Gundagai facts for kids
New South Wales
The town and the Murrumbidgee floodplain in July 2005. The Hume Highway can be seen in the middle distance.
|Location in New South Wales|
|Elevation:||232 m (761 ft)|
Gundagai // is a town in New South Wales, Australia. Although a small town, Gundagai is a popular topic for writers and has become a representative icon of a typical Australian country town. Located along the Murrumbidgee River and Muniong, Honeysuckle, Kimo, Mooney Mooney, Murrumbidgee and Tumut mountain ranges, Gundagai is 390 kilometres (240 mi) south-west of Sydney. Until 2016, Gundagai was the administrative centre of Gundagai Shire local government area. In the 2011 census the population of Gundagai was 1,926. The town's population was 1,997 in 2001 and 2,064 in 1996.
- Origin of name
- River crossings
- Notable places
- As an iconic Australian town
- Photographs of Gundagai
- Cultural events
Gundagai is an inland town with an elevation of 250 metres (820 ft). Almost all of the shire is located in the South-West Slopes bioregion and is part of the Riverina agricultural region. The eastern part of the shire is considered part of the South Eastern Highlands bioregion.
North Gundagai is situated on top of significant, Jindalee Group, Cambrian period geology from which the chrysotile asbestos bearing Gundagai serpentinite originates also indicating prehistoric links to the Gondwana supercontinent.
The Shire has been extensively cleared for agriculture and more than 80% of the area is used for dryland cropping and grazing. Less than 1% of the shire is managed for conservation. There are few remaining examples of the original vegetation cover.
Gundagai shire is primarily rural, with a small population. Eighty per cent of the shire's population live in the town of Gundagai. There are four villages in the Shire: Coolac, Tumblong, Muttama and Nangus, with populations ranging from 40 to 90 people.
Gundagai has a warm temperate climate. Under Köppen climate classification, the town has a humid subtropical climate (Cfa) with characteristics of the Mediterranean climate (Csa), since one summer month sees rainfall below 40mm.
|Climate data for Gundagai|
|Record high °C (°F)||43.7
|Average high °C (°F)||32.5
|Average low °C (°F)||16.7
|Record low °C (°F)||5.9
|Precipitation mm (inches)||39.0
|Avg. precipitation days||5.7||5.5||5.4||5.4||7.1||11.7||13.4||11.8||10.9||9.6||8.3||7.1||101.9|
Origin of name
The name 'Gundagai' may derive from 'Gundagair', an 1838 pastoral run in the name of William Hutchinson to the immediate north of current day Gundagai. The Aboriginal word 'gair' was recorded at Yass in 1836 by George Bennett (naturalist) and means 'bird', as in budgerigar or good bird. In that context 'Gundagai' means place of birds but that placename may refer to the area to the north of Gundagai not to Gundagai town. The word 'Gundagai' is also said to mean cut with a hand-axe behind the knee.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics National Regional Profile of population in the Gundagai Shire states that 1.9% of the total Gundagai Shire population in 2001 was Indigenous. Thereafter the number of Indigenous people in the Gundagai Shire is noted as not applicable.
In 1850, 1140 Aboriginal people were recorded in the Murrumbidgee District, comprising eight tribes, one of which was the Gundagai group of forty Aboriginal people.
In 1911 the total population of Gundagai Shire was 1,921. It changed little in the course of the twentieth century being 2,308 at the time of the 1981 census and 1,998 at the 2006 census.
At the 2011 census, Gundagai recorded a population of 1,926 people. Of these:
The Gundagai area is part of the traditional lands of the Wiradjuri speaking people, while there is a considerable folklore associated with Aboriginal cultural and spiritual beliefs in the area. The floodplains of the Murrumbidgee below the present town of Gundagai were a frequent meeting place of the Wiradjuri.
The first moves to establish 'Gundagai' as a township were in 1838 with plans for the new settlement of Gundagae on the Murrumbidgee, about 54 miles beyond Yass ... advertised for viewing at the office of the Surveyor-General in Sydney.
