Wagga Wagga


Wagga Wagga is the state's largest and the country's fifth largest inland city - an important agricultural, military, educational and transport hub of Australia.

Where is it?: Riverina. Wagga Wagga is 517 km south west of Sydney and 147 km from Albury on the Sturt Highway. The city is on the main Sydney-Melbourne railway line and is approximately half way between the two major cities.

Things to see and do
Established in 1977, the Charles Sturt Winery is a producer of premium varietal table wines. It is an integral part of Australia's leading wine science school and as such is at the forefront of viticulture practices and wine making techniques.

The Cellar Door has tasting and sales of our premium sparkling, table and fortified wines, hand made cheeses, and locally produced extra virgin olive oil from one of the oldest olive groves in Australia. There are five other wineries in the region that have cellar doors.


Situated in the Botanic Gardens, the Willams Hill Miniature Railway runs through the gardens and features an authentic station and booking office. The track runs through woodlands, a tunnel and over a bridge. It operates between 10.30am and 4.30pm on the first and third Sunday of each month.

There are a number of museums around town - Museum of the Riverina (includes Wagga Wagga Sporting Hall of Fame), Botanic Gardens; Australian Pen Museum; Wagga Wagga Rail Heritage Association Museum; Steam And Vintage Museum (every 1st and 3rd Sunday of the month); RAAF Wagga Heritage Centre.


RAAF Wagga Heritage Centre (10 km east): is located at the Wagga Wagga RAAF Base at Forest Hill. The heritage centre has an extensive indoor and outdoor displays of aircraft, memorabilia and photographs relating to the RAAF in the Riverina.

Surrounding area
One of Australia's finest regional museums, Temora Aviation Museum, at Temora (85km north) 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���Ǩ�Ѣs 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.

Junee Railway Roundhouse Museum

An old railway town, Junee (30km north) 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.

About Wagga Wagga
The city of Wagga Wagga provides the central focus for a large catchment region of rural New South Wales and is the centre of administration for the Riverina region. It is home to 22 primary schools, eight secondary schools, a regional Institute of TAFE with 18 campuses and one of the four main campuses of Charles Sturt University, as well as Wagga Wagga Base Hospital, the Kapooka Army base and a separate RAAF base, adjoining the airport. Wagga is 246 kilometres from Canberra and 456 kilometres from Melbourne.

The city's name is one of Australia's unique oddities - it is spelt Wagga Wagga, it is pronounced Wogga Wogga, but is referred to as Wagga (pronounced Wogga). Wagga and derivatives of that word in the Wiradjuri aboriginal language is thought to mean crow and to create the plural, the Wiradjuri repeat the word. Thus 'Wagga Wagga' translates to 'the place of many crows'. Previous translations have also attributed the word 'wagga' to meaning, 'reeling (a sick man or a dizzy man); to dance, slide or grind'.

Wagga has a number of connections with Australia's military forces. The Australian Army base at Kapooka includes the Army Recruit Training Centre, where non-commissioned members of the Australian Regular Army undertake their initial 80 day training.

There is a separate Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) base at Forest Hill (RAAF Base Wagga), which is the administration and logistics training base for Air Force personnel and the tri-service (RAN/Army/RAAF) electronic trades school. Royal Australian Navy personnel are based at RAAF Base Wagga. The RAAF's No 1 Recruit Training Unit will also move to the base at the start of 2008.



Brief history
The original inhabitants of the Wagga Wagga region were the Wiradjuri people. In 1829, Charles Sturt became the first European explorer to visit the future site of the city. Squatters arrived soon after, leading to conflict with the indigenous inhabitants. The town, positioned on the site of a ford across the Murrumbidgee, was surveyed and gazetted as a village in 1849 and the town grew quickly after. In 1870, the town was gazetted as a municipality.

During the negotiations leading to the federation of the Australian colonies, Wagga Wagga was a contender for the site of the capital for the new nation. During World War I the town was the starting point for the Kangaroo recruitment march. The Great Depression and the resulting hardship saw Wagga Wagga become the centre of a secession movement for the Riverina region.

Wagga Wagga became a garrison town during World War II with the establishment of a military base at Kapooka and Royal Australian Air Force bases at Forest Hill and Uranquinty. After the war, Wagga Wagga was proclaimed as a city in 1946 and new suburbs were developed to the south of the city.

Cricketer Mark Taylor

The "Wagga Effect"
A term that has been used frequently in the Australian media to describe the disproportionately large number of elite sportsmen and women that originate from the city. It is speculated that the phenomenon may arise in rural areas where the population is large enough to sustain the presence of a large number of sporting codes, but small enough to ensure that talented individuals are exposed to adult-level competition at an earlier age. According to local legend Wagga's sporting success is due to a mystery nutrient in the Murrumbidgee River, washed down the river when water is released from the Blowering and Burrinjuck Dams. According to the legend it arrives at Wagga Beach as a giant wave, known as the Five O'clock Wave, which surfers can ride all the way to Narrandera.

The 5 o'clock wave is a part of local lore in some areas of Australia. In common with most similar lore, it serves primarily to confuse outsiders and amuse locals. The tale is common to rural riverine areas located downstream from major dams, particularly those with rivers that have the Snowy Mountains as their source. It is particularly associated with Wagga Wagga. The 5 o'clock wave is supposedly a large wave, several metres in height and created by the daily release of dam overflow, that is said to travel down river at high speed, and to reach the location at which the tale is being told at 5 o'clock each afternoon. Surfers are often said to ride this wave for hundreds of kilometres. This apocryphal wave is the man-made equivalent of the natural, and genuine, tidal bore phenomenon.

Consequently, Wagga is known as The City of Good Sports. Its sporting greats include:

Rugby League Football: Greg Brentnall; Chris Mortimer; Peter Mortimer; Steve Mortimer; Peter Sterling

Rugby Union Football: Nathan Hines; Nathan Sharpe

Australian Rules Football: Wayne Carey; Terry Daniher; Paul Kelly; Cameron Mooney

Horse Racing: Scobie Breasley (jockey)

Wakeboarding: Brett Eisenhauer

Golf: Steve Elkington

Athletics: Brad Kahlefeldt (2006 Commonwealth Games Triathlon Gold Medallist)

Cricket: Geoff Lawson; Michael Slater; Mark Taylor

Tennis: Tony Roche

Hockey: Melanie Twitt

As well as sports stars, Wagga Wagga is the home town of many other famous people, including Fictional Character Dame Edna Everage; Sir Thomas Blamey (World War 2 general and Australia's first and only Field-Marshal); Geoff Dixon (former Qantas CEO); John Hurst Edmondson (Australia's first World War 2 Victoria Cross recipient); Dame Mary Gilmore (Socialist, Poet and Journalist); Bill Kerr (Actor); George Moore (Sydney Radio Presenter); Sam Moran (Yellow Wiggle).

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