Steeped in History

Situated on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River and nestling at the foot of Mount Parnassus in the beautiful Murrumbidgee Valley, the fmous town of Gundagai is steeped in history and wonderful heritage attractions.

Long a favourite stopping place for travellers along the Hume Highway, historic Gundagai is a fascinating place to visit and learn about many of the uniquely Australian events, characters and buildings which have etched a special place in the folklore of this country.

It was in 1824 that the overland explorers Hamilton Hume and William Hovell, and then the rivermen Charles Sturt and Thomas Mitchell, opened up the trail for land-seekers and pioneers.

Five Mile Creek, a few kilometres north of Gundagai, became a popular camping spot for teamsters and their lumbering, supply-laden bullock wagons.  Today it's the site of that famous Dog on the Tuckerbox, along with 'Snake Gully' where four legendary folk characters, Dad and Dave, Mum and Mabel are enshrined in copper.

The greatest natural disaster Australia has yet experienced was the great flood of 1852 when the Murrumbidgee River swept away the original town and 83 inhabitants perished beneath those murky waters.

Gundagai is rich in its association with colonial days.  Woven into its historical tapestry are legends of the prospectors, and of bushrangers Ben Hall and Captain Moonlite, drawn by the lure of the gold the miners won from the reluctant earth.  Reminders from the gold fever which gripped the town and the district in 1861, and again in 1894, may be seen in the abandoned buildings and gold mines not far from the town.

Many of its magnificent heritage-protected buildings, such as churches and the outstanding court house, (scene of many historical court cases, including the trial of the bushranger Moonlite), date back well over 130 years.

Gundagai today is a sympathetic blending of fine historic architecture and modern commercial and residential development.  Gundagai's expanse of fertile river flats remains to this day, with the central shopping precinct surrounded by a patchwork of farm pastures and crops, constant reminders of Gundagai's important role as a service centre for a widely recognised, rich, agricultural industry.

Gundagai, 225m above sea level, is 370 kms by road from Sydney and 490 kms by road from Melbourne.  Nearest towns are Tumut (35 kms), Adelong (35 kms), Batlow (66 kms), Cootamundra (59 kms), Junee (62 kms) and Wagga Wagga (84 kms).

The famous Dog on the Tuckerbox is located five miles or eight kilometres north of Gundagai, on the Hume Highway. The monument gives expression to probably the best-known slice of Australian folklore - mateship between man and dog. In the pioneering days a dog accompanied each wagon and, besides being a faithful friend of the teamster, guarded his master's possessions. A verse about a dog sitting on a tuckerbox was written by an unknown teamster some 100 years ago, but the well known poem was written by poet and traveller Jack Moses.

The restaurant and gift shop complex behind the monument is set among native trees and shrubs and next to an attractive fernhouse.  Nearby are the ruins of the old Five Mile pub, the remains of the hotel where camping teamsters gathered to drink and diggers slaked their thirst before moving onto the next gold strike.

Gundagai has long been immortalised through such poems and songs as 'The Dog on the Tuckerbox', 'Along the Road to Gundagai', My Mabel Waits for Me' and 'When a Boy from Alabama Meets a Girl from Gundagai'.

Rusconi's Marble Masterpiece

The famous dog on the tuckerbox was sculptured by the late Frank Rusconi, but it certainly isn't the most impressive example of the work of this exceptionally skilled artisan on exhibition in the Gundagai district.  In fact one attraction not to be missed at Gundagai is a unique cathedral-in-minature containing 20,948 individual pieces of marble, every piece cut, turned and polished by hand.

'Rusconi's Marble Masterpiece' took the late Frank Rusconi 28 years of spare time work to build.  Another Rusconi masterpiece on display at Gundagai is his replica of the altar of Saint Marie's Cathedral in Paris.  Rusconi and three other men constructed the original altar while he was working in Switzerland.  On returning to Australia he constructed the replica from marble collected from different parts of Australia. It took him an average of fours a day for seven years to construct the altar replica.

The Rusconi Marble Masterpiece and the replica of the altar of St.Marie's Cathedral are both on display at the Gundagai Tourist Information Centre in Sheridan Street.  Inspections can be made Monday to Friday 8am-5pm; Saturday, Sunday and public holidays 9am-12noon and 1pm-5pm.

Captain Moonlite - Bushranger

On January 20, 1880, just before he faced the hangman's noose at Sydney's Darlinghurst gaol, Andrew George Scott - better known as Captain Moonlite - wrote "I want to rest in the grave of my friend.  Gratify my last wish if you can.  Do it in the cheapest manner possible.  I have one hour to live".

It took 115 years to grant his last wish, but on January 13, 1995, the remains of Captain Moonlite were finally laid to rest in the Anglican section of the North Gundagai cemetery, within metres of the unmarked graves of his friends James Nesbitt and Augustus Wernicke.