Explorers and settlers
Australian-born Hamilton Hume and British immigrant William Hovell passed through the region in November 1824 when they passed to the south, near the future site of Tumut. Hovell recorded seeing trees already marked by steel tommyhawks.
On 25 September 2011, the Right Reverend Trevor Edwards, Vicar General of the Anglican Church and Assistant Bishop of the Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn, dressed in traditional white mid-nineteenth century garb, led the commemorative church service for the 150th anniversary of the laying of the foundation stone of St John's Anglican, (formerly Church of England), Church, Gundagai. Bishop Edwards noted that following on the path of the explorers Hume and Hovell, the first Gundagai settlers found a wonderful land on which to establish a town, which was gazetted in 1838 but until 1850, relied on ministry from Yass. A local settler named 'Warby' is recorded as having followed Hume and Hovell's tracks to the junction of the Murrumbidgee and Tumut Rivers and having taken up a pastoral lease of 19,200 acres ... at a rent of thirty-three pounds per annum. ... He called the property 'Minghee' later called 'Mingay'.
Charles Sturt travelled through the area in 1829 at the start of his voyage in search of an inland sea then believed to exist in outback Australia. Sturt again passed through Gundagai on the return leg of this journey in 1830, and returned in 1838 in company with the Hawdon and Bonney overlanding parties. At the time of Sturt's 1829–1830 journey, he found several settlers in the district: Henry O'Brien at Jugiong, William Warby at Mingay and the Stuckey Brothers, Peter and Henry at Willie Ploma and Tumblong. These settlers were beyond the limits of location as the district was not within the Nineteen Counties.
In April 1835 William Adams Brodribb junior moved to New South Wales and became a partner in a cattle station at Maneroo. In 1836 he overlanded the second draft of cattle to Melbourne. On returning from Port Phillip Brodribb relocated to what later became the site of Gundagai. In August Brodribb petitioned for a punt over the Murrumbidgee near his Gundagai hut, and in January 1838 Deputy Surveyor General Samuel Perry reported that 'a better site could not have been chosen for a Town of the first class' in reference to Gundagai.
Lady Jane Franklin, the wife of the governor of Tasmania, Sir John Franklin, travelled through Gundagai on 27 April 1839 and noted Andrews' store and public house establishment, that had a neat verandah and shuttered hut.
Edward John Eyre, Australian explorer and later Governor of Jamaica, left Sydney in late 1838 in an effort to find a practical route to overland stock to Adelaide, and then on to open communication between Adelaide and West Australia. Eyre left the Limestone Plains near today's Canberra with stock on 5 December 1838. On reaching the Murrumbidgee River at Gundagai, Eyre, accompanied by two aboriginal youths, Yarrie and Joey, turned down the river to the westward instead of following further south and travelled along the northern bank of the river for the better supply of water and feed available for his stock. Eyre crossed the river twice at Gundagai to avoid some ranges.
Whilst living and working at William Warby's establishment, Caroline McAlister (wife of Thomas McAlister) gave birth to a son 'John' on 21 June 1832, who may have been one of the first known children of European descent born in the Gundagai area.
The herds of John Macarthur, Throsby and Ellis, were along the Murrumbidgee by late 1831.
In the 1830s, Horatio Wills and his family lived near Gundagai. The Wills' son, Thomas Wills who was born in the Gundagai area, is credited with co-inventing Australian Rules football and for being coach and captain to the first Australian Aboriginal cricket team.
Gundagai Aboriginal Elders, Jimmy Clements and John Noble, attended the 1927 opening of the new Federal Parliament House in Canberra by the Duke of York (later George VI.) Jimmy Clements also known as King Billy whose traditional name was 'Yangar', walked forward to respectfully salute the Duke and Duchess of York (later Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother), and after that the two Elders were formally presented to the Royal couple as prominent citizens of Australia.
Gundagai Post Office opened on 1 April 1843 as the township (gazetted in 1838) developed.
