Moss Vale is a town in the
Southern Highlands of
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 ...
. Moss Vale is the administrative centre of
Wingecarribee Shire
Wingecarribee Shire is the Local government in Australia, local government area of the Southern Highlands (New South Wales), Southern Highlands in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The Wingecarribee Shire is around southwest of Sydney a ...
local government area. It is located south-west of
Sydney
Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...
and north-east of
Canberra
Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...
. The
Illawarra Highway, which connects to
Wollongong
Wollongong ( ; Dharawal: ''Woolyungah'') is a city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The name is believed to originate from the Dharawal language, meaning either 'five islands/clouds', 'ground near water' or 'sound ...
and the
Illawarra coast via
Macquarie Pass.
Moss Vale has several heritage buildings. In the centre of the main street is Leighton Gardens. Moss Vale has undergone recent (2019) gentrification. It has become a hub for independent and creative businesses, including design stores, cafes, and bars. The town has a commercial district and a golf course, including a large parkland,
Cecil Hoskins Nature Reserve.
History
The Moss Vale area was once occupied by the
Gandangara people
The Gandangara people, also spelled Gundungara, Gandangarra, Gundungurra and other variations, are an Aboriginal Australian people in south-eastern New South Wales, Australia. Their traditional lands include present day Goulburn, Wollondilly Sh ...
, though they had disappeared by the 1870s, partly due to the loss of their hunting land to European settlers.
Governor Hunter sent a party led by ex-convict John Wilson to investigate the area in 1798. Various others explored the area up to 1815, including John Warby, George Caley,
Hamilton Hume
Hamilton Hume (19 June 1797 – 19 April 1873) was an early explorer of the present-day Australian states of New South Wales and Victoria (Australia), Victoria. In 1824, along with William Hovell, Hume participated in an expedition that first t ...
and
John Oxley
John Joseph William Molesworth Oxley (1784 – 25 May 1828) was an English List of explorers, explorer and surveyor of Australia in the early period of British colonisation. He served as Surveyor General of New South Wales and is perhaps bes ...
. Hume,
Charles Throsby
Charles Throsby (1777 – 2 April 1828) was an English surgeon who, after he migrated to New South Wales in 1802, became an explorer, pioneer and parliamentarian. He opened up much new land beyond the Blue Mountains for colonial settlement ...
and
Joseph Wild explored the area west of
Sutton Forest
Sutton Forest is a small village in the Southern Highlands, New South Wales, Southern Highlands, New South Wales, Australia in Wingecarribee Shire. It is located 5 km southwest of Moss Vale, New South Wales, Moss Vale on the Illawarra Highw ...
in 1817 and in 1818, together with
James Meehan, they explored the area between Moss Vale and
Jervis Bay
Jervis Bay () is a oceanic bay and village in the Jervis Bay Territory and on the South Coast (New South Wales), South Coast of New South Wales, Australia.
A area of land around the southern headland of the bay, known as the Jervis Bay Terri ...
. Governor
Macquarie granted Throsby , known as Throsby Park, at
Bong Bong, on the northeastern outskirts of Moss Vale and put him in charge of building the Old Argyle Road from Sydney to
Goulburn
Goulburn ( ) is a regional city in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia, approximately south-west of Sydney and north-east of Canberra. It was proclaimed as Australia's first inland city through letters patent by Queen Victor ...
in 1819. This road was replaced in the 1830s by a more direct road via
Berrima surveyed by
Thomas Mitchell and most of the population of Bong Bong moved to Berrima. The heritage-listed property of Throsby Park house was built about 1834, six years after Throsby's suicide.
The area, which was considered to be part of
Sutton Forest
Sutton Forest is a small village in the Southern Highlands, New South Wales, Southern Highlands, New South Wales, Australia in Wingecarribee Shire. It is located 5 km southwest of Moss Vale, New South Wales, Moss Vale on the Illawarra Highw ...
, remained rural until the coming of the railway. Subdivision part of Throsby Park for the town of Moss Vale, named after Jemmy Moss, a herdsman at Throsby Park, commenced in 1864, in anticipation of the opening of Sutton Forest railway station in 1867 at the intersection with Old Argyle Road. Governor
Belmore rented Throsby Park from 1870 to 1872 to what is commonly believed to escape the summer heat of Sydney. The railway and the
Robertson Land Acts encouraged denser settlement by
selectors in the Southern Highlands and led to the growth of Moss Vale as a town. In 1877 Sutton Forest railway station was renamed Moss Vale.
