Gunnedah () is a town in north-central New South Wales, Australia, and is the seat of the Gunnedah Shire local government area. In the the town recorded a population of 8,338. Gunnedah is situated within the Liverpool Plains, a fertile agricultural region, with 80% of the surrounding shire area devoted to farming. The Namoi River flows west then north-west through the town providing water beneficial to agricultural operations in the area.
The Gunnedah area is a significant producer of cotton, coal, beef, lamb and pork, and cereal and oilseed grains. Gunnedah is also home to AgQuip, Australia's largest annual agricultural field day.
Gunnedah is located on the Oxley and Kamilaroi Highways providing convenient road links to much of the northern sector of the state including to the regional centre Tamworth, distant. The town has a station on the Mungindi railway line and is served by the daily NSW TrainLink Xplorer passenger service to and from Sydney and Moree.
It claims the title of being the "Koala Capital of World", although recently there have been concerns over the health of the local koala population and the impacts of climate change on koala habitat.
History
Gunnedah and the surrounding areas were originally inhabited by Aboriginal Australians speaking the Kamilaroi (Gamilaraay) language. The name of the town in Kamilaroi means "Place of White Stones". The Red Chief Local Aboriginal Land Council, established in 1984 under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983 (NSW), represents the Aboriginal community in the Gunnedah area as part of the NSW Aboriginal Land Council network. In 1818, English surveyor general John Oxley traversed the district, for which a monument pays tribute to him at the base of Mullaley Mountain. The area now occupied by the town was settled by European sheep farmers in 1833 or 1834. With settlement in the area focused on wool production, Gunnedah was initially known as 'The Woolshed' until taking its name from the local Indigenous people who called themselves the Gunn-e-darr, the most famous of whom was Cumbo Gunnerah.
Coal was discovered on Black Jack Hill in 1877. By 1891, 6,000 tons of coal had been raised from shafts. The Gunnedah Colliery Company was registered in May 1899 and by 22 June a private railway some in length had been completed from the railway station to their mine. In September 1957, the Government Railway took over the working of the line.
Dorothea Mackellar wrote her famous poem My Country (popularly known as I Love a Sunburnt Country) about her family's farm near Gunnedah.
Heritage listings
Gunnedah has a number of heritage-listed sites, including:
- Werris Creek-Moree railway: Gunnedah railway station
- Gunnedah Leather Processors
Population
According to the 2016 census of Population, there are 9,726 people in Gunnedah.
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 13.7% of the population.
- 86.2% of people were born in Australia and 90.2% of people only spoke English at home.
- The most common responses for religion were Anglican 28.8%, Catholic 27.3% and No Religion 20.3%.
Sports
The most popular sport in Gunnedah by a wide margin is Rugby league. The local team, the Gunnedah Bulldogs, play out of Kitchener Park. They compete in the Group 4 Rugby League competition, in which they have won seven premierships.
Other sports teams include the Gunnedah AFL Bulldogs competing in AFL North West NSW, Gunnedah Red Devils RUFC competing in the Central Northern Rugby Union and Gunnedah FC competing in the Northern Inland Football.
Geography
Gunnedah Shire is situated above sea level on the Liverpool Plains in the Namoi River valley. It is very flat; the tallest hills are above sea level. The climate is hot in summer, mild in winter and dry, although rainstorms in catchment areas occasionally cause flooding of the Namoi River. Major floods cut transport links to the town, briefly isolating it from the outside world. The town is located on a rich coal seam and within the northern New South Wales wheat belt.
The Gunnedah area is noted for its abundance of native wildlife, including kangaroos, echidnas and koalas. Koalas can often be found in trees within the town, as well as in the surrounding countryside with the help of signs placed by the local tourist centre. The koala population is considered to be the largest koala colony in the state, west of the Great Dividing Range. which is spread throughout the year, however severe thunderstorms in the summer months often cause heavy downpours which boost rainfall totals.
The highest daily maximum temperature recorded was on 24 January 1882, while the lowest daily maximum temperature recorded was on 4 August 1921. Snow is very rare, with the most recent occurrence in 1984.