The railway reached Gundagai in 1886 with a branch line to Tumut from Cootamundra on the Main Southern railway line. The branch line was extended reaching Tumut in 1903 and Batlow and Kunama, at the end of the Tumut and Kunama railway lines, in 1923. The line was finally closed after flood damage in 1984.
- See also: Floods in New South Wales
The original European town that was gazetted as Gundagai in 1838 was situated on the right hand bank of the Murrumbidgee River floodplain at the place colloquially known as 'The Crossing Place'. This town was hit by several large floods of the Murrumbidgee River. The Crown Commissioner for the Murrumbidgee District, Henry Bingham, praised the heroic actions of Aboriginal people at Gundagai in rescuing settlers from the 1844 flood. Bingham also requested a reward for local Aboriginal people.
Gundagai was still considered a frontier town in 1852. The 25 June 1852 Murrumbidgee flood swept the first colonial town of Gundagai away, killing at least 78 people (perhaps 89) of the town's population of 250 people; it is one of the largest natural disasters in Australia's history. Local Aboriginal men, Yarri, Jacky Jacky, Long Jimmy and one other played a role in saving many Gundagai people from the 1852 floodwaters, rescuing more than 40 people using bark canoes. Yarri was also known as Yarree or Coonong Denamundinna, and is believed to have killed John Baxter on the Edward John Eyre expedition in 1841, and also to have killed a young part Aboriginal woman 'Sally McLeod' near Gundagai in 1852. Warrants for Yarri/Yarree's arrest were issued by NSW Police after Brungle Aboriginal people reported him to the police over the Sally McLeod murder. Following an even higher flood in 1853, North Gundagai was redeveloped at its current site on Asbestos Hill and Mount Parnassus, above the river, and at South Gundagai on the slopes of Brummies Hill, using pre-existing surveyors plans. The town commemorated the sesquicentenary of the flood in 2002.
The flood of June 1891 left several pastoral workers and four rescuers who set out in a boat, stranded in trees just to the south of Gundagai. Edward True dragged a light skiff several miles over hills to the rescue site and managed to save several men from drowning. True also saved a young boy from drowning in a waterhole in 1887 and was awarded a Royal Humane Society of Australasia bravery award for that rescue as well. Edward True could not swim.
In recent years the Gundagai wetlands and marshes that were home to many bird species, have disappeared, largely as a result of ground compaction by cattle and Gundagai Shire Council diverting ground water into underground pipes. These wetlands were on the North Gundagai Common; adjacent to the Gundagai High School; between Bourke and West Streets to the north of Punch Street; to the west and north of the North Gundagai cemetery; and at Coolac.
Major floods also occurred in 1974 and 2012.
As early as 1838 the Gundagai and Yass areas were being terrorised by armed bushrangers. Four men held up Robert Phillips and took a horse, the property of William Hutchinson, (who had possession of the land to the immediate north of Gundagai), of Murrumbidgee. On one occasion in 1843 a gang of five bushrangers, including the bushranger called 'Blue Cap', held up and robbed Mr Andrews, the Gundagai postmaster and innkeeper. Cushan the bushranger was known to be operating in the area in 1846, and in 1850, to the south of Gundagai near Tarcutta, two bushrangers held up the Royal Mail, stole the Albury and Melbourne mailbags and rode off with the mail coach's horses. In 1862 at Bethungra to the west of Gundagai in the Gundagai Police District, the bushranger Jack-in-the-Boots was captured. A plot to rescue Jack-in-the-Boots whose real name was Molloy, from police custody while he was being transferred from Gundagai to Yass gaol, was discovered. In February 1862, the bushranger Peisley was captured near Mundarlo and by that evening was lodged in the Gundagai Gaol. Peisley was later hanged at Bathurst. In 1863, the bushrangers Stanley and Jones were arrested at Tumut after they had allegedly stolen saddles at Gundagai and hatched a plan to rob Mr. Norton's store. Stanley could not be identified. In 1864, Jones was found not guilty. Sergeant Parry was shot and killed in 1864 by the bushranger John Gilbert in a hold-up of the mail coach near Jugiong. Gilbert was a member of Ben Hall's gang that was active in the district in 1863-64. Patrick Gately and Patrick Lawler held up Keane's pub at Coolac in April, 1866. Also in the 1860s, to the north of Adelong, the bushranger Hawthorne mistook a man by the name of Grant for William Williams the gold mine owner, and killed Grant. By 1869, Harry Power, early mentor of famous Australian bushranger, Ned Kelly, was committing holdups near Adelong and as icing on the cake, by 1874 the bushranger prettily known as Jerry Blossom, was entertaining the district. In 1880, bushrangers held up the Chinese Camp at Gundagai then fled on horseback towards Burra, a locality known to harbour louts and for the ferocious fires that roar through the area.
