Gundaroo, New South Wales

Gundaroo is a small village in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia and in Yass Valley Shire. It is situated to the east of the Yass River, about 16 kilometres north of Sutton, about 15 km west of the Lake George range. It has a population of about 300.

The explorers Charles Throsby and Joseph Wild travelled through the Yass River valley in 1820. The Aborigines called the valley "Candariro" meaning 'blue crane' and this name may have been the origin of Gundaroo. [ * "Exploring the ACT and Southeast New South Wales", J. Kay McDonald, Kangaroo Press, Sydney, 1985 ISBN 0-86417-049-1 ] Governor Lachlan Macquarie granted the first white settler, Peter Cooney, 30 acres in 1825. Settlement proceeded fairly quickly and there were about 400 residents in the 1840s. The first non-residential building in Gundaroo was the Harrow Inn, built in 1834. A post office was built in 1848 and an Anglican church, St Lukes in Upper Gundaroo (now part of a pottery business), in 1849. The first school opened in 1850 and a Police Station in 1852. [cite web
title ="Gundaroo"
publisher =The Southern Tablelands of NSW
url =http://www.argylecounty.com.au/towns/gundaroo.html
accessdate =2007-07-13 ] A major impetus for the growth in the middle of the nineteenth century was the discovery of gold in the district in 1852. [ "Canberra's Engineering Heritage", William Charles Andrews, Institution of Engineers, Canberra, 1990 p5 ]

Gundaroo has become something of a dormitory for Canberra and is a fairly trendy village for tourists from Canberra and further afield because of its well preserved early and mid 19th century heritage.

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