Moruya

Dolphin Beach on Moruya South Head

State :	Australia Australia
State :	New South Wales
Founded :	1851

Coordinates :

35 ° 55 ′ S , 150 ° 5 ′ E Coordinates: 35 ° 55 ′ S , 150 ° 5 ′ E

Residents :

2,525 (2016)

Time zone :	AEST (UTC + 10)
Postal code :	2537

LGA :

Eurobodalla Shire

Moruya

Moruya quarry

Air Raid Tavern in Moruya

Moruya is a city in the southeast of the Australian state of New South Wales . It is located at the mouth of the river of the same name in the Pacific , about 300 km south of Sydney and about 85 km southeast of Canberra . The 2016 census counted 2,525 inhabitants. This city lives mainly from agriculture, fishing and tourism. Moruya is the administrative center of the Local Government Area Eurobodalla Shire .

history

The name Moruya is derived from the Aboriginal word Mherroyah (German: hometown of the black swan). Black swans can still be seen in the lakes and rivers around Moruya today. The black swan also serves as a local emblem (in Australia it is otherwise the emblem of the city of Perth in Western Australia ).

The area was originally home to two indigenous tribes, the Walbanga and the Brinja-Yuin . European immigrants settled from the 1830s after the lifting of the settlement restrictions in 1829. The coast from Batemans Bay to Mherroyah was surveyed in 1828 by surveyor Thomas Florance . The first European settler was Francis Flanagan from Ireland , who settled at Shannon View in 1829 . John Hawdon from England founded an estate called Kiora in 1831 , which subsequently became a village.

The center of the settlement was measured in 1850 and in 1851 local rights were granted to the settlement. In 1891 Moruya was declared a city. At that time the most important industries were logging, gold mining, dairy farming and the mining of granite. The stone for the pillars of the Sydney Harbor Bridge comes from this area.

Granite mining began in the late 1850s by brothers Joseph and John Flett Loutitt from the Orkney Islands . Their quarry on the south bank of the river provided stones for many of Sydney's famous buildings, such as the post office on Martin Place and the base of the statue of Captain Cook in Hyde Park .

The Moruya Quarry - also known as the Government Quarry - opened in 1876 on the north bank of the Moruya River. Between 1925 and 1932, 250 stonemasons were hired for the construction site of the Sydney Harbor Bridge and deployed in Moruya. They broke out 18,000 m³ of boulder for the pillars of the bridge, 173,000 rubble stones and 200,000 m³ of sand to fill the concrete. For the seven years that the people worked in the quarry, a settlement of about 70 houses was built nearby called 'Granitetown'. Today you can hardly see anything of it. Moruya Quarry is still operated today by the New South Wales Government, Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Natural Resources . To the west of this quarry there was a third quarry operated by the Ziegler family .

The first bridge over the Moruya River was built in 1876, but frequent flooding made the construction of new bridges necessary in 1900, 1945 and finally 1966.

During the Second World War , Moruya airfield served as an advanced base of operations. In 1942 a fishing boat off the coast between Moruya and Batemans Bay was attacked by Japanese planes. In 1944, an American freighter was torpedoed by the German submarine U 862 off Moruya .

shops

Moruya has two shopping centers, the 8-story FoodWorks (opened May 24, 2005) and the 10-story Woolworths (opened in 2000). There are many smaller shops along the main street, as well as supermarkets in the side streets. The telephone company Telco Southern Phone is also based in Moruya. The weekly Saturday market is popular with locals and visitors.

Airfield and Air Services

Moruya has an airfield (code: MYA) north of the Moruya Heads . The runway is adjacent to the beach and so flights to Moruya end with a gentle and worth seeing landing approach along the coastline.

Regional Express (REX) operates its flights to Sydney and Merimbula (with connecting flights to Melbourne ) mainly with Saab 340 B.

Trivia

Richie Williams Charles Harpur (1825–1868), Australia's first recognized poet, was a gold mining inspector in the Eurobodalla region and owned a farm in Eurobodalla.

Web links

Commons : Moruya - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b Australian Bureau of Statistics : Moruya ( English ) In: 2016 Census QuickStats . June 27, 2017. Retrieved January 26, 2020.
↑ Moruya . Geographical Names Board of New South Wales. Retrieved November 2, 2009.

[ABS-1] Australian Bureau of Statistics : Moruya ( English ) In: 2016 Census QuickStats . June 27, 2017. Retrieved January 26, 2020.

[2] Moruya . Geographical Names Board of New South Wales. Retrieved November 2, 2009.