Early in 1879, some Gundagai residents were in fear that the Ned Kelly gang was going to pay the town a visit and while Extra rifles and ammunition to defend the town.. were applied for and special constables were sworn in, the Kelly Gang did turn up in the town.
The North Gundagai Anglican cemetery contains the graves of two policemen shot in the district by bushrangers. Senior Constable Webb-Bowen was killed by Captain Moonlite in November 1879 in a hostage incident at McGlede's farm. Trooper Edmund Parry, killed in an encounter with Ben Hall's gang near Jugiong, lies at rest next to the grave of Senior Constable Webb-Bowen. Captain Moonlite is also buried in the North Gundagai Anglican cemetery. Captain Moonlite had asked to be buried at Gundagai near his friends James Nesbitt and Augustus Wernicke . Both had been killed in the shoot-out at McGlede's Hut. Moonlite's request was not granted by the authorities of the time, but his remains were exhumed from Rookwood Cemetery and reinterred at Gundagai near to the unknown location of Nesbitt's grave in January 1995.
In the 1950s bushrangers reappeared in the Gundagai area, jumping into the trailers of heavy transports moving along the Hume Highway and throwing contents out to nearby accomplices.
In 1993 a Gundagai native, Tony Percival, was shot dead in the northern NSW mining town of Hillgrove by the perpetrators of the Cangai siege, Len Leabeater, Raymond Bassett and Robert Steele in their nine-day, two-state murderous rampage.
The old Gundagai Flour Mill in Sheridan Lane was also known as 'The Sundowners' for the swaggies that camped there each night. 'Sam the Sundowner' a famous Australian swaggie and principal character in the Australian comedy drama, 'The Road to Gundagai', was a regular resident at the Gundagai 'Sundowners' and was known for the rescues he made of near to drowning people from the inland rivers.
In 1901, there was a very large camp of unemployed men and their families at South Gundagai waiting for the proposed Gundagai Rail Line to begin construction. Five hundred of these men marched from south to north Gundagai accompanied by the town band, to try to move commencement of the project, forward. There was a railway worker canvas town near the Gundagai Rail Station. Rail workers and their families who moved to Gundagai to work on the rail line, lived in tents in that area into the 1950s. The Chinese camp was in the area of today's Bowls Club as were the Chinese gardens. Burials of deceased Chinese people were in the pagan ground. All mine sites, of which there were several around Gundagai such as Burra, Reno, Jackalass, Jones Creek and Coolac, had miner's camps at or near them. The hill to the north of Gundagai known as Flower Hill once had a large tent settlement that was larger than the permanent North Gundagai residential area. Likewise the Spring Flat goldfield adjacent to the North Gundagai cemetery resulted in a sizeable tent township appearing there.
There were several riverboats associated with Gundagai. The 'Explorer', the 'Gundagai', the 'Albury', the 'Nangus' and the 'J.H.P.'. Captain Francis Cadell ran the first steamer on the Murray River in 1853. In 1856 the sister steamers, the 'Albury' and the 'Gundagai' were bought from Scotland to Goolwa in pieces, by Captain Cadell, assembled at Goolwa then launched.
