| Gunnedah is known as the Koala Capital
of the World. Thanks to the special tree corridors that
have been planted throughout the town, it is home to Australia’s
largest and healthiest population of koalas who are regularly
spotted walking along the residential streets and bush
tracks. The black soil plains surrounding this thriving
centre comprise some of the richest agricultural and
grazing land in NSW and the farming economy is showcased
each year at the Ag-Quip field days which attract more
than 100,000 people from all over Australia.
This land of sweeping plains and the rugged mountain
ranges beyond also served as the inspiration for Australia’s
best loved and most quoted poem, ‘My Country’.
Poet Dorothea Mackellar came to ‘love a sunburnt
country’ on visits to her brothers properties
in the area and the town pays homage to its favourite
adopted daughter at the Dorothea Mackellar Memorial
Wing in the Visitor Information Centre and through the
trail of poetry plaques set out along the main streets.
Prior to white settlement in 1834, the Gunn-e-darr
people of the Kamilaroi tribe inhabited the Gunnedah
area. One of the first identities to live in the area
was the “Red Chief”; the legendary Aboriginal
warrior whose life story has been told by Ion Idriess
in his book entitled “The Red Chief”.
Gunnedah offers a diversity of attractions from the
Water Tower and Rural Museums to Waterways Wildlife
Park and Lake Keepit – truly something for everyone!
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