Close by is the grave of Constable Edward Mostyn Webb-Bowen, who (along with Nesbitt and Wernicke) was tragically shot in the bushranging siege at Wantabadgery , between Gundagai and Wagga Wagga.  Scott called him "brave Bowen".

The year was 1879, Scott, a former lay preacher, had received an early prison release for good behaviour after serving time for bank robbery.  (Until death, he protested his innocence of this).  He had been forced to abort his controversial public lecture on prison reform, which was to have provided his income.  The country was in the grip of a devastating drought.  Unemployment was high.  Along with hundreds of other men, Scott and his five young friends then tramped the track from homestead to homestead staying alive as best they could.

At Wantabadgery homestead, after twice being refused work, food or shelter despite three days of rain, they drew their weapons and so began the bushranging seige which would go down in Riverina history.

This was the first known, and admitted, attempt at bushranging by these six novice bushrangers, only two of whom could ride.  Over a period of three days, 35 people were taken hostage.  The women, especially, were treated with respect, and all hostages were released unharmed before the final shootout between the bushrangers and troopers took place.

Scott and the other three members of his party - Thomas Rogan, Frank Johns and Graham Bennett - were first tried at Gundagai and later at Sydney for shooting Constable Bowen.

The trial contained much conflicting evidence and was conducted in an atmosphere of public hysteria with over 2,000 people crowding the courthouse.  The judge sentenced all four "to hang by the neck until your bodies be dead..."

After appeals, the sentences of Williams and Bennett were reduced to "hard labour for life", but Scott and Rogan were hanged and buried in Sydney's Rookwood cemetery in unmarked graves.  It was not until 115 years later that the final chapter in the life of Andrew George Scott was written and he was laid to rest near his friends in Gundagai.

Gabriel Gallery
 

A photographic collection of great significance is housed in the Gabriel Gallery, Gundagai, featuring the work of an internationally famous photographer, Dr. Charles Louis Gabriel, a distinguished resident of the town from 1887 until his death in 1927.  Another resident, accountant and businessman Cliff Butcher, who established the gallery, found some thousand 4 inch glass negatives many years after Dr. Gabriel died, and donated 450 to the National Library in Canberra in 1971.  Photographs around the wall and on cedar writing desks in the gallery were all printed by the National Library.  There is also part of Dr. Gabriel's library, his personal letters and other memorabilia.

Items relating to poets associated with Gundagai - Henry Lawson, Banjo Patterson, Jim Grahame and Jack Moses - are also displayed, together with memorabilia on songwriter Jack O'Hagan, who wrote 'Along the Road to Gundagai'.

Some of Henry Lawson's possessions, such as his walking stick, restored chair and dictionary, together with his letters to Grace McManus who cared for him in 1920 at Coolac just north of Gundagai, are treasured gallery exhibits.  So too is the first X-Ray brought into country NSW by a Dr. Mawson, who practised in Gundagai from 1906 (a brother of famous Antartic explorer Sir Douglas Mawson).

But the photographs remain the focus.  These are pieces of art which depict history; freezing time on life in a small country town at the turn of the century.  Gundagai is immutably caught in his 'snapshots'; its streets, houses and shops are fixed permanently in photographic emulsion, its people turn to his lens their slightly self-conscious faces, found working or promenading or gossiping, all intrigued with the novelty of themselves in pictures.

Gabriel's own interests provide a closer focus.  A 'new' hospital, the nurses he worked with, the people who were his friends, and the interior or their houses are all recorded.

Between these scenes, and various public events, are photos taken as the doctor drove around in his smart sulky, a witness to funerals, marriages, floods and elections, the coming of trains and circuses.  His eye and camera give a very special and irreplaceable record of Australian provincial life two and three generations ago.

Following Mr. Butcher's gift to the National Library, president of the Gundagai Historical Society, Mr. O.I. Bell, also made a donation of plates which had come into his possession.  From the Butcher and Bell collections the library published 'Gundagai Days' featuring some 56 photos, and went on to release the more permanent publication 'Gundagai Album', which used 120 photographs and was edited by Peter Quartermaine, lecturer in Australian Arts and Letters, University of Exeter.  The ABC has also made a 30 minute documentary on the photos, titled A Track Winding Back.

The Gabriel Gallery is located on the first floor of Butcher Roberts Store next to the Westpac Bank in Sheridan Street and is open 9am to 5.30pm Monday to Friday and 9am to 12noon Saturday. Admission is free.

Historical Museum
A visit to the Gundagai Historical Museum is a giant leap back in time, with a most interesting and varied collection of machinery, wagons, equipment, a Model-T Ford, photographs, clothing, household items and other knick-knacks associated with Gundagai life a century or more ago.

The Museum is located in Homer St, at the rear of the Gundagai Post Office.  It is open by appointment.  Phone (02) 6944 1797, 6944 1304,  6944 1435 or 6944 1972.  Entrance fee is adults $3, pensioners $2, children $1, family concession $7.