Burra, New South Wales

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For the town of the same name in South Australia, see Burra, South Australia.

Burra is an Australian district and parish of rural smallholdings lying 20 kilometers to the south of Queanbeyan, New South Wales in Palerang Council, postcode 2620. The districts bounds have been defined[1] as being the area to the south of the intersection of the Burra and Cooma Roads that contains the catchments of the Burra, Urila, Waterholes and Guises Creeks, and bounded to the East by the Queanbeyan River. The Burra Creek, whose headwaters are in the Tinderry Nature Reserve, flows through the centre of the Burra Valley to join the waters of the Queanbeyan River at the Googong Reservoir. Nearby small settlements include Royalla, Williamsdale and Michelago to the west and south. Urila Valley is accessed from the Burra Valley and lies to the east. Burra is also a commutable distance Australia's capital city Canberra.

1909 map of the parish of Burra (blue border), with the red shaded area becoming part of the Australian Capital Territory. (The other red line shows a proposal for more Commonwealth land which was not implemented.)
1909 map of the parish of Burra (blue border), with the red shaded area becoming part of the Australian Capital Territory. (The other red line shows a proposal for more Commonwealth land which was not implemented.)

It is also a parish of the County of Murray. The parish originally consisted of land between Guises Creek in the west, and Burra Creek in the east, encompassing land on both sides of Jerrabomberra Creek. A small part of this land was located to the west of the Queanbeyan-Cooma railway line and thus became part of the Australian Capital Territory in 1911.

The Ngarigo people originally inhabited Burra as part of their wider country lands extending south to the Australian Alps.[2] Amongst the early settlers, the region was known as "The Burra",[3] possibly from a local aboriginal word for Boomerang: "Berra".[4] The first grazing and clearing of the region began in the 1830-60s and farms were established at the Warm Corner, KT Park, Burra Station, London Bridge and Lagoon. By the 1920s the local population had become large enough to support two competing cricket clubs, one at the Burra park, the other near Urila. Subdivision into smaller blocks began in the 1960s as Canberra's population expanded and has created the local regions such as those surrounding Candy Road, Badgerry Road and Plumbers Road. Today the majority of the valley has been subdivided in this way creating a large but dispersed population of several hundred.

London Bridge Homestead, an early Burra residence now conatined within the Googong Foreshores
London Bridge Homestead, an early Burra residence now conatined within the Googong Foreshores

The Burra Valley lies at the northern tip of the Monaro tablelands, and shares with it some of the cooler climate of that region. Temperatures are on average two or three degrees Celsius below those in Canberra and Queanbeyan. Light falls of snow are not uncommon in the winter months.

Part of the Valley has always been treeless.[5] Elsewhere remnants of uncleared open woodland of Snow Gum, Candlebark, Yellow Box, Apple Box and Small Leaved Peppermint remain. Black Sally and Manna Gum are found in cooler gullies. The wooded hills to the east are rocky and dry, sporting primarily Small Leafed Peppermint, Brittle Gum and Scribbly Gum. This area has never been heavily grazed and is in its original natural condition, as recognised by it becoming part of the Burra Creek Nature Reserve in 2001. The steeper slopes of those hills to the west of the Burra Valley, including Mts Campbell and Gibralter (and known by some Burrans as the 'Purple Veil' range due to their shaded afternoon colour) are patchily covered by a forest type similar to the wet sclerophyll that occurs further to the west in parts of the Mt Clear and Brindabella Ranges of Namadgi National Park.

Most of the valley is underlain by the Colinton Volcanics, composed of tuff and lavas deposited in shallow water during the Silurian period. A fault runs parallel and to the east of the Burra Road, beyond which are the ancient deep sea Ordovician sediments of the Pittman formation. A few limestone lenses occur in younger rocks near to this faultline, one of which forms the locally famous 'London Bridge' natural arch over the Burra Creek.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Moore, Bruce (1980). Burra, County of Murray. 
  2. ^ Ngarigo (NSW). Tindale's Catalogue of Australian Aboriginal Tribes. South Australian Museum (2000). Retrieved on 2007-05-10.
  3. ^ Moore, Bruce (1980). Burra, County of Murray. 
  4. ^ Mathews, R. H. (Jul.–Dec. 1904). "The Wiradyuri and other languages of New South Wales". The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 34: 284–305. doi:10.2307/2843103.  Also see Ngunnawal language.
  5. ^ Moore, Bruce (1981). The Warm Corner, A History of the Moore Family and Their Relatives Early Pioneers of the Queanbeyan-Canberra District, 223. ISBN 0959464913 (10) ISBN 9780959464917 (13). 

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Coordinates: 35°33′S, 149°13′E