Gundagai: How Did a Flood Move a Town Uphill?

Gundagai sits where the Riverina meets the South West Slopes of New South Wales. Its first colonial settlement occupied the flat land between the Murrumbidgee River and Morleys Creek. This is Wiradjuri Country, and NSW heritage records state that Wiradjuri people warned settlers that the floodplain was a poor place to build. The warning did not change the choice of site.

In June 1852, a catastrophic flood almost destroyed the settlement and caused extensive loss of life. Wiradjuri men Yarri and Jacky Jacky, with other rescuers, used bark canoes in the torrent; a NSW Government account credits them with saving about 69 residents. After the disaster, the town moved to higher slopes north of the river, where Sheridan Street and key public buildings took shape. The old site remains on Gundagai Common, while the river, memorials and bridges connect the two locations.

What matters here is more than a story of a town overcoming disaster. The flood altered the height of the streets, but it also exposed whose environmental knowledge had been taken seriously. Moving uphill was a practical correction of risk. Commemorating the rescuers makes a second correction: local history cannot begin only with colonial engineering, but must recognise Wiradjuri knowledge of Country, water and survival. Gundagai’s terrain reads like a public record—the low ground holds the cost of an error, while the high ground records the choice made afterwards.

https://www.nsw.gov.au/visiting-and-exploring-nsw/locations-and-attractions/gundagai-common
https://www.nsw.gov.au/visiting-and-exploring-nsw/locations-and-attractions/great-rescue-of-1852-sculpture
https://apps.environment.nsw.gov.au/dpcheritageapp/ViewHeritageItemDetails.aspx?ID=5063195