Mungindi
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[[Category: Location in New South Wales Queensland ]]
Mungindi is a city on the border of the Australian states of New South Wales and Queensland . It belongs to the Local Government Area Moree Plains Shire in Queensland, but has a zip code of 2406 from New South Wales. The Carnarvon Highway runs through the Mungindi and the Barwon River , a river on the border between the two states, flows through the city. At the last census in 2016, Mungindi had a total of 747 inhabitants, of whom 601 were on the New South Wales side and 146 people were on the Queensland side.
geography
" Mungindi " means 'water hole in a river' in the Gamilaraay language. The border runs in the middle of the Barwon River under the middle of the bridge, which, however, has no markings.
The next major cities are Moree and St. George . The following small towns are also nearby: Weelmelah , Garah , Ashley and Boomi in New South Wales and Thallon , Dirranbandi and Hebel in Queensland.
Mungindi is a regional center for processing cotton , beef and wheat .
The city lies on both sides of the state border, making it the only city in the southern hemisphere that is separated by a border and has the same name on both sides of this border. The Carnarvon Highway is the shortest road link from Sydney to Darwin .
Attractions
The One Ton Post was established by John Cameron in 1881 to commemorate the end of two long and hard years of land surveying. It is located 5 km west of Mungindi, where the border line deviates from the middle of the river and runs along the 29th southern parallel 700 km west to the border of South Australia .
There are many other attractions at the local History Park on the outskirts of Mungindi.
In the Neeworra Historical Site about 11 km southeast of the city on the Carnarvon Highway is the Neeworra Wine Shanty .
history
In the 1850s, when herds of cattle were herded on both sides of the Barwon River, the ford at Mungindi (a little upriver from the current bridge) became the main river crossing. Water holes that reliably never dried up and shady pastures on the river banks offered the Stockmen (Australian cowboys) pleasant beds. The Gamilaroi Aboriginal tribe held their meetings there from ancient times. The regular use of this cattle drive can already be recognized by the fact that in 1868 two major routes were mentioned, one from St. George to Mungindi and one from Whyenbah via Dareel to Mungindi.
The trains of the Stockmen and the settlers who settled here soon attracted more people to provide them with goods and services. The first of these service industries was a hotel and inn. It was built in 1863 by Alexander Grant Walker on the south bank of the river. Walker was certainly driven by the pioneering spirit. He came to New South Wales from Scotland at the age of 21 , married in 'Murrurundi' and settled with his wife in Moree, where they were among the first to acquire land there. They built a hotel on Frome Street, but after just 12 months they transferred the license to their new hotel in Mungindi called The Green Hut - later Walker's Hotel . They built a farm for themselves with stables that could also be used by hotel guests. The buildings stood on the Barwon River between the current car dealerships, North-Western Motors and Quinn's Motors, near the intersection that was then east of Garden Island. Walker acquired 16 hectares of land on the riverside.
Queensland became a colony independent of New South Wales in 1859 and in 1862 the new government established a packhorse mail route between Surat and Yarawa . For several years there was a private mail connection from Yarawa to Moree. This was later extended to Mungindi. In 1865, the amount of mail carried caused the Queensland Postal Secretary to send an inspector who recommended the appointment of Alexander Grant Walker as postmaster.
About a year later, the new postmaster was struggling with the typical frustrations of an official in a border town: As a postmaster for the city of Mungindi, Queensland, he was not allowed to deal with letters with a stamp from New South Wales, so he applied in 1867 successfully won the post of postmaster in the city of Mungindi (New South Wales). In the years that followed, there were 43 customers on the Mungindi, Queensland post office list. Few of them had families, but their number shows the need for the store Walker ran at the time.
In 1876 a branch of the Government Savings Bank of New South Wales opened in the post office of Mungindi, New South Wales. When work on the first bridge over the Barwon River began that same year, Walker saw the benefits of locating his store at the intersection. His shop, newly built that year, was next to today's Old Police Station and then also next to the customs house, which was operated until the Commonwealth of Australia was formed in 1900.
