

. The shire included the localities of

Boree Creek Boree Creek is a town in the Riverina district of New South Wales, Australia. The town is located south west of the state capital, Sydney and west of the regional centre, Wagga Wagga. Boree Creek is situated in the Federation Council local gov ...

Morundah Morundah is a small town in the Murray region of New South Wales, Australia. The town is located on the Newell Highway and in the Federation Council local government area. The town consists of a hotel, some silos and a few houses. At the 20 ...

, Oaklands and Rand. The Urana district is used for raising sheep and for growing wheat and other grain crops. In the , there were 298 people in Urana, of these 56.3% were male and 43.7% were female. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 3.7% of the population.

History

Origin of Name Urana is likely to come from a Wiradjuri word "airana" used to describe a temporary shelter (usually consisting of a simple frame of branches covered with bark, leaves, or grass). The area was home to the Wiradjuri Aboriginal people prior to European occupation and Squatters expansion and set up of stations. Urana was first settled by Europeans during the 1850s. In May 1859 a design for the "Town of Urana" by Surveyor Hayes was approved by the New South Wales Executive Council. Urana Post Office opened on 1 January 1861. In August 1863 near Urana the notorious

bushranger Bushrangers were originally escaped convicts in the early years of the British settlement of Australia who used the bush as a refuge to hide from the authorities. By the 1820s, the term had evolved to refer to those who took up "robbery under ...

, Dan 'Mad Dog' Morgan, and his accomplice Clarke held up the Police Magistrate based at Wagga Wagga,

Henry Baylis Henry Baylis (17 April 1826 – 5 July 1905) was an Australian police officer and the first police magistrate of the Wagga Wagga district in New South Wales. He served in that position for almost forty years and helped with the development and ...

. A few days after this incident Baylis led a party of policemen to the bushrangers' camp; shots were exchanged and both Baylis and the bushranger Clarke were wounded. Morgan and Clarke both escaped on this occasion. In 1866 Urana township consisted of two public houses, the Urana Hotel and the Royal Hotel. In addition there was a post-office, two large stores, and a police-station and lock-up. A new court-house was erected at Urana in 1879. Urana Shire Council was proclaimed in 1906 and dissolved in 2016, to become part of the Federation Council.

Religion

During 1882 a Roman Catholic church was completed, with Father Burmingham celebrating the first service on 7 January 1883. The Rev. George Wilson Adam was the first Presbyterian minister of the separate parish of Urana (at that time administered from Victoria). Rev. Adam's term extended from 1878 to 1887. His successor, Rev. Matthew Bell, was a part of the Presbyterian Church of New South Wales; he was inducted in 1888 and resigned in 1904. During Rev. Bell's tenure at Urana three wooden churches were built: one at Urana, and one each at the district preaching centres, Old Goree and Boree Creek.

Sport and Recreation

The Urana Football Club was an

Australian Rules Football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

club established in April 1898 at a meeting in the Commercial Hotel. Urana's first published match was against Lockhart in August, 1898, losing by four goals to a more experienced side. In 1901, Urana won all there games they played in. In 1909 the Urana & District Football Association was formed at a meeting from the following club's - Daysdale, Oaklands and Urana. Former Corowa Football Club premiership coach, Ray "Nana" Baker was coach of Urana Football Club in 1934. Former Urana footballer,

Max Urquhart Max Urquhart (born 1 July 1942) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for Collingwood in the Victorian Football League (VFL) during the 1960s. Urquhart, a New South Welshman, who played in the 1959 Coreen & District Football Leag ...

was recruited to

Collingwood Football Club The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed the Magpies or colloquially the Pies, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. The club w ...

in 1963. ;Competitions played in The Urana FC played in the following competitions. *1909: Urana & District Football Association *1911–1914: Lockhart & District Football Association. Premiers - 1914 *1915: Club active but did not play in any official competition. *1916–1918: Club in recess due to World War One. *1919–1920: Club active but did not play in any official competition. *1921–1922: Lockhart & District Football Association. 1921 Premiers: Pleasant Hills *1923: The Rock Oaklands Lines Football Association: Premiers - Oaklands FC *1924: The Lockhart Oaklands Lines Football Association: Premiers - Oaklands FC *1925–1926: Club in recess. *1927–1928: Club reformed in May 1927. Club active but did not play in any official competition. *1929–1930:

Coreen & District Football League The Coreen & District Football League was an Australian rules football competition in the Coreen district of the Riverina in New South Wales, initially formed in 1909. The netball competition commenced in 1972 in line with the football fixture ...