Climate
Moss Vale has an
oceanic climate
An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate or maritime climate, is the temperate climate sub-type in Köppen climate classification, Köppen classification represented as ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of co ...
(''Cfb'') with warm to mild, rainy summers and cool sunny winters.
Heritage listings
Moss Vale has a number of heritage-listed sites, including:
* Church Road:
Throsby Park
* Main Southern railway:
Moss Vale railway station
* Main Southern railway 146.037:
Argyle Street railway bridge
* Oldbury Road:
Oldbury Farm
Population
At the
2021 census, 9,310 people were living in Moss Vale.
According to the
2016 census of Population, there were 8,579 people in Moss Vale. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 2.6% of the population. 78.2% of people were born in Australia. The most common other countries of birth were England 4.4%, New Zealand 1.7% and China 1.5%. 87.2% of people only spoke English at home. Other languages spoken at home included Mandarin at 1.3%. The most common responses for religion were No Religion 25.8%, Anglican 24.9% and Catholic 22.1%.
Economy
Moss Vale holds a large part of the Southern Highlands Industry – as well as being a minor centre for agriculture, many light and medium industries are found in and around Moss Vale, including a
James Hardie plant, a
HarperCollins
HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the "Big Five (publishers), Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group USA, Hachette, Macmi ...
book distribution centre, and other manufacturing industries. Despite Moss Vale's prowess as an industrial centre, nearby
Bowral is the commercial heart of the Southern Highlands.
Moss Vale is believed to have fertile soil and good precipitation. Agricultural rural holdings in the area specialise in dairy herds, mainly
Holstein Frisian, and there is an assortment of beef studs and sheep properties.
Council and safety
The
Wingecarribee Shire Council Chambers are located at 68 Elizabeth Street, Moss Vale. They can be found online at
Wingecarribee Shire Council WebsiteWingecarribee Shire Council Facebook Page
The Southern Highlands Police Station, part of the Hume Police District is the main NSW Police Force
The New South Wales Police Force is a law enforcement agency of the state of New South Wales, Australia, established in 1862. With more than 17,000 police officers, it is the largest police organisation in Australia, policing an area of 801,60 ...
Station serving the Southern Highlands (Wingecarribee Shire). It is located at 67 Elizabeth Street. Moss Vale has a New South Wales Rural Fire Service Brigade which is located at 49 Berrima Road. There is also a Fire and Rescue NSW Station which is located at 64 Elizabeth Street, Moss Vale which is across the road from the Police Station and just up from the Wingecarribee Shire Council Chambers.
Transport
Moss Vale station is the primary southern terminus of the
Southern Highlands railway line. The line provides regular services from Moss Vale to southern Sydney, where a change of trains is generally required to access the city centre. Limited services continue south of Moss Vale to Goulburn and beyond (intercity, regional and interstate).
The station has 4 Melbourne
XPT services a day (2 to Melbourne, 2 to Sydney), with other services towards Canberra (3 daily trips in each direction) and Griffith (2 return trips per week).
Moss Vale is the junction of the
Unanderra – Moss Vale railway line to
Wollongong
Wollongong ( ; Dharawal: ''Woolyungah'') is a city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The name is believed to originate from the Dharawal language, meaning either 'five islands/clouds', 'ground near water' or 'sound ...
, opened in 1932, but now only used by freight trains.
Television
Television is delivered from the Illawarra region with a transmitter based on
Mount Gibraltar.
The Southern NSW Channels are:
ABC (with
ABC News ABC News most commonly refers to:
* ABC News (Australia), a national news service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
* ABC News (United States), a news-gathering and broadcasting division of the American Broadcasting Company
ABC News may a ...
,
ABC Family
American cable television, cable and satellite television network Freeform (TV channel), Freeform was originally launched as the CBN Satellite Service on April 29, 1977, and has gone through four different owners and six different name changes dur ...
,
ABC Entertains
ABC Entertains is an Australian free-to-air television channel owned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It was launched on 4 December 2009 as a children's channel called ABC3. It was rebranded on 19 September 2016 to ABC ME. It rebra ...
,
ABC Kids)
SBS (with
SBS Viceland,
SBS Food
SBS Food (formerly Food Network) is an Australian free-to-air television channel owned and operated by the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS). The channel airs programs about food and cooking, from cultures around the world.
