Gundaroo

The area now known as Gundaroo lies close to the boundaries of the traditional lands of the Gandangara and Ngunawal peoples.{{Cite web|last=Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies|date=2020-07-12|title=Map of Indigenous Australia|url=https://aiatsis.gov.au/explore/map-indigenous-australia|access-date=2021-05-18|website=aiatsis.gov.au|language=en}} The Gandangara and Ngunawal peoples spoke closely related, if not identical, languages.

The explorers Charles Throsby and Joseph Wild traveled through the Yass River valley in 1820. The Aboriginal people called the valley Candariro, meaning "blue crane". This name may have been the origin of Gundaroo,Exploring the ACT and Southeast New South Wales, J. Kay McDonald, Kangaroo Press, Sydney, 1985 {{ISBN|0-86417-049-1}} or it may mean "big waterhole".{{NSW GNR| id=MaqwBKWAuj| title=Gundaroo (village)| access-date=25 February 2015}} Governor Lachlan Macquarie granted the first white settler, Peter Cooney, {{convert|30|acre}} in 1825. Settlement proceeded fairly quickly and there were about 400 residents in the 1840s. The first non-residential building in Gundaroo was the Harrow Inn, built in 1834. The plan of the town made by James Larmer was gazetted in 1847.{{Cite web|last=King|first=Herbert William Henry|title=The Urban Geography of the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales|quote=PDF download |url=https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/9591/1/02Whole_King.pdf|access-date=2020-08-23|publisher=Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University|pages=237, 238, Fig. 85}} A post office was built in 1848 and an Anglican church, St Luke's in Upper Gundaroo (now part of a pottery business), in 1849. The first school opened in 1850 and a police station in 1852.{{cite web|title=Gundaroo|publisher=The Southern Tablelands of NSW|url=http://www.argylecounty.com.au/towns/gundaroo.html|access-date=13 July 2007|archive-date=3 August 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070803213524/http://www.argylecounty.com.au/towns/gundaroo.html|url-status=dead}} A major impetus for the growth in the middle of the nineteenth century was the discovery of gold in the district in 1852.Canberra's Engineering Heritage, William Charles Andrews, Institution of Engineers, Canberra, 1990, p. 5{{Cite news|date=1852-11-03|title=INTERIOR.|pages=2|work=Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 - 1875)|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article60136858|access-date=2020-09-19}}{{Cite news|date=1852-12-04|title=Domestic Intelligence.|pages=4|work=Goulburn Herald and County of Argyle Advertiser (NSW : 1848 - 1859)|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article101733385|access-date=2020-09-19}}{{Cite web|title=GOLD AT GUNDAROO! - The Golden Age (Queanbeyan, NSW : 1860 - 1864) - 30 May 1861|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article30631426|access-date=2020-09-19|website=Trove|language=en}} There was another short-lived phase of reef gold mining in the district in the 1890s.{{Cite news|date=1894-11-01|title=GUNDAROO.|pages=4|work=Goulburn Evening Penny Post (NSW : 1881 - 1940)|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article98510757|access-date=2020-09-19}}

Gundaroo was one of the sites considered for a capital city, within the 'Yass-Canberra' district. However, following a survey of the various sites, by Charles Scrivener, in 1909, Canberra was selected as the site for the new national capital city.{{Cite web|last=SchofieldS|date=2017-06-29|title=History of the National Capital|url=https://www.nca.gov.au/discover-and-learn/history-national-capital|access-date=2021-10-10|website=www.nca.gov.au|language=en}}

On 7 December 1943, a RAAF Lockheed Ventura crashed three miles south-east of Gundaroo, killing all five crew members.{{cite web|last=Dunn|first=Peter|title=CRASH OF A VENTURA 3 MILES SOUTH EAST OF GUNDAROO, ACT ON 7 DECEMBER 1943|url=http://www.ozatwar.com/ozcrashes/act02.htm|work=www.ozatwar.com|access-date=22 December 2012}} A memorial to the victims was erected in the town.{{cite web|last=Southwell-Keely|first=Michael|title=Gundaroo Air Disaster Memorial|url=http://www.msk.id.au/memorials2/pages/20144.htm|work=War Memorials in Australia|access-date=22 December 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130410044247/http://www.msk.id.au/memorials2/pages/20144.htm|archive-date=10 April 2013|url-status=dead}}

Image:Gundaroo courthouse.jpg|St Mark's Anglican Church in Cork St, formerly Gundaroo Court House, built in 1875

Image:Gundaroo royal hotel.jpg|The Royal Hotel Gundaroo

Image:Gundaroo Community Church.jpg|Gundaroo Community Church was originally the Presbyterian Church (1864). It is now under a Uniting Church.

Image:Gundaroo NSW War Memorial.jpg|Gundaroo War Memorial

Image:Entrance to Gundaroo Catholic Pioneer Cemetery.jpg|Gundaroo Catholic Pioneer Cemetery established in 1857

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{{Localities in Yass Valley Council}}

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Category:Towns in New South Wales

Category:Southern Tablelands

Category:Yass Valley Council

Category:Mining towns in New South Wales

Category:Proposed sites for national capital of Australia