Wagga Wagga (wikipedia)(informally called Wagga) is a city in New South Wales, Australia. Straddling the Murrumbidgee River, with an urban population of 46,913 people, Wagga Wagga is the state’s largest inland city, and is an important agricultural, military, and transport hub of Australia. It is midway between the two largest cities in Australia, Sydney and Melbourne, and is the major regional centre for the Riverina and South West Slopes regions.

The central business district is focused around the commercial and recreational grid bounded by Best and Tarcutta Streets and the Murrumbidgee River and the Sturt Highway. The main shopping street of Wagga is Baylis Street which becomes Fitzmaurice Street at the northern end. The city is in an alluvial valley and much of the city has a problem with urban salinity.

The original inhabitants of the Wagga Wagga region were the Wiradjuri people. In 1829, Charles Sturt became the first European explorer to visit the future site of the city. Squatters arrived soon after. The town, positioned on the site of a ford across the Murrumbidgee,^[6] was surveyed and gazetted as a village in 1849 and the town grew quickly after. In 1870, the town was gazetted as a municipality.

During the negotiations leading to the federation of the Australian colonies, Wagga Wagga was a contender for the site of the capital for the new nation.^[7] During World War I the town was the starting point for the Kangaroo recruitment march. The Great Depression and the resulting hardship saw Wagga Wagga become the centre of a secession movement for the Riverina region. Wagga Wagga became a garrison town during World War II with the establishment of a military base at Kapooka and Royal Australian Air Force bases at Forest Hill and Uranquinty. After the war, Wagga Wagga was proclaimed as a city in 1946 and new suburbs were developed to the south of the city. In 1982 the city was amalgamated with the neighbouring Kyeamba and Mitchell Shires to form the City of Wagga Wagga local government area.

Geography

Wagga Wagga is at the eastern end of the Riverina region where the slopes of the Great Dividing Range flatten and form the Riverina plain. The city straddles the Murrumbidgee River, one of the great rivers of the Murray-Darling Basin, and the city centre is on the southern bank, protected by a levee from potential flooding.

The city sits almost halfway between the largest cities in Australia being 452 kilometres southwest of Sydney and 456 kilometres northeast of Melbourne with the Sydney–Melbourne railway line passing through.^[3] The Sturt Highway, part of Australia’s National Highway network, passes through the city on its way from Adelaide to its junction with the main Sydney–Melbourne route, the Hume Highway, a further 45 kilometres east. This location astride some of the major transport routes in the nation has made Wagga Wagga an important heavy truck depot for a number of companies including Toll Holdings. Wagga Wagga itself is the major regional centre for the Riverina and for much of the South West Slopes regions, providing education, health and other services to a region extending as far as Griffith to the west, Cootamundra to the north and Tumut to the east.

26^th November, Wednesday

I can’t believe that we have been travelling for 7 months today.  We were originally going to be away for 6 months and have only come half way and still missed out on heaps.  We will have to fill in the gaps on a future trip.  We left Tumut late this morning as we had another big haul of 100kms to drive (haha). The scenery is still beautiful and I am getting a bit blasé about it, so much beauty all the time. We are in Wagga Wagga but the locals say “Wagga” and camping back on the Murrumbidgee river again and although the river is beautiful this campsite is not what we’ve had on the last 2 stops but it is a fair sized city.  I thnk that we are getting spoiled and expect these idyllic places all the time.  Wagga is big and we are camping close to the city, apartments overlooking the camp site and I guess we can’t always have everything our own way. The weather is quite warm and we are running the air con for a smidge. We are staying here as it’s a base to see the Riverina towns.  From here, we plan to follow the Murrumbidgee river until we hit the Murray River and camp in all the little places along the way (there are so many camp sites along the Murray) until we reach Melbourne on the 12^th December.  No pics for you today but I will make up for that in the next 2 days. Love and miss you all xxxxxxxxx

27^th November, Thursday

Another warm day today. There is a communal bbq next to our van which the local tradies who live in the caravan park use.  Ralph heard a noise quite late at night and looked out the window and there was a possum scrounging around on the plate looking for a feed so I bought the poor little bugger some fruit when I went shopping today and will put it on top of the bbq before we go to bed. We took Hugo to the vet for his monthly injection and then drove around looking at Wagga city. The city is pretty much a run of the mill city with the suburbs and shopping centres etc., it also has a really big industrial area. It would seem that most of the old part is around the caravan park so I took a walk to photograph some of the old churches and courthouse much to Ralphs delight because that meant that he didn’t have to come with me.  We took Hugo for a swim in the river but he couldn’t go in too far as it gets deep suddenly close to the bank and the current is quite strong. We had happy hour with some other happy campers and did not much else today.  Tomorrow we will do a tour of some of the little Riverina towns.

 

28^th November, Friday

Another sunny warm morning (I know, it’s getting boring).  The possums came and ate all the fruit last night after everyone went to bed so I will put some more out tonight. We did a loop of some of the small Riverina towns today. First Temora but going through a little village called “Stockinbingal”, there is not much there just a little old school, and a very rustic café and of course the pub, it was such a quaint little place that we had to stop. Next was the town of Temora which is a bigger town and has some beautiful old buildings and churches, the main street is lined with Jacaranda trees which at this time of the year are in full flower, so pretty. Temora also boasts an Aviation Museum and so we stopped so that Ralph could have a look.  The museum is old war aircraft from the 1^st and 2^nd world wars and the Korean war.  All the air crafts are servicable and they fly them all.  Ralph says that it is amongst the best war aircraft museum that he has ever seen and it’s so amazing that it’s in a little town in New South Wales. Next stop was the town of Cootamundra where Donald Bradman was born.  We went to visit his house where he was born. There is a flag pole there and the flag was flying at half mast in respect for the passing of Phil Hughes, it’s sad that we had to visit on this day.  The lady at the house said that I should bring Hugo up onto the verandah rather that sitting in the car, well!, not a good move as I think that the water is going right through him, sooooooooo, he had the squirts on Donald Bradmans verandah, on the pathway and in the garden, talk about being embarrased.  I had to ask the lady for a bucket and found the tap and proceeded to clean it all up.  She was quite understanding as she said that she had 5 dogs of her own but I think that Hugo has spoiled it all for all potential future doggie visitors.  From there we went to Junee, a nice town and it’s one that is not a grid system so quite of a bit different town. They have a lovely railway station and the rail network services the country towns.  There are some of the most awesome old hotels, probably the best that we have seen so far, such old buildings and history. We visited the liquorice and chocolate factory there and of course left with loads of bags of goodies.  There’s a haunted house there which is said to be the most haunted house in Australia.  Apparently there are 10 ghosts that preside there and there have been loads of TV documentries done on this place.  It’s called “Monte Christo” and has quite a history of things that have happened.  The current owners can’t have pets as when they moved in the cat threw a wobbly and jumped over the 1^st floor balcony, took off and was never to be seen again.  They then brought their dog from the old house and he threw a wobbly and took off never to be seen again.  Their children have had pets which have all died mysteriously died as did their chickens and all other domestic animals that they have had so now they can’t have any pets. There has been some murders etc. in this house and I must admit that I got some goosies going in there but perhaps that was just from the stories (you can google this one).  Back to camp after that and some sundowners with the people we met yesterday and Ralph went and got some fish and chips.  We leave tomorrow but we are not sure where we are going yet so we will see you wherever it is that we decide to stay.

 

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