Town in New South Wales, Australia
Gerogery
(
j?-
ROJ
-?r-i
) is a town established on
Wiradjuri
land in the
Murray
region of the Australian state of
New South Wales
. The town is in the
Greater Hume Shire
local government area and on the Main South railway line between
Sydney
and
Melbourne
, where it intersects with the
Olympic Highway
. Gerogery serves a rural farming community. Gerogery has a temperate climate. It lies close to the Great Yambla Range, with its striking Tabletop and Sugar Loaf ridge at the southern end.
At the
2006 census
, Gerogery had a population of 979.
[1]
History
[
edit
]
Gerogery is on land originally inhabited by the
Wiradjuri
people. In English, the place name is pronounced Jer-rodge-er-rree; however, in Indigenous language it could have been a repeated "Jerro-Jerro ee". Local understanding is the place is named after the Wiradjuri word for
magpies
, plentiful in the locality.
The arrival of European settlers meant that trees were extensively cleared and wheat planted, along with sheep and cattle grazed. Gerogery was at the easternmost extent of nineteenth-century German immigration up the
Murray River
from
South Australia
.
During the 1860s
bushranger
Mad Dan Morgan
held up Sam Watson at Gerogery East. His hideout, "Morgan's Place" is located in the Yambla Range, and was used in between holdups around
Tumbarumba
,
Kyeamba
, and as a place to take refuge after the alleged killing of several police and a
Wagga Wagga
judge. (The bushranger was subject of a
Dennis Hopper
film
Mad Dog Morgan
.)
Gerogery Post Office opened on 15 April 1875.
[2]
The coming of the Sydney Great Southern Railway in 1880 made Gerogery the temporary terminus while building proceeded on to
Albury
. This railway resulted in moving the centre of population from an original settlement (now Gerogery West) to the railway line. The station master's residence is a beautiful two-story house listed by the
National Trust
. The original station was removed in the 1980s. A one-teacher government school was set up close to the railway line in 1884, as part of the general plan by the New South Wales government to stem the spread of religious-based education that was springing up for the poor of the colony.
Not far from Gerogery on the way to
Walla Walla
is a peak of rocks which was used as a meeting place and lookout to help break the
shearers
' strike of 1891.
The Gerogery Commemoration Hall was built in the 1920s. Many concerts and gatherings, including for the monthly
Country Women's Association
branch, have met here.
Being 20 miles (32 km) from Albury, and on a stock route, the Gerogery Pub attracted Sunday clientele from Albury, who were able to use a statutory loophole to evade Sunday closing and order an alcoholic drink.
Prosperity brought by the
Korean War
wool
boom saw the expansion of Gerogery township in the 1950s, with a few general stores, but this had contracted to just one combined post office store by the late 1960s. In 1974 the area was included in the area to be developed as part of a proposed greater Albury-Wodonga region, proposed by the
Whitlam government
as part of its national
decentralisation
program, but these plans were dismantled by Prime Minister
Gough Whitlam
's successor,
Malcolm Fraser
. By the end of the twentieth century increased use of the car meant that Gerogery had become a
dormitory suburb
of
Albury
.
In the 1960s
Aboriginal
stone tools were found a couple of kilometres north-west of the township.
In 2013 Al Jeda Arabians made Gerogery their homebase.
Gerogery West (the original township) is home to the Kimberley Park Welsh Pony Stud.
Heritage listings
[
edit
]
Gerogery has a number of heritage-listed sites, including:
Railway
[
edit
]
The railway has a
crossing loop
at Gerogery. Under the
AusLink
plan, the line between Gerogery and the next crossing loop to the south,
Tabletop
, will be
duplicated
. The duplicated line will be about 14 kilometres (9 mi) long and will allow for running crosses, where trains in opposing directions need not slow down or stop, and where flights of trains can also pass each other. Due to cost-saving measures, the length of the passing lanes have been reduced to approximately 6 kilometres (4 mi).
[
citation needed
]
In 2001, there was a
fatal accident
at a level crossing on the railway line along Bells Road on the Olympic Highway. As a result, the level crossing has been replaced by the Five Mates Bridge.
Sports and recreation
[
edit
]
The Gerogery Football Club was formed in 1903 after a meeting at the Gerogery Hotel.
[4]
Gerogery FC had a golden era in the early 1930s, when they won the 1930
Central Hume Football Association
premiership, then won four consecutive
Hume Football League
premierships from 1933 to 1936, before folding in 1949.
Gerogery also formerly had a rugby league team in the
Group 13 Rugby League
competition.
Tourist attractions
[
edit
]
The architecture of the station master's house, the Gerogery Pub, and Commemoration Hall, are worthy of note. The Gerogery Doll Museum is also an attraction.
2009 bushfire
[
edit
]
On 17 December 2009, a fire began at the smouldering Walla Walla rubbish tip, and spread in high winds (estimated to be 100 kilometres per hour (62 mph)) across farm land between
Glenellen
and Gerogery. It took less than an hour to travel 10 kilometres (6.2 mi), burning out an estimated 7,000 hectares (17,000 acres).
[5]
The
Rural Fire Service
reported sheds, crops, cars and four dwellings were destroyed; the tennis courts were burned down, part of the Olympic Highway was closed, and the
Benambra Range
was under threat. At least 50 fire trucks were deployed in the Gerogery area.
The
Greater Hume Shire Council
provided $200,000 to help landowners replace approximately 300 kilometres (190 mi) of boundary fences and help in the removal of fallen tree debris.
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
Media related to
Gerogery
at Wikimedia Commons
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