Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia

Geography | Landform and salinity | City and suburbs | European settlement | Heritage listings | Commercial | Defence forces | Education | Government | Transport | Rail | Airport | Sport

🇦🇺 Wagga Wagga is a major regional city in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. Straddling the Murrumbidgee River, Wagga Wagga is the state's largest inland city, and is an important agricultural, military, and transport hub of Australia. The ninth largest inland city in Australia, Wagga Wagga is located midway between the two largest cities in Australia—Sydney and Melbourne—and is the major regional centre for the Riverina and South West Slopes regions.

The central business district is focused around the commercial and recreational grid bounded by Best and Tarcutta Streets and the Murrumbidgee River and the Sturt Highway. The main shopping street of Wagga is Baylis Street which becomes Fitzmaurice Street at the northern end. The city is accessible from Sydney via the Sturt and Hume Highways, Adelaide via the Sturt Highway and Albury and Melbourne via the Olympic Highway and Hume Highway. The city is in an alluvial valley and much of the city has a problem with urban salinity.

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. 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. In 1982 the city was amalgamated with the neighbouring Kyeamba and Mitchell Shires to form the City of Wagga Wagga local government area.

Wagga Wagga is the major city of the Riverina and the largest inland city in New South Wales. The urban area of Wagga Wagga has grown, on average, 0.65 percent year-on-year. Much of this growth is attributable to the "sponge city" phenomenon as Wagga Wagga attracts residents from smaller towns in the region such as Urana. Other factors include Wagga's role as a regional centre and its hosting of major defence establishments and a Charles Sturt University campus.

Geography Wagga Wagga is at the eastern end of the Riverina region where the slopes of the Great Dividing Range flatten and form the Riverina plain. The city straddles the Murrumbidgee River, one of the great rivers of the Murray-Darling Basin, and the city centre is on the southern bank, protected by a levee from potential flooding.

The city sits halfway between the largest cities in Australia, being 452 km south-west of Sydney and 456 km north-east of Melbourne with the Sydney–Melbourne railway line passing through. The Sturt Highway, part of Australia's National Highway network, passes through the city on its way from Adelaide to its junction with the main Sydney–Melbourne route, the Hume Highway, a further 45 km east. This location astride some of the major transport routes in the nation has made Wagga Wagga an important heavy truck depot for a number of companies including Toll Holdings. Wagga Wagga itself is the major regional centre for the Riverina and for much of the South West Slopes regions, providing education, health and other services to a region extending as far as Griffith to the west, Cootamundra to the north and Tumut to the east.

Landform and salinity Wagga Wagga is upstream from the Riverina plain in the mid-catchment range of the Murrumbidgee River in an alluvial valley confined by low bedrock hills. Much of Wagga Wagga is on heavy clay soils in a large drainage basin with a small catchment discharge point. Groundwater therefore cannot leave easily, leading to Wagga Wagga having a problem with waterlogged soil and soil salination. Urban salination in Wagga Wagga is now the subject of a large multi-pronged approach to prevent further salination and reclaim salt-affected areas.

City and suburbs The location of Wagga Wagga's Central business district was already well established by the late 1800s and remains focused around the commercial and recreational grid bounded by Best and Tarcutta Streets and the Murrumbidgee River and the Sturt Highway. The main shopping street of Wagga Wagga is Baylis Street which becomes Fitzmaurice Street at the northern end. The Wollundry Lagoon is the water focus of the city centre and has been a key element in the development and separation of the north (older) and south (newer) parts of the city centre. Most residential growth in Wagga Wagga has been on the higher ground to the south of the city centre, with the only residential areas north of the Murrumbidgee being the flood prone suburb of North Wagga Wagga and the university suburb of Estella. Major industrial areas of Wagga Wagga include the northern suburb of Bomen and the eastern suburb of East Wagga Wagga.

Thomas Mitchell, the surveyor who served under Lord Wellington, named many of the streets after Peninsular War veterans.

European settlement The original inhabitants of the Wagga Wagga region, who maintain a relationship with the area to this day, are the Wiradjuri people and the word wagga in the Wiradjuri language was thought to mean 'crow', so wagga wagga could be taken to mean 'the place of many crows'. Other interpretations had wagga to mean 'reeling' (a sick man or a dizzy man); 'to dance, slide or grind'.

In August 2019, the City of Wagga Wagga dropped the definition 'crow' and adopted the city's Aboriginal meaning as 'dance and celebrations'. The new meaning was officially enshrined in the city's first Reconciliation Action Plan.

