Wagga Wagga was proclaimed as a town in 1849 and in the same year Thomas Townshend marked out the town after Captain Charles Sturt in 1829 passed over the site on his expedition of discovery down the Murrumbidgee and Murray Rivers. The population totaled approximately 700 in 1860 and by 1881 had increased to nearly 4,000 people. The city derived its name from the Wiradjuri tribe which was the biggest aboriginal tribe in New South Wales. Wagga means "crow" so with the repetition of the word it meant either "crows" or "the place where crows assemble in large numbers". Wagga Wagga is recognized as the capital of the rich pastoral and agricultural area of the Riverina.
The Snowy Mountains is a place of spectacular snow capped peaks, crisp clean air and tumbling mountain streams. The home of "The Man from Snowy River", Banjo Patterson, holds a special place in Australia's national identify. This area has seven ski resorts and more than 50 ski lifts for the adventurous including Kosciuszko-Thredbo, Perisher Blue and Mount Selwyn.
During the summer months at Kosciuszko National Park a beautiful backdrop of wild-flowers, alpine meadows and White-water rafting takes your breathe away.
Broken Hill is situated in a rugged area in the extreme western part of New South Wales. It was founded as a mining town in 1883 and by 1907 was proclaimed as a city. The mines produced lead, tin, silver and zinc and at there peak employed over 9,000 men but now they employ only 700. Sir Thomas Mitchell discovered Broken Hill in 1841 some 28 years after the first crossing of the Blue Mountains.
This city has been the major base for the Royal Flying Doctor Service. The region also has four major National Parks. The first being Mungo which was named after the discovery of a skull of an aboriginal. This park is a dry lake bed surrounded by sand hills. Mutawintii (Mootwingee) is a sacred place where hand paintings show ancient ceremonial rites and rock carvings showing a lost civilization. Sturt National Park has many emus and kangaroos roaming free and protected in this area. Kinchega which is on the banks of the Darling River is a haven for native birds and animal life.
Coffs Harbour was first settled in 1841 and the town thrived to a point where 450 ships a year were calling into the point. A lighthouse was built in 1878 after there was a boycott placed on the port. Coffs Harbour claims to be the biggest banana producing industry in the world after Herman Reick introduced Fijian bananas in 1881 but it did not flourish until 1918 due to the need to feed the hundreds of workers and families that had moved to the area to build the railway line. Tha name originally came from John Korff who sheltered there in 1847 while waiting to enter Bellingen River.
Port Macquarie was originally a penal settlement in 1821. However in 1802 Matthew Flinders sighted the area and named it Tracking point. It was then names in 1818 by explorer John Oxley after the governor of New South Wales, Laclan Macquarie.
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