Mungindi, New South Wales

Mungindi is a town of approximately 700 persons on the border of New South Wales and Queensland in Moree Plains Shire. It possesses a New South Wales postcode. It sits on the Carnarvon Highway and straddles the Barwon River which is the border between New South Wales and Queensland, 'On the Border...On the Barwon River'

Overview

Located uniquely on both sides of the New South Wales and Queensland border, Mungindi is the only border town in the Southern Hemisphere with the same name on both sides of the border. The Carnarvon Highway is the shortest route from Sydney to Darwin.

The "Kamilaroi" meaning for Mungindi is "Water Hole by the River". The border runs down the centre of the Barwon River and under the centre of the bridge and whilst there is no exact marker in the bridge to indicate the point, most people take the centre of the bridge as being the point, the choice of the exact spot at this time is really yours.

The One Ton Post was erected by Mr John Cameron in 1881 to celebrate the completion of two long and hard years of surveys. The Post is situated three miles (5 km) west of Mungindi where the border fence leaves the river and goes 700km due west (440 miles) on the 29th Parallel to the South Australian Border.

Many items of interest are on display at the local History Park on the outskirts of Mungindi.

The Neeworra Historical Site, situated approximately 11 km (7 miles) south east from town on the Carnarvon Highway is the site of the Neeworra Wine Shanty.

Nearby towns are Moree and St George. Nearby villages are, in New South Wales, Weemelah, Garah, Ashley and Boomi, and in Queensland, Thallon, Dirranbandi and Hebel.

Mungindi is a hub for regional cotton, beef, and wheat industries.

History

By the 1850s, with stock moving on both sides of the Barwon River, the ford at Mungindi just upstream from the present bridge became the principal crossing. Reliable waterholes and shaded flats on the riverbanks provided early drovers with a pleasant camp in the area, which the Gamilaroi Aboriginal People had held since antiquity as an important meeting place. Regular use of the track is indicated by the fact that (2) two "forty chain" stock routes were proclaimed by 1868, both to Mungindi, one from St George and one from Whyenbah via Dareel.

The movement of drovers and the coming of settlers soon attracted others to provide them with goods and services. The first known of these services was a hotel, or inn. Built in 1863 by Alexander Grant Walker, it was located on the south bank of the river. Alexander was certainly moved by the pioneering spirit. After coming to New South Wales from Scotland at the age of twenty-one, he married at Murrurundi and brought his bride to Moree where they were among the first to purchase land in the town area. They built a hotel in Frome Street but within twelve months transferred the license to Alexander’s Mungindi Inn', also known as Walker's Hotel and in later years, The Green Hut. He built himself a cottage and also stables for the use of hotel patrons. These buildings were along the bank of the Barwon between present day North-Western Motors and Quinn's Motors, near the crossing which was then east of Garden Island. It was then that Alexander applied for forty acres along the river.

Queensland became a separate colony in 1859 and by 1862 the Queensland Government was operating a packhorse mail service between Surat and Yarawa. A private mail service had for some years run from Yarawa to Moree. This was later extended to Mungindi town. By 1865, the volume of mail prompted the Postmaster-General of Queensland to send an inspector who recommended Alexander Walker’s appointment as Postmaster.

A year or so later it seems the new Postmaster had begun to experience the frustrations common to border-town officials. As Mungindi, Queensland's Postmaster he was not empowered to deal with letters bearing N.S.W. stamps so he applied for, and was appointed to the position of Postmaster of Mungindi, N.S.W. in 1867. The following year there were 43 subscribers listed in the Post Office Directory for Mungindi, Qld. Very few of these were family men but the numbers explain the need for the store, which Alexander was operating at that time.

In 1876 an agency of the Government Savings Bank of N.S.W. opened through his Post Office in N.S.W. When work began in the same year on the first bridge over the Barwon River, Alexander realized the advantage of having his store located near the new crossing. His shop, built that year, was close to the site of the present Old Police Station and at the time, near the Customs House, which operated until Federation in 1900 ended trading between colonies/ states.

Alexander Walker, who might be called the ‘Founder of Mungindi’, died suddenly in 1878. His wife and family continued to run the Post Office, store and hotel. Apparently Mrs. Walker became well known as the 'Queen of Mungindi'. Stories say that it was common to see over 100 horses tied up outside the hotel. If a ‘blue' started she would let down the slip rails and take to the horses with a broom. By the time the horses were rounded up the reason for the fight would have been forgotten and everyone was happy again. Presumably Mrs. Walker was no longer compelled to keep law and order in this unique way after the first N.S.W. constable was stationed in 1882.

During the 1880s movement in the area had led to the development of regular stagecoach services and communications further improved with the opening of a telegraphic office in 1881. It would seem that families quickly followed the young men who found work opening up the area for the township on the Queensland side was surveyed probably in 1885 and the blocks offered for sale. An area was reserved for a cemetery, behind the present hospital, but as far as is known, only two people were buried there.

A survey to designate camping and watering reserves had been carried out on the N.S.W side in 1877 and the reserves 'gazetted' in 1884. However, on February 27, 1886 those reserves were revoked, as on that day

"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 thereto."

The surveys of allotments were made after this proclamation and on January 24, 1888 in Moree, the first Mungindi town blocks were offered at auction sales they sold for amounts varying from £11.10.0 to £46.0.0. Those earliest sales were for blocks between North, Kunopia, Wirrah and Yarouah Streets. In 1890, to satisfy a change in parliamentary acts Mungindi was again proclaimed a village.

The township of Mungindi developed rapidly after that proclamation. Though 1890 brought a devastating flood which forced many families into difficulties and may have been responsible for the widespread of Prickly Pear which caused further hardship, many new names appear in Mungindi as selectors took up small blocks offered from land resumed after changes to land tenure in 1884 and as more tradesmen and businessmen took up residence in the town.

In 1891 the citizens of Mungindi, Qld., petitioned their government for a policeman. By 1894, when the N.S.W. school was twelve months old and had become a full public school with an average minimum attendance of 30, the Qld. Provisional School had opened with an enrolment of 22. The number of school-aged children had almost doubled in three years.

At the turn of the century Mungindi had its own newspaper, a hospital, a doctor, a solicitor, two schools, two post offices, a brewery, at least four hotels, two police stations, with three men stationed at each, two race clubs, a P.&A. Society, two butchers, two hairdressers, two dressmakers and milliners, a shoemaker, a saddler, a baker, a tailor, a saw mill, a pawnbroker, a teacher of pianoforte, violin and oil painting, about four contract carpenters, a housepainter and decorator, a bricklayer and a tinsmith. Its approximately 250 residents enjoyed many shared entertainments. Balls and dances, fairs and shows, concerts and travelling tent shows, and fortnightly meetings of the Literary and Debating Society. In the 'Sportsman’s Paradise',fishing, bicycling, horse racing, cricket, billiards and tennis were keenly pursued.

Railway

Mungindi marks the northernmost point of the Mungindi (or North West) railway line and lies 798 km from Sydney. [ [http://www.nswrail.net/locations/show.php?name=NSW:Mungindi&line=NSW:mungindi:0 Mungindi Railway Station] . NSWrail.net. Accessed 1 April 2008.] The line opened on 7 December, 1914 and was closed between Weemelah and Mungindi 5 January, 1974 when services were withdrawn following flooding. ["A History of the Mungindi Branch Line" Milne, Rod Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin May 1995 pp115-136] The former railway station is now used as a private residence.

References

Other sources

* Mungindi and District Historical Book Committee, "A History of Mungindi to 1988".