Wee Jasper is a hamlet in the
Goodradigbee valley at the western foot of the
Brindabella Ranges, near
Burrinjuck Dam in
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
Yass Valley Shire.
It is located about 90 km north-west of
Canberra
Canberra ( )
is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...
and 60 km south-west of
Yass
Yass may refer to:
People
* Catherine Yass (born 1963), painter
* Yazz, a British pop singer from the 1980s and 1990s
* Jeff Yass (born 1956), options trader, managing director and one of the five founders of the Philadelphia-based Susquehanna I ...
. At the , Wee Jasper and the surrounding area had a population of 127.
History and description
The place now known as Wee Jasper and the surrounding area of the Goodradigbee River valley lie on the traditional lands of the
Ngunnawal people. The area lay outside the
Nineteen Counties, in which the colonial government allowed colonial settlement; the
County of Buccleuch
The County of Buccleuch is one of the 49 cadastral counties of South Australia. It was proclaimed in 1893 and named for the sixth Duke of Buccleuch, William Scott, of Scotland. It is located east of the Murray River at the south western edge o ...
and the neighbouring
County of Cowley were not proclaimed, until 31 December 1848.
The origin of the name Wee Jasper is unknown. It has been in use since at latest 1848, when it appeared as a single-word name 'Weejasper'. Although both 'Weejasper' and 'Wee Jasper' were used subsequently, it was not until 1970 that the village's name changed officially from 'Weejasper' to Wee Jasper. The name is possibly of Aboriginal origin.
The
Hume and Hovell expedition passed through the area in October 1824.
Colonial settlement in the area dates from 1831, when a land grant at 'Cooradigbee' was made. It was one of the last free land grants in the colony of New South Wales, and it was only granted because it already had been promised by
Governor Darling, in October 1830. On 9 January 1831,
Viscount Goderich
Viscount Goderich was a title that was created twice in British history. The first creation came in the Peerage of England in 1706 in favour of Henry Grey, 12th Earl of Kent. He was made Marquess of Kent at the same time and was further honoure ...
instructed that no more free grants, except those already promised, be given. All land thereafter was to be sold at public auction. The land grant extinguished what would later—in 1992—become known as
native title over the land, effectively dispossessing the
traditional owners.
There was a site for a village, to be known as Goodradigbee, proclaimed in 1866, but its design was cancelled in 1900. The cluster of settlement instead developed, further upstream on the river, nearer to the eventual site of the bridge, at what is now the village of Wee Jasper.
'Coodra Vale', a property close to Wee Jasper of 40,000 acres (16,188 ha), was the home of pastoralist,
Stewart Ryrie, Junior, from 1871 until his death in 1882. From 1908 to 1912, 'Coodra Vale' was the home of renowned Australian bush-poet,
A.B. 'Banjo' Paterson;
his poem, ''A Mountain Station'', was informed by the time he spent there as an agriculturalist.
South of the village is the confluence of the Goodradigbee and its tributary, Wee Jasper Creek. Gold was found and mined along this creek, in the 1890s, when it was known as 'The Wee Jasper'. The Goodradigbee Goldfield, which included the area, was proclaimed in 1882, but was revoked in 1897. Although mining took place, the area was not a significant mining area.
The bridge across the Goodradigbee River, at Wee Jasper, opened in September 1896, providing a better connection from the area to Yass and Tumut. The filling of the
Burrinjuck Dam, during the 1920s, resulted in the inundation of part of the valley, downstream from the village. More land was inundated later, when the dam wall was raised.
Wee Jasper had a police station by 1887. Wee Jasper Post Office was first opened in January 1886 and closed in March 1892. Three years later, it was reopened again and remained in service until 1994.
There is a school at Wee Jasper, which opened as a provisional school in 1899 and achieved public school status in 1918. Wee Jasper had a Catholic church, now repurposed.
Near the village are several camping and recreation reserves close to
numerous caves. The best known cave is Carey's Cave, a system of seven caverns lying just north of the town.
Others lie to the north and south, including Dip, Dogleg, Punch-bowl and Signature Caves.
Fossils, including members of the
Acanthothoracid
Acanthothoraci (''spine chests'') is an extinct group of chimaera-like placoderms who were closely related to the rhenanid placoderms. Superficially, the acanthoracids resembled scaly chimaeras, or (relatively) heavily armored ptyctodonts. Th ...
placoderm fish family
Weejasperaspididae
Weejasperaspididae ("Shields of Wee Jasper") is a family of three extinct acanthothoracid placoderms indigenous to the Early Devonian of Victoria and New South Wales, Australia.
Description
The Weejasperaspids are known from median dorsal pla ...
, the primitive
placoderm ''
Brindabellaspis stensioi
''Brindabellaspis stensioi'' ("Erik Stensiö's Brindabella Ranges Shield") is a placoderm with a flat, platypus-like snout from the Early Devonian of the Taemas-Wee Jasper reef in Australia. When it was first discovered in 1980, it was originally ...
'' and the prehistoric
lungfish
Lungfish are freshwater vertebrates belonging to the order Dipnoi. Lungfish are best known for retaining ancestral characteristics within the Osteichthyes, including the ability to breathe air, and ancestral structures within Sarcopterygii, i ...
, ''
Dipnorhynchus cathlesae'', have been found in the area.
Heritage listings
Wee Jasper has a number of heritage-listed sites, including:
* 278 Main Road:
Wee Jasper Bridge over Goodradigbee River
Gallery
Image:Wee jasper town sign 2008.jpg, Wee Jasper town sign
Image:Wee jasper bridge 2008.jpg, The main bridge spanning the Goodradigbee River
Goodradigbee River, a perennial stream that is part of the Murrumbidgee catchment within the Murray–Darling basin, is located in the Snowy Mountains district of New South Wales, Australia.
Course and features
The river rises below Mount Mo ...
going into Wee Jasper
Climate
Wee Jasper has an identical climate to that of
Batlow
Batlow is a town in the South West Slopes region of New South Wales, Australia, on the edge of the Great Dividing Range, 775 m above sea level.
Batlow is well known for its apples. About 50 growers in the district supply 1.6 million cas ...
; comprising warm, stormy summers and cold, very wet winters with moderate to heavy
snowfalls.
Maximum temperatures are significantly cooler than regions of similar altitude in the
Australian Capital Territory
The Australian Capital Territory (commonly abbreviated as ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) until 1938, is a landlocked federal territory of Australia containing the national capital Canberra and some surrounding townships. ...
, owing to its
windward position on the western slopes of the
Brindabella Range.
References
{{authority control
Towns in New South Wales
Southern Tablelands
Yass Valley Council