History
SBS first ...
,
SBS WorldWatch,
SBS World Movies,
NITV
National Indigenous Television (NITV) is an Australian free-to-air television channel that broadcasts programming produced and presented largely by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It includes the six-day-a-week ''NITV News Updat ...
)
7 Moss Vale (with
7two,
7mate
7mate is an Australian free-to-air digital television multichannel, which was launched by the Seven Network on 25 September 2010. The channel contains sport and regular programs aimed primarily to a male audience, with programming drawn from a c ...
,
7flix
7flix is an Australian free-to-air digital television multichannel, which was launched by the Seven Network on 28 February 2016.
7flix targets a variety of viewers and offers drama, comedy, reality, docusoap, and movies.
History
On 18 Decembe ...
,
7Bravo
7Bravo is an Australian free-to-air digital television multichannel, which was launched by the Seven Network under license from NBCUniversal International Networks on 15 January 2023. The channel contains programming from NBCUniversal's Americ ...
,
Racing.com,
TVSN) –
Seven Network
Seven Network (stylised 7Network, and commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is an Australian commercial free-to-air Television broadcasting in Australia, television network. It is owned by Seven West Media, Seven West Media Limited, ...
owned and operated
WIN Television (with
9Go!
9Go! is an Australian free-to-air digital television multichannel, which was launched by the Nine Network on 9 August 2009, replacing Nine Guide. It is a youthful channel that offers a mix of comedy, reality, general entertainment, movies, anima ...
,
9Gem
9Gem is an Australian free-to-air digital television multichannel, launched by the Nine Network in September 2010. The channel provides general entertainment and movie programming, from which the original name "GEM" is derived.
History
The la ...
,
9Life
9Life is an Australian free-to-air digital television multichannel owned by Nine Entertainment. The channel airs mostly foreign lifestyle and reality programs, with the channel having a licensing agreement with Discovery Inc. (previously Scr ...
and
Gold
Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...
) –
Nine Network
Nine Network (stylised 9Network, and commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of the five main free-to-air television ...
Affiliate
Southern Cross 10 (with
10 Bold Drama,
10 Peach Comedy,
Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...
,
Sky News Regional, SBN and gecko) –
Network 10
Network 10 (commonly known as the 10 Network, Channel 10 or simply 10) is an Australian commercial television network. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Paramount Global's UK & Australia division and is one of the five national free-to-a ...
Affiliate
School
Schools in Moss Vale:
*
Moss Vale High School
Moss Vale Public SchoolSt Paul's Catholic Primary School*
St Paul's International College
*
Tudor House School
Churches
Churches in Moss Vale:
Connect Christian Church(AOG/ACC)
*Moss Vale Jehovah's Witnesses Hall
Moss Vale Uniting Church in AustraliaSt Andrews Presbyterian ChurchSt John's Anglican ChurchSt Paul's Roman Catholic Church
Sport
Sporting teams in Moss Vale:
Moss Vale BasketballMoss Vale Cricket Club* Moss Vale Dragonflies Netball Club
* Moss Vale Dragons Rugby League Club
*
Moss Vale Golf Club
Mosses are small, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic division Bryophyta (, ) '' sensu stricto''. Bryophyta ('' sensu lato'', Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryophytes, which comprise liverworts, mosses, and ho ...
Moss Vale Hockey Club* Moss Vale Rifle Club
* Moss Vale Soccer Club (''Highlands Soccer Association or HSA for short)
Notable residents
*
Ann Carr-Boyd, composer and musicologist
*
Tom Green, artist
*
Tony Lockett, former
AFL player for the Sydney Swans
*
Steve Prestwich, drummer for popular
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 ...
n rock band,
Cold Chisel
Cold Chisel are an Australian Pub rock (Australia), pub rock band, which formed in Adelaide in 1973 by mainstay members Ian Moss on guitar and vocals, Steve Prestwich on drums, Les Kaczmarek on bass and Don Walker (musician), Don Walker on pia ...
*
Ray Stone, rugby league player
Notable former residents
*Dr
Frank Tidswell,
microbiologist
A microbiologist (from Greek ) is a scientist who studies microscopic life forms and processes. This includes study of the growth, interactions and characteristics of microscopic organisms such as bacteria, algae, fungi, and some types of par ...
, and his wife Edith lived at ''Farnborough'' in the 1930s
References
External links
{{authority control
Towns of the Southern Highlands (New South Wales)