Coolringdon is a locality in the Local Government Area of the

Snowy Monaro Regional Council The Snowy Monaro Regional Council is a local government area located in the Snowy Mountains and Monaro regions of New South Wales, Australia. The council was formed on 12 May 2016 through a merger of the Bombala, Cooma-Monaro and Snowy Riv ...

, in the Monaro region of New South Wales, Australia. It lies in the foothills of the Snowy Mountains, west of

Cooma Cooma is a town in the south of New South Wales, Australia. It is located south of the national capital, Canberra, via the Monaro Highway. It is also on the Snowy Mountains Highway, connecting Bega with the Riverina. At the , Cooma had a po ...

. At the , there were 73 people usually residing in Coolringdon. The Cooma-Snowy Mountains Airport is located within the locality. Coolringdon is notable as being one of the proposed sites for Australia's national capital, prior to the selection of Canberra.

History

The area now known as Coolringdon lies on the traditional lands of the

Ngarigo The Ngarigo People (also spelt Garego, Ngarego, Ngarago, Ngaragu, Ngarigu, Ngarrugu or Ngarroogoo) are Aboriginal Australian people of southeast New South Wales, whose traditional lands also extend around the present border with Victoria. Lang ...

people. Called 'Coolerandong' by early colonial settlers, it is likely that the name of Coolringdon is derived from an Aboriginal language word that has been

anglicised Anglicisation is the process by which a place or person becomes influenced by English culture or British culture, or a process of cultural and/or linguistic change in which something non-English becomes English. It can also refer to the influen ...

. The area lay outside the

Nineteen Counties The Nineteen Counties were the limits of location in the colony of New South Wales, Australia. Settlers were permitted to take up land only within the counties due to the dangers in the wilderness. They were defined by the Governor of New Sout ...

, and settlers had no legal right—even under colonial law—to occupy land there, until 1836, after which grazing rights could be obtained by payment of a licence fee. Coolringdon Homestead circa 1900

The locality takes its name from a sheep station of the same name, which dates from 1829, and was one of the earliest colonial settlements in the Monaro. It was taken up as a squatting run by Stewart Ryrie, Deputy Commissary General of N.S.W. and patriarch of the Ryrie family of colonial settlers. By 1845, it was being managed by Stewart Ryrie's son, Stewart Ryrie, Jun., on behalf of its new owner, Dr Francis Lascelles Wallace, Stewart Ryrie's son-in-law. Later, it was a part of the extensive landholdings of William Bradley, and then once again returned to the Wallace family, the three nephews of Dr. F. L. Wallace. It is now owned and managed, by the John and Betty Casey Research Trust, as a working farm promoting best practice primary production and land management, and to preserve the historic homestead and garden. A public school was established in 1879 and operated until 1918.

Attractions

The well preserved Coolringdon Homestead is over 190 years old and is renowned for its heritage garden and school house. The Snowy River Sphere, a sculpture by artist Richard Moffatt, is made from steel beams left over from construction of the

Skitube Alpine Railway The Skitube Alpine Railway is an Australian standard gauge electric rack railway in the Kosciuszko National Park in New South Wales. It provides access to the snowfields at Blue Cow Mountain and the Perisher Valley. History In the 1980s, devel ...

and inspired by the rivers, ski runs and indigenous pathways of the region. It was commissioned by the

Snowy River Shire The Snowy River Shire was a local government area in the Australian Alps region of New South Wales, Australia from 1939 until May 2016. It was named after the Snowy River that runs through it. Prior to 1936, it had been named as Dalgety Shire ...

Council to mark the gateway to the region and installed at Coolringdon beside the

Kosciuszko Road Kosciuszko Road is a road in the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales, Australia which runs from , to the ski resort of in Kosciuszko National Park. Route Kosciuszko Road branches from Snowy Mountains Highway in Pine Valley, nearly 7km west of C ...

in 2011.

References

{{reflist Localities in New South Wales Snowy Mountains Snowy Monaro Regional Council Proposed sites for national capital of Australia