Gunnedah is a town in north-eastern

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 and is the seat of the

Gunnedah Shire Gunnedah Shire is a local government area in the North West Slopes region of New South Wales, Australia. The Shire is located adjacent to the Liverpool Plains in the Namoi River valley and is traversed by the Oxley Highway and the Kamilaroi H ...

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 ...

. In the the town recorded a population of 9,726. Gunnedah is situated within the Liverpool Plains, a fertile agricultural region, with 80% of the surrounding shire area devoted to farming. The

Namoi River The Namoi River, a major perennial river that is part of the Barwon catchment of the Murray–Darling basin, is located in the Northern Tablelands and North West Slopes districts of New South Wales, Australia. The Namoi River rises on the we ...

flows west then north-west through the town providing water beneficial to agricultural operations in the area. The Gunnedah area is a significant producer of cotton, coal, beef, lamb and pork, and cereal and oilseed grains. Gunnedah is also home to AgQuip, Australia's largest annual agricultural field day. Gunnedah is located on the Oxley and Kamilaroi Highways providing convenient road links to much of the northern sector of the state including to the regional centre Tamworth, distant. The town has a station on the

Mungindi railway line The Mungindi railway line is a railway line in northern New South Wales, Australia. It branches from the Main North line at Werris Creek station and heads north-west through the towns of Gunnedah and Narrabri before reaching Moree which for ...

and is served by the daily NSW TrainLink Xplorer passenger service to and from

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 Mounta ...

and Moree. It claims the title "Koala Capital of World". In recent years the local shire council has moved away from this promotional tagline and there are concerns over the health of the local koala population and the impacts of climate change and local mining developments on koala habitat.

History

Gunnedah and the surrounding areas were originally inhabited by Aboriginal Australians speaking the Kamilaroi ( Gamilaraay) language. The name of the town in Kamilaroi means "Place of White Stones". The area now occupied by the town was settled by European sheep farmers in 1833 or 1834. With settlement in the area focused on wool production, Gunnedah was initially known as 'The Woolshed' until taking its name from the local Indigenous people who called themselves the ''Gunn-e-darr'',Gunnedah
. About New South Wales. Retrieved 19 March 2013. the most famous of whom was Cumbo Gunnerah.

Dorothea Mackellar Isobel Marion Dorothea Mackellar, (1 July 1885 – 14 January 1968) was an Australian poet and fiction writer. Her poem '' My Country'' is widely known in Australia, especially its second stanza, which begins: "''I love a sunburnt countr ...

wrote her famous poem '' My Country'' (popularly known as ''I Love a Sunburnt Country'') about her family's farm near Gunnedah. This is remembered by the annual Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Awards for school students held in Gunnedah. The town is the home town of supermodels Miranda Kerr and

Erica Packer Erica Louise Packer (née Baxter; born 10 November 1977) is a former Australian singer and model. She was the second wife of Australia's eighth richest man, James Packer. Music career In 2006, Baxter signed a multiple-album recording contract ...

, as well as photographer, Dean West. Coal was discovered on Black Jack Hill in 1877. By 1891, 6,000 tons of coal had been raised from shafts. The Gunnedah Colliery Company was registered in May 1899 and by 22 June a private railway some in length had been completed from the railway station to their mine. In September 1957, the Government Railway took over the working of the line. In early 2012, Gunnedah experienced a mining boom resulting in rental properties being leased by mining companies for up to $1,350 per week.

Heritage listings

Gunnedah has a number of heritage-listed sites, including: * Werris Creek-Moree railway: Gunnedah railway station * Gunnedah Leather Processors

Population

According to the 2016 census of Population, there are 9,726 people in Gunnedah. * Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 13.7% of the population. * 86.2% of people were born in Australia and 90.2% of people only spoke English at home. * The most common responses for religion were Anglican 28.8%, Catholic 27.3% and No Religion 20.3%.

Sports

The most popular sport in Gunnedah by a wide margin is

Rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

. The local team, the Gunnedah Bulldogs, play out of Kitchener Park. They compete in the Group 4 Rugby League competition, in which they have won seven premierships. Other sports teams include the Gunnedah AFL Bulldogs and Gunnedah Red Devils RUFC.

Geography

Gunnedah Shire is situated above sea level on the Liverpool Plains in the

valley. It is very flat; the tallest hills are above sea level. The climate is hot in summer, mild in winter and dry, although rainstorms in catchment areas occasionally cause flooding of the Namoi River. Major floods cut transport links to the town, briefly isolating it from the outside world. The town is located on a rich coal seam and within the northern New South Wales wheat belt. The Gunnedah area is noted for its abundance of native wildlife, including

kangaroo Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern ...

s, echidnas and

koala The koala or, inaccurately, koala bear (''Phascolarctos cinereus''), is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia. It is the only extant representative of the family Phascolarctidae and its closest living relatives are the ...

s. Koalas can often be found in trees within the town, as well as in the surrounding countryside with the help of signs placed by the local tourist centre. The koala population is considered to be the largest koala colony in the state, west of the Great Dividing Range.

