Did You Know?

  • Wagga Wagga was flooded in 1974 when the Murrumbidgee River reached a mammoth height of 10.74 metres.  It was the highest recorded level in the 20th Century.
  • Flooding in 1974The Chiko Roll made its first appearance at the Wagga Wagga Show in 1951. It was inspired by the Chinese spring roll and was designed to be eaten with one hand whilst drinking a beer with the other.
  • Wagga Wagga was brought to the world’s attention during a famous double trial in London during the 1870’s. A Wagga man, Arthur Orton claimed he was heir to the English Tichborne family fortune. It became the longest trial in English legal history – 290 days, yet the jury took just 30 minutes to find the Wagga man guilty of deception.

  • Bushranger Captain Moonlight was jailed for robbery in Wagga Wagga in 1879. After he was released he held up a station where 39 people lived and worked. Word got out that he was holding them all hostage, a shootout ensued which killed two of the bushrangers (one was only 15 years old) and one policeman. Captain Moonlight was captured and sentenced to death and hanged in 1880 at Darlinghurst Gaol in Sydney.
  • In the Wiradjuri language, “Murrumbidgee” means “Plenty water” or “Big water”
  • Captain Charles Sturt first charted the waters of the Murrumbidgee River in 1829.  His name can be seen throughout the City.
  • The Kapooka Military Base opened in 1941 as the Royal Australian Engineers Training Centre
  • The Wagga Wagga campus of Charles Sturt University is the largest CSU campus in regional NSW. The university has campuses around NSW including Albury, Bathurst, Dubbo, Orange, Canberra, Goulburn, Broken Hill and the Sydney suburb of Manly.
  • Charles Sturt University was proclaimed in 1989 however the Wagga Wagga campus operated under two different names prior to this – The Riverina-Murray Institute of Higher Education (RMIHE from 1985) and Riverina College of Advanced Education (from 1971 – incorporating the Wagga Wagga Teachers College)
  • The City of Wagga Wagga was first settled in the 1830's following an 1829 expedition of exploration to trace and chart the vast inland rivers system of the interior. Captain Charles Sturt, with George Macleay and six others followed the Murrumbidgee to its junction with the Murray River, near Mildura, and on to the mouth near Goolwa in South Australia. In 1849 Thomas Townshend surveyed the main city area and it was declared a town in the same year. In the 1860's there was a population of around 700 residents, and by 1881, after the railway was extended in 1879, the population reached 4,000.
Museum of the Riverina – Historic Council Chambers Museum of the Riverina – Historic Council Chambers site Museum of the Riverina – Historic Council Chambers site Museum of the Riverina – Historic Council Chambers site

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