Gunning, New South Wales

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Gunning's main street

Gunning (34°47′S 149°16′E) is a town on the Old Hume Highway, between Goulburn and Yass in the Southern Tablelands district of New South Wales, Australia, in the Upper Lachlan Shire, about 260 km south-west of Sydney and 50 km north-west of the national capital, Canberra. (Nearby towns are Cullerin, Gundaroo, Dalton, Yass, and Murrumbateman.)

At the 2001 census, there were 2,173 people at Gunning; the Shire of Gunning has a population of 2,280.

[edit] Transportation

Gunning was originally a coach stop, and service centre for the surrounding farms mainly growing Merino sheep. It had a police station and court house, post office, and school.

The main railway from Sydney arrived in 1875 and was completed through to Melbourne, Victoria in 1881. The town is served by the daily Countrylink XPT service to Southern Cross station.

Its main streets were built very wide, for the time of horse and bullock-drawn wagons. This served the town well when the main highway between Sydney and Melbourne carried cars and trucks through, until the by-pass was completed several years ago. The town has been able to resume a more rural pace of life, and develop something of an industry in providing bed and breakfast accommodation.

The establishment of the main trunk telegraph line is remembered by the Telegraph Hotel.

Telegraph Hotel, Gunning

[edit] History

The Gunning region was originally home to two Australian Aborigine tribes, the Gundungurra people in the north and the Ngunnawal people in the south.

The region (specifically Gundaroo) was first explored by Europeans in 1820, and settled the next year by Hamilton Hume. In 1824, Hume and William Hovell left here to discover the overland route to Port Phillip Bay where Melbourne is sited. Land sales began in 1838. The nearby town of Dalton, now best known as the earthquake centre, was settled in 1847. In 1865, Bushranger Ben Hall and his gang held up Kimberley's Inn, and a constable was shot dead.