Cootamundra


Since its earliest days, the Cootamundra district has enjoyed prosperity from its natural environment, which even today supports a diverse mix of agricultural pursuits. It has always produced good beef, lamb, wool and rich crops of grain.


Where is it?: Cootamundra is 527 km south west of Sydney, 90 km north east of Wagga Wagga and 61 km north of Gundagai. Cootamundra is on the main Sydney-Melbourne railway line and was for many years an important railway town. The daily XPT services between those two cities stop at Cootamundra.

Events: Wattle Time Festival every August

Things to see and do


Legendary cricketer Sir Donald Bradman was born at 89 Adams Street, Cootamundra, and lived at Yeo Yeo for the first few years of his life. A mid-wife named Granny Scholz delivered Sir Donald Bradman on 27th August 1908 in the front room of the building. At the time of Bradman's birth, the cottage was the local midwife's hospital where expectant mothers would stay during their confinement. The cottage has been restored and converted to a Museum.
In the footsteps of Don Bradman >>

Surrounding area


About 23 km south of Cootamundra near the main road between Cootamundra and Wagga is one of Australia's most unusual pieces of railway engineering. The Sydney to Melbourne railway line spirals around Bethungra Hill, crossing itself and the line north line while traversing some of the deepest cuttings in Australia. Created in the 1940s, the Spiral takes the line through two tunnels and over the top of the hill, and through a big cutting at the spur.


Junee (53km south west): an old railway town, Junee has long been a favourite with visitors, boasting one of the southern hemispheres largest operating railway roundhouses, and its adjunct museum the Junee Railway Roundhouse Museum - with engines and rolling stock from every era of Australian rail. The Junee Licorice and Chocolate Factory has become a Junee icon, with its specialty organic flours and bread mixes and its flourishing organic licorice and chocolate manufacturing business.


Temora (54km north west): one of Australia's finest regional museums, Temora Aviation Museum displays 16 military aircraft of historical significance to Australia. Aircraft Showcase Days are held on the first and third Saturday of every month with the aim of providing visitors with a personal, interactive and in-depth experience with some of the Museum's aircraft. Visitors will witness the aircraft being towed from the hangar and watch the pre-flight inspection, servicing and refuelling as it takes place in front of them, before the aircraft takes flight.



About Cootamundra

Cootamundra is centrally located geographically in the South West Slopes of New South Wales - between Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. Its name is a corruption of the Aboriginal word "Gooramundra" meaning turtles, swamp or low-lying. Cootamundra boasts a population of around 7500 in the whole shire with a further 2000 in the surrounding district.

Cootamundra is home of the Cootamundra Wattle Acacia Baileyana which is probably the best known of all cultivated acacias. The Cootamundra Wattle is naturally restricted to the South Western Slopes of New South Wales and it is cultivated widely both in Australia and overseas. The Wattle Time Festival is held during the month of August each year. Wattle Valley on the Berthong Road, north of Cootamundra is a natural area where the wattles grow.

Brief History

Cootamundra was first settled by Europeans in the 1830's. The town was built on what was originally a stock station called "Cootamondra" owned by pioneer, John Hurley. By the 1860's settlement about the station had increased to such an extent that a certain amount of town planning was necessary. The town was surveyed as the "village of Cootamundry" and the plan was approved in 1861. Although the town's growth has not been spectacular, it has been steady and sustained.

The railway arrived in 1877, encouraging the further growth of pastoral and related industries. More recently new transport links and telecommunications have improved the potential for diverse economic development.

Cootamundra has always maintained an affinity with days gone by. Many of the older buildings remain, and are being sensitively restored, while in Cootamundra's Cooper Street a whole avenue of century-old elm trees have been heritage listed.

Athur Butler's aircraft at Cootamundra

In the early days of aviation, Cootamundra was a major International Airport. Just about all the significant aviators and aviatrix of our short aviation history visited Cootamundra at one time or another. In 1920, Ross and Keith Smith landed on Quinlan's Paddock following their record breaking flight from England to Australia. Their landing led locals to prepare an airfield to accommodate future fliers. Because it had facilities for aircraft, Cootamundra became a staging point for the Sydney-Adelaide aerial mail service when the service was introduced four years later. It soon became the Australian distribution point for all international air mail in and out of this country. It was flown in weekly, sorted and then transported by other aircraft and railed all over Australia. The first air mail flown from Sydney to Melbourne flew via Cootamundra.

Because of its importance in the distribution of mail, Cootamundra became a staging point for planes flying the Melbourne to Sydney and Adelaide to Sydney routes. The first successful all metal aircraft to be built in Australia was designed and constructed at Cootamundra by Arthur Butler. He built two aircraft the ABA and the BAT at Cootamundra in the 1930's. Butler established Butler Airlines and flew England to Australia in a little single seat Comper Swift in 1931.

Cootamundra Railway Station

Cootamundra is noted for its many historic buildings including the gaol, which was built in 1885, town hall (1890) and district hospital (1892). Three years after it opened in 1875, the town's first school welcomed a 13-year-old pupil-teacher who was to emerge as one of Australia's great poets and the first woman admitted to the Australian Workers' Union, Dame Mary Gilmour. The railway station in Hovell Street, built in 1888, boasts an amazing octagonal central tower. The intriguingly named Hardy's Folly Dam was also built in the 1890s.

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