Cooma is the main town of the Monaro region and regional centre of the Snowy Mountains.
Where is it?: New South Wales: Southern Agricultural. Cooma is 115 km south of the national capital, Canberra, via the Monaro Highway, Cooma is 800 metres above sea level.
A very good road system allows easy access to Sydney (425km) and to Melbourne (620km). Cooma is only one hour from the NSW ski fields, one hour from inner city Canberra, and one and a half hours from the closest beach on the Sapphire Coast.
Things to see and do
The Aviation Pioneers' Memorial at Cooma contains artifacts recovered from the Avro 618 Ten aircraft Southern Cloud, which crashed on 21 March 1931 in the Toolong range of the Australian Alps. The wreck was not found until 26 October 1958.
Lambie Town Walk: Discover Cooma's history as you take this self-guided tour around some of Cooma's historic landmarks. You can walk, drive or bike, and maps are available from Cooma Visitor Information Centre. This five kilometre walk takes you through residential and natural areas of scenic and historic interest, and was designed and constructed by the Goulburn Lands Office in 1985 and named for Commissioner of Lands, John Lambie.
The walk includes three Heritage Areas recognised by the National Trust: The Court House precinct, built in the 1860s, Lambie Street, the first commercial centre of Cooma and Church Hill, with examples of nineteenth and twentieth century religious and educational buildings. Also included in the walk are Centennial Park, Cenotaph, Cooma Gaol and the Southern Cloud Memorial Park.
Cooma Monaro Railway is a heritage railway based at Cooma Station. As the gateway to the Snowy Mountains area, Cooma was the destination for for almost 100 years of rail services, until the line from Canberra was closed by flood damage to the bridge over the Numeralla River. The railway uses locally restored CPH Railmotors. The full run for regular tourist services on weekends and holidays is to Chakola, some 19 kilometers from Cooma on the banks of the Numeralla River.
Surrounding area
Cooma has developed a growing tourism industry as it became the main rest stop for many travellers heading to the NSW snow fields during the winter months. As a result, the town nicknamed itself the 'Gateway to the Snowy Mountains'.
Kiandra (90km north west), now a ski resort, was the scene in the 1890s of a frenzied gold rush with rich alluvial diggings in the beds of the snow fed streams. In an act of cultural vandalism, the National Parks & Wildlife Serivice demolished most of its buildings when it took over the town in 1974. Only four buildings from the former township remain intact, together with a collection of ruins and the historic cemetery. The area retains various other relics of Australian pioneer history, including mining equipment, old gravesites and abandoned diggings.
History: The Monaro district was explored by Captain JM Currie in 1823. It was first surveyed in 1840 and it was proclaimed a municipality in 1879. The railway from Sydney was extended from Royalla to Cooma in 1889 and closed in 1986.
Cooma is the most genuinely multi-cultural rural town in Australia. Originally settled in 1823, it remained the centre of the Monaro grazing area until the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Authority (now Snowy Hydro) was established in 1949. Workers from all around the world converged on Cooma and the mountain construction sites to build the project, then the largest civil/electrical engineering project undertaken in Australia. When the scheme was completed in the 1970s, many people stayed on, and the region is proud of its multi cultural community. The name could have derived from an Aboriginal word Coombah, meaning 'big lake' or 'open country'.
Climate: Cooma has a dry, cool climate. The annual mean rainfall is 532 millimetres, with winter being the driest season. Mean daily minimum temperatures range from -2.7��C (July) to 10.6��C (January), with annual mean daily minimum of 4.1��C. Mean daily maximum temperatures range from 11.5��C (July) to 27.1��C (January), with annual mean daily maximum of 19.4��C.
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