In 1855 Captain Cadell was aboard the paddlewheel steamer 'Gundagai' for the first journey in it north of Goolwa, then in 1856 explored the Edward River system as Captain of the 'Gundagai'. By 1865, the steamer 'Gundagai' under the command of Captain Cadell, was providing a transport service between Wanganui and the Waitotara in New Zealand, and getting supplies to troops, in support of the British Crown and the Crown's involvement in the New Zealand Wars. Captain Cadell became 'Superintendent of Colonial Transport (water)' for New Zealand.
On 16 September 1858, the steamer 'Albury', under the command of Captain George Johnston with Captain Cadell on board, moored at Gundagai on the north bank of the Murrumbidgee at what was hoped to be named the 'Albury Wharf', after taking a bit over a month to ascend the Murrumbidgee from Lake Alexandrina. The 'Albury' was the first steamer known to visit Gundagai. The steamer 'Albury' was tied up to an old gum tree at Gundagai by Mr Norton of Gundagai who two years previously had the honour of naming the boat that set off from Gundagai to survey the Murrumbidgee under the command of Captain Robinson, the 'Explorer'. Captain Robinson's 1855 survey of the Murrumbidgee in the 'Explorer' was for the purpose of ascertaining If that river presents any serious impediments to internal navigation and the incentive for that survey came from Captain Cadell.
The steamer 'Nangus' was constructed by the engineer Mr. Chapman of Sydney, at Nangus Station near Gundagai for Mr Jenkins, owner of Nangus Station, to ply the Murrumbidgee River between Gundagai and Hay and she made her maiden journey in 1865. The steamer 'Nangus' was a 12-horsepower, 70 feet long iron vessel, with two side paddles and towing two iron barges. The 'Nangus' sank near Wagga after hitting a snag in 1867.
The steamer 'J.H.P.' was launched in 1866 and sank between Hay and Balranald in October 1868. It was raised but sank twice more than was dismantled in 1879. On 20 September 1870, the 'J.H.P.' then owned by Edward Warby, journeyed up the Murrumbidgee from Wagga to Gundagai without incident.
Gundagai is located at a crossing place of the Murrumbidgee River. There were several places at Gundagai that travellers could and did cross the river. The route across the Murrumbidgee at Gundagai eventually became the Great South Road.
The Main Roads Management Act of June 1858 declared the Great Southern Road, from near Sydney through Goulburn and Gundagai to Albury, as one of the three main roads in the colony. However, its southern reaches were described as only a 'scarcely formed bullock track' as late as 1858. The road was improved in the mid-1860s with some sections near Gundagai metalled and all creeks bridged between Adelong Creek (approximately 10 kilometres south of Gundagai) and Albury. In 1914 the road was declared a main road of New South Wales, and subsequently designated as state highway 2 and named the Hume Highway in 1928. The highway bypassed Gundagai in 1977 with the opening of the Sheahan Bridge.
Fords and former bridges
There are several old fords at Gundagai including:
- the one at the western end of Hanley Street that crosses Jones Creek
- a ford on the southern continuation of Bourke Street across Jones Creek
- one at the western end of Sheridan Lane that crosses Jones Creek
- a ford at the western end of William Street that crosses Jones Creek
- the Otway Street ford across Morleys Creek
- a 1950s concrete ford that crosses Morleys Creek on the immediate western side of Yarri Bridge
- a very old ford that crosses Morleys Creek east of the Yarri Bridge
- the Warramore Ford that crosses the Murrumbidgee across to Tarrabandra between the Gundagai showground and Mingay
- the Sandy Falls ford
- the ford across Muttama Creek at the Nine Mile, Coolac, that is a well noted crossing place in local poetry, folklore and history
- the Gundagai township ford of the Murrumbidgee in line with Otway Street
- 'Adelong Crossing Place', now 'Tumblong', where there used to be a ford across Adelong Creek
There is also the Wantabadgery crossing place that these days has been replaced by the low level Mundarlo Bridge, downstream of Gundagai.