European exploration of the future site of Wagga Wagga began in 1829 with the arrival of Captain Charles Sturt during his expedition along the Murrumbidgee River. Settlers arrived shortly thereafter with Charles Tompson establishing the Eunonyhareenyha 'run' on the north bank of the river in 1832, and then in soon after George Best establishing the Wagga Wagga 'run' on the south bank. Other settlers followed, with all of them initially squatting on the land illegally but by 1836 the colonial government regulated the tenure of land and established a licensing scheme. Within a few years settlers' numbers increased greatly and before 1850 a local bench of magistrates and a place for holding petty sessions was established. The beginnings of a village formed near the ford used by most traffic passing through the area and included a crude blacksmith's shop, a hotel, and a post office. By 1849 the town was marked out by surveyor Thomas Scott Townsend and formally gazetted as a village.

Wagga Wagga grew quickly, reaching a population of 627 in 1861 and during that decade a number of hotels and stores opened, as well as professional services in the form of banks, solicitors, doctors and dentists. The Wagga Wagga Advertiser (today's Daily Advertiser) commenced publication in 1868. Until the 1860s most goods were transported to markets by bullock wagon. For a short time, the arrival of faster, cheaper and more reliable riverboats allowed goods to be transported more easily to export markets. The riverboat era ended when the New South Wales government extended the railway line to North Wagga Wagga in 1878 and across the river to Wagga Wagga itself in 1881.

On 15 March 1870, Wagga Wagga was incorporated as a municipality and George Forsyth was chosen as the first mayor of Wagga Wagga. Gas lighting was installed throughout the streets of Wagga Wagga in 1881, although once again North Wagga Wagga was neglected. By 1885, a town waterworks and reservoir was established although water quality remained a problem. Poor sanitation caused a horrific stench in the town and was blamed for a large increase in infectious diseases such as typhoid fever in the 1890s and early 1900s. In 1908 the council approved a sewerage scheme and by 1914 most of the main streets were sewered. A free public library was opened in 1875 and the council began to establish parklands such as Bolton Park and the Town Hall Gardens.

In September 1859 local residents formed a committee for the construction of a pile bridge over the Murrumbidgee River. After the New South Wales Government refused to support this type of bridge the committee decided to finance it themselves. The bridge was completed in October 1862 and opened on 27 October at just over 91 metres long and 7 metres wide. In 1884 the New South Wales Government purchased the bridge and it was demolished in 1895. In 1895 a truss bridge called the Hampden Bridge, was built across the Murrumbidgee River at Wagga. The bridge served the Wagga Wagga community for over 100 years until 16 August 2006 when it was closed and fenced off to the public due to the bridge being declared a safety risk after one of the trusses failed. In 2014 the Hampden Bridge was demolished.

With its increasing prosperity and population, Wagga Wagga and the surrounding district became a place of interest to several infamous bushrangers. The Wagga police magistrate Henry Baylis was bailed up by Mad Dog Morgan in 1863. Captain Moonlite and his band arrived in the district on 15 November 1879 and held up 39 people at Wantabadgery Station. Moonlite and his gang escaped a police pursuit only to be captured at another nearby property when police from the neighbouring townships of Gundagai and Adelong arrived.

Along with most of the Riverina region, the majority of Wagga Wagga residents supported the federation of the Australian colonies, in large part due to the prospect of free trade across colonial borders. In 1898, a group of residents promoted Wagga Wagga for consideration as the site of the future national capital due to its location equidistant from Sydney and Melbourne and its ample water supply. Despite the bid's lack of success, in the 1899 referendum Wagga Wagga residents voted strongly in favour of federation. During World War I the town was the starting point of the "Kangaroo March", one of a series of snowball marches conducted in New South Wales during the war where groups of recruits would march toward Sydney and appeal to men in the towns along the route to join them and enlist in the Australian Imperial Force. 88 recruits left Wagga Wagga on 1 December 1915, farewelled by a large crowd and to the accompaniment of a band. The marchers included John Ryan, who later won the Victoria Cross for his actions in the Battle of the Hindenburg Line in 1918. The march finished at Campbelltown with over 220 recruits.

After the war some of the area around Wagga Wagga was designated for settlement by returned soldiers, who faced insurmountable difficulties due to poor and unwatered land, lack of farming experience and lack of access to markets. Many walked off the land after years of backbreaking work. Residential growth continued with a population in 1921 of 11,631. Much of this residential growth was housed in the higher ground to the south, extending to the south of the railway tracks. A suburb consisting of tents and crude huts, known as "Tent Town", developed along the river providing housing for the poorer residents of Wagga Wagga. In 1922, electricity was provided for the town, with hydro-electric power available from Burrinjuck Dam from 1928.