Climate

Gunnedah has a

subtropical climate The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical and climate zones to the north and south of the tropics. Geographically part of the temperate zones of both hemispheres, they cover the middle latitudes from to approximately 35° north a ...

with temperatures regularly rising above 40 °C in summer and dropping below 0 °C in winter. This is due to the town's far inland location on the North West Slopes. Its average annual rainfall is , which is spread throughout the year, however severe thunderstorms in the summer months often cause heavy downpours which boost rainfall totals. The highest daily maximum temperature recorded was , on 24 January 1882; the lowest daily maximum temperature recorded was , on 4 August 1921. Snowfall is very rare, with the most recent occurrence in 1984. Gunnedah miners

Education

Gunnedah has three secondary schools: Gunnedah High School, Carinya Christian school and St Mary's College. There are three government (Gunnedah Public School, Gunnedah South Public School, and G.S. Kidd Memorial School) and two non-government (St Xavier's Catholic School and Carinya Christian School) primary schools. A campus of the New England Institute of TAFE is also located within the town.

Media

Local media include the
Gunnedah Times
' and ''Namoi Valley Independent'' newspapers and the radio stations 2MO and 2GGG. The ''Namoi Valley Independent'', published by Australian Community Media, switched to a digital-only newspaper model in 2020. The ''Gunnedah Times'' started as a print newspaper in November 2020 and is published by the Dunnet family, of Narrabri, who also publishes the bi-weekly ''The Courier'' newspaper in Narrabri. 2MO began broadcasting in 1930 and was only the fourth Radio Licence issued in Australia, being the first station established in Australia outside a capital city.

Transport

The

Oxley Highway Oxley Highway is a rural highway in New South Wales, Australia, linking Nevertire, Gilgandra, Coonabarabran, Tamworth, and Walcha to Port Macquarie, on the coast of the Tasman Sea. It was named to commemorate John Oxley, the first European t ...

and the

Kamilaroi Highway Kamilaroi Highway is a state highway located in the north-western region of New South Wales, Australia, and links via and to . The highway is named after the Kamilaroi Indigenous Australian people who live in the area. Route The highway ...

both pass through Gunnedah, for a short distance, concurrently. The Oxley Highway leads to Tamworth in the east and Coonabarabran to the west. The Kamilaroi Highway leads to Quirindi to the south-east and

Boggabri Boggabri ( ) is a small town in north-eastern New South Wales, Australia. It is part of Narrabri Shire and lies between Gunnedah and Narrabri on the Kamilaroi Highway. At the , the town had a population of 856 people. The original town si ...

to the north-west.

Railway station

Gunnedah railway station is situated on the Mungindi (or North West) railway line, from Sydney. The station, opened in 1879, consists of a substantial station building on a single side platform, a passing loop and small goods yard. There are also sidings serving an adjacent flour mill. To the west of the station there are extensive sidings serving grain silos and loop sidings serving coal loading facilities. For a brief three-year period after the railway arrived in Gunnedah it was the railhead until construction was completed to

and then to Narrabri South Junction in 1882. Currently a single daily Xplorer diesel railmotor operating between

and Moree serves the station.

Notable Gunnedahians

Leanne Castley Leanne Castley (born 1974) is a member of parliament in the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly representing the ACT Liberal Party. Castley was born in the rural NSW town of Gunnedah, however grew up in the Canberra suburb of ...

– Member of the ACT Legislative Assembly * Sara Carrigan – Olympic Gold Medallist *

Gordon Bray Gordon Timothy Bray AM (born 23 June 1949) is an Australian sports commentator and sports journalist. He is colloquially known as "The Voice of Rugby". Early life Brought up in the Sydney suburb of Canada Bay and educated at Homebush Boys High ...

– Sports Commentator * John "Dallas" Donnelly – rugby league player *

Tom Gleeson Thomas Francis Gleeson (born 2 June 1974) is an Australian stand-up comedian, writer, television and radio presenter. Gleeson formerly co-hosted ''The Weekly with Charlie Pickering'' alongside Judith Lucy and currently hosts ''Hard Quiz'', both ...

– Comedian * Lindsay Johnston – rugby league player * Miranda Kerr – model * Michael Kilborn – cricketer and cardiologist *

– poet *

Sam Naismith Sam Naismith (born 16 July 1992) was a former Ruckman for the Sydney Swans. He is currently signed to the Port Melbourne Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL). Early life and junior football Naismith was born in Narrabri, New So ...

- Australian rules footballer * John O'Neill – rugby league player *

– model and singer, ex-wife of

James Packer James Douglas Packer (born 8 September 1967) is an Australian billionaire businessman and investor. Packer is the son of Kerry Packer , a media mogul, and his wife, Roslyn Packer . He is the grandson of Sir Frank Packer. He inherited control o ...

- Australian billionaire businessman and investor * Angus Roberts – rugby union player * Ben Smith – rugby league player * Pat Studdy-Clift - author * Ron Turner – rugby league player * James Wynne – rugby league player * Sergeant

Leonard Siffleet Leonard George Siffleet (14 January 1916 – 24 October 1943) was an Australian commando of World War II. Born in Gunnedah, New South Wales, he joined the Second Australian Imperial Force in 1941, and by 1943 had reached the rank of ...

– WWII Commando * Harry Wilson - Rugby Union player, Queensland Reds and Wallabies.

References

External links

Visit GunnedahGunnedah Shire CouncilGunnedah High SchoolGunnedah -VisitNSW.com
{{authority control Towns in New South Wales North West Slopes Populated places established in 1833 1833 establishments in Australia Gunnedah Shire