Nimmitabel ( ) is a small town in the Monaro region in southeast

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 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 forced merger of the Bombala, Cooma-Monaro and Snow ...

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 federated state, state, province, division (politica ...

. At the , Nimmitabel had a population of 324.

Etymology

Nimmitabel means "the place where many waters start or divide" in the local Aboriginal language. Many various spellings were adopted for the town, including: Nimmytabell (1837), Nimitabelle (1838), Nimmitabool (1841), Nimmittybel (1844), Nimmitabel (1845), Nimmitybelle, Nimithybale, Nymytable (all in 1848), Nimmitabil (1851), Nimitabille and Nimithy Bell (1856), Nimaty-Bell (1857), Nimmitabel (1858)

History

* 1840 Locals started calling the village Nimoitebool * 1845 Appears on Townsend's map as Nimmitabel * 1858

Church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

was built * 1857 Renewal of licence for

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...

* 1858

Post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

arrives * 1861 Bell's Store * 1863 Separate

Courthouse A courthouse or court house is a structure which houses judicial functions for a governmental entity such as a state, region, province, county, prefecture, regency, or similar governmental unit. A courthouse is home to one or more courtrooms, ...

built * 1865 Geldmacher builds windmill * 1866 Cameron's Store opens * 1869 Nimmitabel Public School opens * 1912

Railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

arrives * 1921 Area's first saw-mill opens * 1959 Used as location for multi-Oscar nominated film '' The Sundowners'' * 1986 Railway closes

Geography

The town is south 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, New South Wales, Bega with the Riverina. ...

and west of Bega. Nimmitabel is on a stretch of highway shared between the

Snowy Mountains Highway Snowy Mountains Highway is a state highway located in New South Wales, Australia. Its two sections connect the New South Wales South Coast to the Monaro region, and the Monaro to the South Western Slopes via the Snowy Mountains. The higher ...

(HWY B72) and the

Monaro Highway Monaro Highway is a highway in Victoria, New South Wales, and the Australian Capital Territory, in Australia, linking in Victoria to Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) via the Monaro region. From its southern terminus, it fo ...

(HWY B23). It is on the southern end of the

Great Dividing Range The Great Dividing Range, also known as the East Australian Cordillera or the Eastern Highlands, is a cordillera system in eastern Australia consisting of an expansive collection of mountain ranges, plateaus and rolling hills. It runs roughl ...

, at the west of the

Monaro Range Monaro ( ), once frequently spelt "Manaro", or in early years of settlement "Maneroo" (an interpretation of an Aboriginal word for ''big plain'',) is a region in the south of New South Wales, Australia. A small area of Victoria (Australia), Vic ...

, and lies west of the

Wadbilliga National Park Wadbilliga National Park is a Protected areas of Australia, national park that is in high country spanning the Monaro (New South Wales), Monaro and South Coast (New South Wales), South Coast regions of south-eastern New South Wales, Australia. ...

. The area around Nimmitabel has the only true

chernozem Chernozem ( ),; also called black soil, regur soil or black cotton soil, is a black-colored soil containing a high percentage of humus (4% to 16%) and high percentages of phosphorus and ammonia compounds. Chernozem is very fertile soil and can ...

soil in Australia, a very rich, fertile and dark coloured soil.

Climate

Nimmitabel has a cool

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 ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

''Cfb'') with cool to mild summers and cold winters, with evenly-spread, modest rainfall throughout the year. Frosts occur regularly throughout the year, even at the height of summer. It is decently sunny, with 102.2 clear days annually, being largely on account of its

leeward In geography and seamanship, windward () and leeward () are directions relative to the wind. Windward is ''upwind'' from the point of reference, i.e., towards the direction from which the wind is coming; leeward is ''downwind'' from the point o ...

location. Because of its elevation and southern latitude, several snowfalls can be expected each year from May through to October; on rare occasions, snow flurries may even occur in summer. Snow can occur heavily at times. The town has recorded sub-freezing daily maxima on multiple occasions: on 13 June 1965, and shortly thereafter on 17 July 1965.

Popular Culture

The village was featured on Episode 23 of the 10th Series of the ABC TV program "Back Roads" aired on 22nd October 2024https://iview.abc.net.au/video/RF2327V023S00

Gallery

File:Geldmacher's windmill.jpg, Geldmacher's windmill tower at Nimmitabel File:Elephant Bakery Nimmitabel.JPG, The concrete elephant “George” at the Nimmitabel Bakery File:Nimmitabel_Station_2009-03-31.JPG, Nimmitabel railway station 21 years after the last train

References

* https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/226458343

External links

* *
Aerial photo of Nimmitabel from Terraserver

{{authority control Towns in New South Wales Snowy Monaro Regional Council Bombala railway line