Hardship as a result of the Great Depression, and the election of Jack Lang of the Labor party as Premier of New South Wales, sparked the formation of the "Riverina Movement". Throughout the Riverina in early 1931, a series of rallies were organised by the movement, culminating in a great meeting in Wagga Wagga on 28 February 1931. The meeting called on the State and Federal governments to alleviate the concerns of producers in the district or hold a referendum to determine if the Riverina should secede. The movement petered out following the dismissal of Lang in 1932 and the recovery of the regional economy.

The outbreak of World War II saw Royal Australian Air Force bases established at Forest Hill in 1940 and Uranquinty in 1941. A major Australian Army camp was constructed at Kapooka in 1942 and one year later there were 8,000 troops in training there with Wagga taking on the characteristics of a garrison town.

After the war, Wagga Wagga grew steadily and was proclaimed a city on 17 April 1946. Suburbs such as Turvey Park and Kooringal were developed to the south of the city and in the 1960s, residential growth expanded to cover areas such as Tolland and Lake Albert. The main commercial district also moved south to the Baylis Street end with the development of the Sturt Mall in 1979. The City Council developed a series of industrial areas including areas for service and general industries, and agricultural processing and noxious industries were established in a new industrial estate in Bomen.

In the 1950s the defence bases in Wagga Wagga again became an important part of the city. The Army camp at Kapooka was reopened as a recruit training centre from 1951, a role it maintains to this day. RAAF Base Wagga at Forest Hill also expanded, with training of defence force aircraft technicians there from 1969. After a series of major floods in the early 1950s, the City Council protected the city area on the south flood plain through construction of a levee, completed in 1962. The levee was designed to provide protection from floods at levels expected once every one hundred years. North Wagga Wagga was initially excluded from protection however by 1982 another levee was constructed to protect the village, although at a lower standard.

In 1971, following pressure from the Wagga Wagga community for a university, the teachers' college established in 1947 became the Riverina College of Advanced Education and was relocated to a site adjacent to the Wagga Agricultural College, with which it amalgamated in 1975. In 1989, the College amalgamated with the College of Advanced Education at Bathurst to become Charles Sturt University. In 1981, the New South Wales government forced the amalgamation of Wagga Wagga City Council with neighbouring Kyeamba Shire and Mitchell Shire to form the new City of Wagga Wagga local government area, containing 4,886 square kilometres.

Rotary Peace Monument On 23 February 1993 Wagga Wagga was the first city in the world to be proclaimed as a Rotary Peace City, with a Rotary Peace Monument unveiled on the corner of The Esplanade and Best Street.

Heritage listings Wagga Wagga has a number of heritage-listed sites, including: • Botanic Gardens Site (BGS), Baden Powell Drive: Mobile Cook's Galley, Museum of the Riverina • Main Southern railway: Wagga Wagga railway station.

Commercial Wagga attracts people from all over the Riverina and south-western New South Wales to its shopping facilities. It is the major support city for over 200,000 people who live across the region.

Wagga's shopping centres include two notable centres of metropolitan standards, Wagga Wagga Marketplace and Sturt Mall in the central business district, and suburban shopping centres such as the South City Shopping Centre in Glenfield Park, the Lake Village Shopping Centre, Lake Albert, the Tolland Shopping Centre and Kooringal Mall in Kooringal. Wagga has a large HomeBase store located on the Sturt Highway. Wagga's central business district, with both Baylis and Fitzmaurice Streets and other surrounding streets, offers hundreds of speciality retailers including national chains such as Big W, Myer and Kmart. Target Country closed its store on Baylis Street in March 2021. The dairy company Fonterra (formerly Murrumbidgee Dairy Products), is based on the Sturt Highway, and is a supplier of dairy products in the Riverina, Other major industries include Cargill and Heinz, which are in the suburb of Bomen.

Defence forces The Australian Army base at Kapooka includes the Army Recruit Training Centre, where general enlistment members of the Australian Army undertake their initial training. The barracks at Kapooka are named after World War II military commander Sir Thomas Blamey, born at Lake Albert Wagga Wagga and Australia's only Field Marshal. Following recruit training, soldiers move on to take specific training at training establishments throughout Australia. The soldiers club at Kapooka is named for John Hurst Edmondson, Australia's first Victoria Cross winner in World War II, who was born in Wagga Wagga. 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 (White hander) and aircraft (Black hander) trades school. Some Royal Australian Navy Aircraft Technicians assigned to the naval air station HMAS Albatross are based at RAAF Base Wagga as an Aircraft Maintenance and Flight Trials Unit (AMAFTU). As of 2008, No 1 Recruit Training Unit (1RTU) has moved from RAAF Edinburgh to RAAF Wagga Wagga. RAAF Base Wagga is also the home of the Wagga Wagga RAAF Museum.

