Morongla Creek, New South Wales

Mechanics Institute and showgrounds

Morongla Creek is a small town, or hamlet, in New South Wales, Australia, in Cowra Shire. It is 13 km South of Cowra by road. Other near-by districts and/or villages are: Neila Creek, Cocomingla, Cucumgilliga, Wattamondara, and Noonbinna. Just south of the village rises the well-known topographical landmark, Mount Stumbler. Near its base was Conlon's Swamp, which reappears in vestigial form after heavy rainfall although now largely displaced by a farm dam.

Arthur Ambrose Marks operated a blacksmith and general store from 1911 to 1916.^[1]

Tom Middlemiss ran the Morongla general store, selling everything from mousetraps to tractors, until it was burnt down during the war. His sister tripped while carrying a lighted kerosene lantern through the rooms late one evening, and sadly the store became history. In the late 1960s Saint Daniel's Catholic church was also burnt down, though not due to the same cause. Probably its electrical wiring was faulty.

Ben Cannon, who with his part-Chinese assistant Huey Gong Lee, operated the smithy at Morongla through the 1920s and '30s, is buried at the picturesque Morongla Cemetery about 500 metres west from the Mechanics' Institute. Also buried there is Roger ("Rhody") Sheedy (1854-1942), a great horseman sometimes referred to as "the last of the bushrangers", who in his later years lived in a small cottage on "Iambi Park", Morongla. The photographer Olive Cotton (1911-2003) is also buried there.

A significant community event each year is the Morongla Show, formerly known as the Morongla Carnival, which is held on the Monday of the October long weekend (Labor Day). The displays of local produce, and the "animals made out of vegetables" and "garden in a shoe-box lid" children's competition, are not to be missed. Neither is the afternoon tea in the Mechanics' Institute hall, beginning at about 3pm, where, for a small entry fee, the visitor may be provided with cakes and slices and unlimited refills of tea from the Institute's kitchen.

The gymkhana events at the Morongla Show are very popular, and the "Iron Woman" and "Iron Man" events are hotly contested. It is to be regretted that the Poultry section of the show has recently been replaced by Photography (sadly, it was always a very arduous business cleaning out all the cages afterwards).

The National Bush Tucker, Home Brewing and Billy Boiling Championships were held in Morongla Creek in 2004.

Morongla Creek

Morongla Creek rises near Mount Morris and Slatterys Hill and runs in a generally northward direction for about 30 km before joining the Lachlan River.

Notes

1. ^ "Arthur Ambrose Marks". Wikia. http://genealogy.wikicities.com/wiki/Arthur_Ambrose_Marks_%281881-1963%29. Retrieved 2006-10-24. 

Coordinates: 33°56′S 148°41′E / 33.933°S 148.683°E / -33.933; 148.683