Boggabilla is a small town in the far north of inland

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

in Moree Plains Shire. At the , the town had a population of 529, of which 43.5% identified as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent. The name Boggabilla comes from

Gamilaraay The Gamilaroi, also known as Gomeroi, Kamilaroi, Kamillaroi and other variations, are an Aboriginal Australian people whose lands extend from New South Wales to southern Queensland. They form one of the four largest Indigenous nations in Austr ...

''bagaaybila'', literally "full of creeks". The same "creek" element is found in the name of

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 885 people. History The original to ...

Geography

Boggabilla is located on the southern bank of the

Macintyre River The Macintyre River, a perennial river that forms part of the Border Rivers group, is part of the Barwon catchment of the Murray-Darling basin, located in the Northern Tablelands and North West Slopes regions of New South Wales, and the So ...

, north of Moree. The

Newell Highway Newell Highway is a National Highway (Australia), national highway in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. It provides the major road link between southeastern Queensland and Victoria (state), Victoria via central NSW and as such carries large amo ...

passes through Boggabilla and is met by the Bruxner Way at a junction in the centre of town. Surrounding localities include Toomelah Station to the east, while the larger town of

Goondiwindi Goondiwindi () is a rural town and Suburbs and localities (Australia), locality in the Goondiwindi Region, Queensland, Australia. It is on the border of Queensland and New South Wales. In the , the locality of Goondiwindi had a population of 6, ...

is northwest, across the border in

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

History

The Boggabilla region is situated roughly on the border of two large language groups of

Aboriginal Australians Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia (co ...

, the

Bigambul The Bigambul people are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Northern Tablelands and Border Rivers regions of New South Wales and Queensland. Name In the traditional language, the name of this group is derived from the Bigambul word or wh ...

and the northern clans of the

. British colonisation had a devastating effect on these people, with many being killed in frontier conflict and the Bigambul language now being extinct. The first British to enter the region were squatter pastoralists who started to take land in the early 1840s. Around 1843, George Yeomans and Otto Baldwin formed the Boggabilla pastoral station. They and their stockmen skirmished with the local Aboriginal men over occupation of the land and it wasn't until the arrival of the government funded

Native Police Australian native police were specialised mounted military units consisting of detachments of Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal troopers under the command of European officers appointed by British colonial governments. The units existed in va ...

force under Commandant Frederick Walker in 1849 that armed Aboriginal resistance around Boggabilla was put down. The township of Boggabilla was formed and allotments were first offered for sale in 1863.

Demographics

According to the 2021 census of Population, there were 529 in Boggabilla. * Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 43.5% of the population. * About 63.5% of people were born in Australia and 65.4% of people only spoke English at home. * 56.2% identified as Christian and 28.5% identified as having no religious affiliation.

Transport

Boggabilla used to have a railway service, but this has been cut back to

North Star, New South Wales North Star is a small village in the Gwydir Shire, located in northern New South Wales near the Queensland border. At the 2021 census, North Star had a population of 214 people in the surrounding area, with a population of around 50 in the actu ...

, where the last silo is located. Also, an airport and shuttle services are available to Sydney from Moree located 110 km south of Boggabilla. Daily bus services run both north and south.

Health

The nurses at Boggabilla Health Centre provide services such as preschool screening and immunisation. Heartbroken nurse quits over child abuse
''Sydney Morning Herald'', 23 June 2008.

Education

Boggabilla Central School has preparatory, primary, and secondary grades) and a

TAFE Technical and further education or simply TAFE () is the common name in Australia for vocational education, as a subset of tertiary education. TAFE institutions provide a wide range of predominantly vocational courses. Colloquially also known ...

(a campus of TAFE NSW).

References

External links

Boggabilla Photo GalleryBoggabilla 2011 Floods
{{authority control Towns in New South Wales Moree Plains Shire Newell Highway