Education The sole provider of higher education in Wagga Wagga is the local campus of the multi-campus Charles Sturt University, located on the outskirts of the suburb of Estella. The university was established on 1 July 1989 following the enactment of The Charles Sturt University Act, 1989 and involved the merger of several existing separately-administered Colleges of Advanced Education including the Riverina College of Advanced Education in Wagga Wagga. At the time of its establishment it became the ninth university in the state and its inaugural vice-chancellor was C.D. Blake AO who at the time was the principal of the Riverina College.

The Riverina Institute, a collection of TAFE institute campuses has its headquarters in Wagga Wagga and Wagga is home to three campuses. The Primary Industries Centre, at North Wagga Wagga is set on 250 hectares and runs courses on agriculture and horticulture. The National Aerospace Training Centre of Excellence, at RAAF Base Wagga provides training support to the Australian Defence Force aerospace traineeship program. The commercial contract with the ADF is the largest technical training contract in Australia. In addition Wagga Wagga is home to eight secondary schools and 22 primary schools.

Government Local government for the city is provided by the Wagga Wagga City Council. As well as Wagga Wagga itself the City Council area includes the outlying towns of Tarcutta, Ladysmith, Mangoplah, Collingullie and Uranquinty covering an area of 4,824 km². The local government area was formed as a result of the amalgamation of the City of Wagga Wagga with the Mitchell and Kyeamba Shires in 1981. The council itself consists of 9 councillors elected for a four-year term and from these a mayor and deputy mayor are elected each year by the council.

Transport Busabout Wagga Wagga provides bus services from most Wagga Wagga suburbs to the CBD 365 days a year, including public holidays.

Allen's Coaches of Coolamon and Junee Buses provide weekday connections to Coolamon (routes 1W, 2W and 3W) and Junee (routes 21-25) respectively.

Wagga Radio Cabs run taxis 24/7 in the city with taxi ranks at Station Place, Forsyth Street, Gurwood Street, Wagga Wagga Base Hospital and Kooringal Mall.

Baylis Street in the CBD was a thoroughfare for the Olympic Highway until the Gobbagombalin Bridge (referred to locally as the Gobba Bridge and is believed to be the longest continuous-span viaduct in New South Wales) about 6 km north-west of the CBD was opened on 26 July 1997. The Sturt Highway passes through the centre of Wagga Wagga.

Rail Wagga Wagga railway station is located on the Sydney–Melbourne railway line with twice daily XPT rail services provided by NSW TrainLink, the state owned passenger rail service.

Airport Wagga Wagga Airport at Forest Hill has scheduled daily flights to Sydney and Melbourne operated by two carriers, Regional Express and QantasLink bringing approximately 210,000 passengers through the region every year. Coupled with Rex's major maintenance base and the Australian Airline Pilot Academy (AAPA), the Airport is one of the busiest in regional Australia. The Airport itself is owned by the Royal Australian Air Force and the civil side is leased by the Wagga Wagga City Council. The sealed runway can cater for aircraft up to Boeing 737-300 and Airbus A321.

Sport Wagga's location approximately midway between Melbourne and Sydney on the "Barassi Line" contributes to high levels of participation in Rugby league, Rugby union and Australian rules football in the town. Other popular sports in Wagga include soccer, cricket, tennis, and lawn bowls.

The local rugby league teams play in the Group 9 Rugby League competition and include Wagga Brothers, South City and Wagga Kangaroos. The Group 9 grand final is a major sport event in Wagga Wagga. Rugby union teams include CSU Reddies, Wagga Agricultural College, Wagga City and Wagga Waratahs in the Southern Inland Rugby Union. Australian rules football clubs in Wagga include Collingullie-Glenfield Park, Mangoplah-Cookardinia United-Eastlakes, Turvey Park and Wagga Tigers in the Riverina Football League and East Wagga-Kooringal, North Wagga and Rivcoll(CSU) in the Farrer Football League. Wagga soccer teams include Henwood Park, Wagga United, Tolland and Lake Albert, with the first grade competition for men being the Pascoe Cup and for women the Leonard Cup. The Wagga Wagga Gold Cup, said to be Australia's second oldest thoroughbred horse race, is held in the first week of May.