: Urana applied for admission into the

in 1929, but were initially knocked back. *1931:

Southern Riverina Football Association The Southern Riverina Football Association was first established in 1905 for towns in the Southern Riverina area of New South Wales, near the Murray River, which evolved into a strong and vibrant Australian rules football competition for the next 27 ...

*1932–1935: Corowa & District Football Association *1936–1937:

Faithful & District Football Association The Faithful & District Football Association was an Australian Rules Football competition, based in the Riverina region of New South Wales first established in 1920 at a meeting of club delegates from the following football clubs - Greenvale, Fait ...

*1938: Club in recess. *1939–1945: Club in recess due to World War Two. *1946–1972:

. Merged with Cullivel in 1946 and played in the

from 1946 to 1972 as Urana Cullivel FC. Premiers: 1953, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1966, 1967. *1973–2003:

. Played as the Urana FC. Thirds Premiers: 1989 *2004–2007:

. Merged with Oaklands FC to form the Billabong Crows in 2004. *2008–2022:

Hume Football League The Hume Australian Football Netball League (HFNL), often shortened to Hume Football League, is an Australian rules football and netball competition containing twelve clubs based in the South West Slopes and southern Riverina regions of New South ...

. Played as the Billabong Crows FC Urana also formerly had a rugby league team which competed in the

Group 13 Rugby League The Group 13 Rugby league Competition is a defunct New South Wales Country Rugby League group competition which was run under the auspices of the Club Rugby League. It was disbanded after the 1991 Season. It covered an area which was the Souther ...

competition.

Heritage listings

Urana has a number of heritage-listed sites, including: * Anna Street:

Urana Soldiers' Memorial Hall The Urana Soldiers' Memorial Hall is a heritage-listed community hall located at Anna Street, Urana, Federation Council, New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by George Sheppard (in 1884 as the Mechanics Institute Hall) and by Sidney Ja ...

Climate

Urana has a cold semi-arid climate ( Köppen ''BSk''), a little too dry to be a

humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a zone of climate characterized by hot and humid summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between latitudes 25° and 40° ...

, characterised by hot summers with pleasant mornings and overwhelmingly clear skies, and cool to cold winters with moderate cloud cover. Seasonal range is great across the year.

Notable residents

Notable people from Urana include: * Bill Brownless, Australian rules footballer was born at the Urana Hospital * Billy Field, Singer * Fred Fox, The Queen's milliner * Alf Hacker, Australian rules footballer * Dame

Ella Macknight Dame Ella Annie Noble Macknight, DBE, MRCOG, FRCOG, FAMA, FAGO (7 August 1904, Urana, New South Wales – 1 April 1997, Malvern, Victoria) was an Australian obstetrician and gynaecologist who worked at the Queen Victoria Hospital, Melbourne. ...

* Norm Provan, Rugby league player *

, Australian rules footballer

Gallery

File:Itsy Bitsy by Andrew Whitehead.jpg, Sculpture 'Itsy Bitsy' by local artist Andrew Whitehead on the water tower. File:UranaHotel1.JPG, Hotel Urana, the only remaining pub in Urana. File:UranaPlain.JPG, The flat Urana plain File:UranaPostOffice1.JPG, Historic post office File:UranaJMSmith.JPG, JM Smith office

External links

References

{{authority control Towns in the Riverina Towns in New South Wales Federation Council, New South Wales