Often bridges have replaced fords but not always in exactly the same location, as bridges require high stream banks, whereas fords favour low banks. Two known old bridges on Morleys Creek no longer exist. Learys Bridge, a wooden bridge that crossed Morleys Creek in line with Byron Street, Gundagai was burned down by Gundagai Shire Council in the 1990s. Rileys Bridge that crossed Morleys Creek at the midpoint between Byron and Homer Streets was washed away in the 1851 Gundagai flood.
In 1865 a wrought iron truss bridge, the Prince Alfred Bridge, was completed across the Murrumbidgee River. The bridge was designed by William Christopher Bennett and was constructed by Francis Bell and Frederick Augustus Franklin and had a total length of 314 m, including three wrought iron truss spans each of 31.4 m across the river itself, two southern approach spans of timber, and twenty-three northern approach spans of 9.14 m, also of timber, rising on a gradient of 1 in 30 from the level of the floodplain. It was the first iron truss bridge to be built in New South Wales.
Sometime before 1896, the twenty-three northern spans were replaced with a longer structure consisting of 105 timber spans varying from 4.6 m to 9.14 m long, crossing the full width of the floodplain. In that year a ramp was installed on the western side of the bridge six spans north of the three main spans, in roughly the same location as the present ramp, in order to divert traffic from the timber approach spans, presumably because of maintenance problems with these spans.
In 1896 the 105 northern approach spans were replaced by a new approach structure of seventy-six spans on a different alignment, and the southern approach was slightly lengthened, giving a total length of 922 metres, which was 12 m less than the previous length. Nonetheless until 1932 when the Sydney Harbour Bridge was completed, it remained the longest bridge in New South Wales. In this configuration the bridge remained in use until 1977, but extensive repair work was carried out in the early 1930s.
In 1903 a second (railway) bridge across the Murrumbdgee with a total length of 819 metres was built for the extension of the railway from Gundagai to Tumut.
In 1977 a third bridge, the Sheahan bridge was opened, a prestressed concrete bridge as part of the Hume Highway bypass of Gundagai, to replace the Prince Alfred Bridge. It closely follows the alignment of one of the options considered in the early 1930s for a replacement bridge as an alternative to the repair of the Prince Alfred Bridge. It is 1,143 metres (3,750 ft) long, 6 m shorter than the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It was named after Bill Sheahan (1895–1975), who was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for Yass from 1941–1950 and for Burrinjuck from 1950–1973 and held various ministerial portfolios. In 2010 it was duplicated to carry the southbound carriageway of the Hume Highway.
Rusconi's marble masterpiece
Local monumental mason, Frank Rusconi, carved a miniature Baroque Italian palace from 20,948 pieces of marble collected from around New South Wales. The work is 1.2 metres high and, commencing in 1910, took 28 years to complete. It can be seen in the Gundagai tourist office. Rusconi was also the sculptor of the base of the Dog on the Tuckerbox monument. As bronze was not Rusconi's medium, the rest of the monument was cast at Oliver's Foundry in Sydney.
The Niagara cafe opened in 1938 and was a notable stop on the Hume Highway. The cafe makes much of a brief visit by then Prime Minister, John Curtin, in 1942, with a display in the window of the cafe of the crockery used by Curtin and Curtin's link to the cafe.
Heritage listed items
A number of places in Gundagai are on the New South Wales state heritage register and on the Register of the National Estate.
- Gundagai rail bridge over Murrumbidgee River
- Gundagai Railway Station and yard group
- Gundagai Courthouse
- Gundagai District Hospital
- Murrumbidgee River Underbridge, Gundagai
- Gundagai Rail Bridge Approaches
- Old Gundagai Town Site
- Prince Alfred Bridge
As an iconic Australian town
Although a small town, Gundagai is a popular topic for writers, including writers of poems and songs, and has become the representation of the typical Australian country town. Gundagai also has a long and strong oral tradition or folklore related to both Aboriginal and European events, as the location was an important gathering place and river crossing for teamsters (or bullockys), bush travellers, swagmen, shearers and drovers,.