Alexander Walker, who could be called the "founder of Mungindi" died suddenly in 1878. His widow and family continued to run the post office, shop and hotel. Mrs. Walker later became known as the 'Queen of Mungindi'. It is said that usually over 100 horses were tied up in front of the hotel. If there was a quarrel between the guests, she is said to have untied the horses and scared them away with her broom, and by the time they were caught again, the reason for the quarrel was long forgotten and everyone was satisfied. Presumably, after the establishment of the first police station on the New South Wales side in 1882, Mrs. Walker no longer established law and order in this way.
In the 1880s, traffic in the area led to the introduction of a regular stagecoach service, and in 1881 the opening of the telegraph office further improved communication options. Apparently the families soon followed the young men who found work in surveying the land on the Queensland side in 1885 and the land was put up for sale. A lot behind what is now the hospital was reserved for the cemetery, but - as far as is known - only two people were buried there.
In 1877, land was designated on the New South Wales site for drove camps and cattle troughs, and in 1884 it was also advertised in the newspapers. But on February 27, 1886, the governor announced:
"His Excellency the Governor, with the advice of the Executive Council… directed it to be notified… that portions of Crown Lands are declared to be set apart as sites for the village of Mungindi and of suburban lands attached." (His Excellency, the Governor, (...) announced, following instructions from Parliament, (...) that parts of the crown land will be reserved for the settlement of Mungindi and its suburbs).
Parcels of land were measured at Moree after this proclamation and on January 24, 1888, and the first lots at Mungindi were auctioned for amounts between £ 11 10s and £ 46. These first private lots were between North Street, Kunopia Street, Wirrah Street, and Yarouah Street. In 1890, after a parliamentary change in law, Mungindi was declared a village again.
After the proclamation, the Mungindi settlement developed rapidly. Despite the devastating flood of 1890, which plunged many families into existential needs and also spread opuntias , which led to further losses, many new families appeared in Mungindi, who acquired small pieces of land that were sold after the dissolution of large estates in 1884. In addition, many traders and business people settled in Mungindi.
In 1891 the residents of Mungindi, Queensland asked their government to send a police officer. In 1894, a year after the school on the New South Wales side became an official elementary school with an average of 30 students, a makeshift school for 22 students was opened on the Queensland side. In three years, the number of school-age children almost doubled. At the turn of the century, Mungindi had his own newspaper, a hospital, a doctor's office, a law firm, two schools, two post offices, a brewery, at least four hotels, two police stations with three police officers each, two horse racing clubs, a P. & A. society , two butchers, two hairdressers, two plasterers, a shoemaker's shop, a saddlery, a bakery, a tailor's shop, a sawmill, a pawnshop, a teacher for piano, violin and oil painting, four contract joineries, a painter and decorator, a roofer and a tinsmith . There were many entertainment options for the approximately 250 residents: balls and dance festivals, exhibitions and shows, concerts and circus performances, as well as bi-weekly meetings of the literature and debating club. In 'Sportsman's Paradise' there was fishing, cycling, horse racing, cricket, billiards and tennis.
railroad
Mungindi is the northern end of the Mungindi (or Northwestern) Railway Line and is 798 km by railway from Sydney. The railway line opened on December 7, 1914 and was closed again on January 5, 1974 after the tracks between Weemelah and Mungindi were flooded . The former train station now serves as a private residence.
Sources and web links
- A History of Mungindi to 1988 . Mungindi and District Historical Book Committee
- Queensland Places: Mungindi . University of Queensland
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Australian Bureau of Statistics : Mungindi (NSW) ( English ) In: 2016 Census QuickStats . June 27, 2017. Retrieved January 26, 2020.
- ↑ a b Australian Bureau of Statistics : Mungindi (Qld) ( English ) In: 2016 Census QuickStats . June 27, 2017. Retrieved January 26, 2020.
- ↑ Mungindi. Geographical Names Board of New South Wales, accessed August 12, 2017 .
- ↑ Mungindi Station. NSWrail.net, accessed August 12, 2017 .
- ^ Rod Milne: A History of the Mungindi Branch Line . Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin. (May 1995). Pp. 115-136