East Wagga is home to the Wagga Wagga Gun Club and the Australian Clay Target Association, which boast an Olympic-standard clay target shooting range and "The Range" function centre, at 308 Copland Street. The centre, which opened in October 2018, was made possible through a NSW Government grant of $5.5 million.

Australia/Sydney/New_South_Wales 
<b>Australia/Sydney/New_South_Wales</b>
Image: Adobe Stock DirkR #84916295

Wagga Wagga has a population of over 56,000 people. Wagga Wagga also forms the centre of the wider Riverina region which has a population of over 282,501 people.

To set up a UBI Lab for Wagga Wagga see: https://www.ubilabnetwork.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/UBILabNetwork

Twin Towns - Sister Cities Wagga Wagga has links with:

🇨🇳 Kunming, China 🇺🇸 Leavenworth, USA
Text Atribution: Wikipedia Text under CC-BY-SA license

North of: -35.117

🇦🇺 Shoalhaven -35.117

🇦🇷 San Vicente -35.017

🇦🇺 Albany -35.017

🇨🇱 Curicó -34.983

🇦🇷 La Plata -34.921

🇦🇺 Adelaide -34.917

🇺🇾 Montevideo -34.907

🇦🇷 Chivilcoy -34.9

🇺🇾 Maldonado -34.9

🇦🇺 Nowra -34.883

South of: -35.117

🇦🇺 Murray Bridge -35.12

🇦🇷 Parera -35.147

🇦🇺 Canberra -35.283

🇨🇱 Talca -35.427

🇦🇺 Victor Harbor -35.55

🇳🇿 Whangārei -35.725

🇨🇱 Linares -35.85

🇨🇱 Cauquenes -35.967

🇦🇺 Albury -36.081

🇦🇺 Albury-Wodonga -36.084

East of: 147.357

🇦🇺 Rosny Park 147.367

🇦🇺 Dubbo 148.601

🇦🇺 Orange 149.1

🇦🇺 Canberra 149.117

🇦🇺 Mackay 149.184

🇦🇺 Bathurst 149.567

🇦🇺 Katoomba 150.31

🇦🇺 Bowral 150.417

🇦🇺 Shoalhaven 150.5

🇦🇺 Rockhampton 150.504

West of: 147.357

🇦🇺 Hobart 147.33

🇵🇬 Port Moresby 147.193

🇦🇺 Launceston 147.133

🇵🇬 Lae 147

🇦🇺 Albury 146.919

🇦🇺 Albury-Wodonga 146.91

🇦🇺 Townsville 146.818

🇦🇺 Latrobe 146.438

🇦🇺 Morwell 146.4

🇦🇺 Griffith 146.033

Antipodal to Wagga Wagga is: -32.643,35.117

Locations Near: Wagga Wagga 147.357,-35.1172

🇦🇺 Albury 146.919,-36.081 d: 114.3  

🇦🇺 Albury-Wodonga 146.91,-36.084 d: 114.9  

🇦🇺 Griffith 146.033,-34.283 d: 152.5  

🇦🇺 Canberra 149.117,-35.283 d: 161  

🇦🇺 Shepparton 145.4,-36.383 d: 225.8  

🇦🇺 Orange 149.1,-33.283 d: 259.4  

🇦🇺 Bathurst 149.567,-33.417 d: 277.5  

🇦🇺 Bowral 150.417,-34.467 d: 288.6  

🇦🇺 Dubbo 148.601,-32.247 d: 339.3  

🇦🇺 Shoalhaven 150.5,-35.117 d: 285.9  

Antipodal to: Wagga Wagga -32.643,35.117

🇵🇹 Angra do Heroísmo -27.217,38.65 d: 19393  

🇵🇹 Ponta Delgada -25.673,37.736 d: 19327.1  

🇵🇹 Madeira -17,32.75 d: 18549.7  

🇵🇹 Funchal -16.905,32.648 d: 18538.2  

🇧🇷 Greater Vitória -40.308,20.289 d: 18203.4  

🇮🇨 Arona -16.667,28.1 d: 18315.8  

🇧🇷 Florianópolis -48.552,27.592 d: 18291.3  

🇮🇨 San Cristóbal de La Laguna -16.314,28.478 d: 18307.4  

🇮🇨 Santa Cruz de Tenerife -16.25,28.467 d: 18301.3  

🇧🇷 Guarulhos -46.517,23.455 d: 18150.2  

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