Gundagai was a distant outpost in south west NSW at the time gold was discovered.
Certainly the Great Southern Road to Melbourne ran through it – but this was no more than a rough bush track patrolled by brigands.
Any real travel between the two centres was done by the coastal shipping lanes.
Gold however was the catalyst that started to change all that.
As the 1850s and 60s unfolded, the battle to provide safe passage through inland NSW placed Gundagai at the centre stage of events.
First there was the issue of getting the gold safely out of the Ovens field just over the border and safely back up to Sydney. Then came the dramatic development of the Adelong field that ensured gold shipments up the highway continued to flow strongly through Gundagai into the 1860s.
The map shown below from 1855 helps us appreciate the scale of this challenge. Apart from an empty landscape to traverse, the road also crossed the mighty Murrumbidgee three times. It was re-routed soon after this map was made to stay on the northern side of the river and only cross it once at Gundagai.
