Nerrigundah is a small village on the Eurobodalla Nature Coast in south 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 ...

. Situated at the head of the Tuross River Valley, it is nineteen kilometres inland from Bodalla. At the , Nerrigundah had a population of 25. The area known today as Nerrigundah lies on the traditional lands of the

Walbanga The Walbunja, also spelt Walbanga and Walbunga, are an Aboriginal Australian people of New South Wales, part of the Yuin nation. Language The Walbunja language may be a dialect of Dhurga. Country Walbunja Country covers a region from Cape Dr ...

people, a group of the

Yuin The Yuin nation, also spelt Djuwin, is a group of Australian Aboriginal peoples from the South Coast of New South Wales. All Yuin people share ancestors who spoke, as their first language, one or more of the Yuin language dialects. Sub-group ...

. The place name, Nerrigundah, is derived from an aboriginal word for 'camp where edible berries grow'. Nerrigundah and its valley were used as a cattle run by Thomas Mort of Bodalla prior to the discovery of

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...

on 23 December 1860 by George Cook, Joseph Goodenough and William Crouch. The discovery of gold was recorded at the office of the Gold Commissioner at

Braidwood, New South Wales Braidwood is a town in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia, in Queanbeyan–Palerang Regional Council. It is located on the Kings Highway linking Canberra with Batemans Bay. It is approximately 200 kilometres south west of ...

on 2 January 1861. On 8 April 1866, Nerrigundah was raided by the

Clarke brothers Brothers Thomas (c. 1840 – 25 June 1867) and John Clarke (c. 1846 – 25 June 1867) were Australian bushrangers from the Braidwood district of New South Wales. They committed a series of high-profile crimes which led to the enacting of the Fe ...

, Thomas and John, and their associates. They held up a number of passers-by outside the town at Deep Creek and then attacked the store and hotel. During the raid, William Fletcher, a new recruit to the Clarke gang, was shot dead as was Trooper Miles O'Grady when he tried to intervene. Trooper O'Grady was buried in Moruya and a monument to his memory erected at Nerrigundah. Although the area was already a mining settlement, the site of the Village of Nerrigundah was not reserved until April 1868. The plan of the village probably reflects the irregular layout of the earlier settlement. Gold mining in the area continued into the early years of the 20th-century. After the heyday of gold mining, Nerrigundah survived as a small village sustained by local production of timber, wattle bark (for tanning) and eucalyptus oil. Nerrigundah had a sawmill that provided employment, including for local Yuin people. The sawmilling company also provided housing. The sawmilling operation had ended by 2000. The village had a school from 1863 to 1923 and again from 1959 to 1972. The village has more than one burial ground, including the cemetery dedicated in 1904. Nerrigundah was severely affected by bushfire, during the 2019-2020 Australian summer. On 31 December 2019, fire destroyed the village's hall and 20 of its 25 homes and one of its residents died.

References

External links

* Media at Wikimedia Commons under Nerrigundah, New South Wales
Riverbend Nelligen
{{authority control Towns in New South Wales Ghost towns in New South Wales Towns in the South Coast (New South Wales) Eurobodalla Shire Mining towns in New South Wales