Gundagai, perhaps more than any other Australian locality, is referenced in stories, songs and poems. These include Theta's poem,'Ode to the Dead of Gundagai'. James Riley, 'The Gundagai Calamity', Jack Moses and others in 'Nine Miles From Gundagai', Jack O'Hagan songs 'Where the Dog Sits on the Tuckerbox (five miles from Gundagai)', 'Along The Road To Gundagai', 'Snake Gully Swagger', and 'When a Boy from Alabama Meets a Girl from Gundagai,' Gundagai also features in the song 'The Grand Old Hills of Gundagai,' It is referenced in Scottish band Goodbye Mr. Mackenzie's song 'Dust'. A 2010 publication 'Purple Threads' by Jeanine Leane has won a major literary award, the David Unaipon Award and has been shortlisted for a Commonwealth literary award.
Other references in literature include Banjo Paterson's 'The Road to Gundagai,' and the traditional ballad 'Flash Jack from Gundagai'. The great British folksinger A L Lloyd, who spent time in Australia, recorded both the shearing song ‘Flash Jack from Gundagai’ and ‘The Road to Gundagai’. Additionally, the town is mentioned in Henry Lawson's 'Scots of the Riverina,' and C. J. Dennis' 'The Traveller.' Miles Franklin's 'Brent of Bin Bin,' saga is set in the area and it includes an account of the flood of 1852.
Photographs of Gundagai
Between 1899 and 1900, Dr Louis Gabriel, took up photography, photographing townlife in the period up to c.1906, when his responsibilities for the new hospital took precedence. He is considered one of Australia's best early documentary photographers, partly for his observant, astute and dispassionate approach. However, they are sometimes highly stylised by integrating his and others shadows in the image, or by making full use of the radical perspective of a wide-angle lens. The question of how and why his images are outstanding is central to the novel 'Belonging' written by G McDougall. The equally interesting story of how Gabriel's glass-plate negatives can into the National Library's possession is found in the NLA's 'Gundagai Album'.The negatives were preserved and presented to the National Library of Australia after his death and a selection were published in 1976 as a Gundagai Album.
The Snake Gully Cup festival is held each November featuring the Snake Gully Cup two-day Racing Carnival. It is one of southern New South Wales' premier race events. The idea of conducting a race called the Snake Gully Cup was originally floated in a committee meeting of the Gundagai Adelong racing club in the early 1970s. The race however did not materialise due to the lack of he support from the committee of the day. The idea gained real momentum at the unveiling of the statues of Dad,Dave,Mum and Mabel at the Snake Gully Service Centre in November 1979 when Ted Tout, one of the principles of the centre mentioned the possibility of a Snake Gully Cup being run as a picnic race meeting similar to the very popular Bong Bong Cup meeting. In November 1982 the Gundagai Adelong Racing Club conducted a mid-week race meeting as part of the 50th Anniversary celebrations for the Dog on the Tuckerbox. The feature race at the meeting was the Snake Gully Flying Handicap, a 1000 meters. The Snake Gully Flying Handicap remained as the feature race of the clubs November meeting for the next two years. In 1984 the Club applied for TAB status for the 1985 meeting when the proposal was to conduct the first Snake Gully Cup over 1400 meters. The application was unsuccessful. This was the beginning of the Snake Gully Cup in its current format. In 1990 the club once again applied for TAB status for the Cup and were successful in securing this for the 1992 Cup. From that date the cup has only been conducted on a Friday. The second day of the meet is called 'Hair Of the Dog' and is a more family orientated race day.
Gundagai has a 'Mud Muster' put on by the Nowra Mud, Sweat and Beers people and in 2016 it is being held on 2 April 2016. Gundagai Shire Council sponsor the event. The event involves digging large mud pits throughout the highly significant and documented Aboriginal Ceremonial Ground on the North Gundagai Common and filling those very large and deep holes with water, then hundreds of competitors wallow through these pits and other obstacles.
The town's rugby league team competed in the Maher Cup.
The Turning Wave Festival (a music and cultural festival celebrating Irish and Celtic migration to Australia) was held in Gundagai up to 2011, but moved to Yass in 2012.
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