Mathoura, New South Wales

Infobox Australian Place | type = town
name = Mathoura
state = nsw


caption = Pastoral Hotel
lga = Murray Shire Council
postcode = 2710
est = 1860
pop = 643 (2001 census)
elevation= 105
maxtemp = 22.0
mintemp = 9.1
rainfall = 437.3
county = Cadell
stategov = Murray-Darling
fedgov = Farrer
dist1 = 790
location1= Sydney
dist2 = 258
location2= Melbourne
dist3 = 43
location3= Echuca (Vic)
dist4 = 35
location4= Deniliquin
dist5 = 42
location5= Barmah (Vic)

Mathoura is a small town in the Riverina region of southern New South Wales, Australia, in Murray Shire. At the 2001 census Mathoura had a population of 643. [Census 2001 AUS|id=UCL151000|name=Mathoura (L) (Urban Centre/Locality)|accessdate=2007-06-30|quick=on]

History

In 1848 a reserve was established on Gulpa Creek by Surveyor Townsend. The locality became known as Redbank. By 1853 W. Moore Carter had established an inn at Redbank and in 1856 he was permitted to purchase twelve acres at £2 10s. per acre. By 1860 Carter had about 40 acres under cultivation, including a five acre vineyard.

A petition in 1859 called on the Government to put up the reserve at Redbank for sale. However there were others who considered a more suitable position for a village was at Hill Plain, where Mr. Stuckey had erected an inn (opened in June 1860 and managed by John Atkinson).

In 1860 Surveyor McCulloch laid out the township of Redbank near the site of Carter's Redbank Inn. In 1864 Carter was growing tobacco at Redbank (from which cigars were manufactured).

A traveller passing through Redbank in mid-1865 stated that “Mr. Carter has established a brick public-house… situated on the bank of the Gulpa Creek”. The writer added: “I observed three or four acres fenced and stocked with fruit trees, withered and dried up”. [’A Tour in the Riverine District’ (letter to the editor), Sydney Morning Herald, 13 July 1865, p. 2.]

In 1865 Henry Burton, a circus proprietor, purchased the Redbank Inn; he held the license until at least 1870.

Mathoura Post Office opened on 1 September 1867. Citation
last = Premier Postal History | title = Post Office List | url = https://www.premierpostal.com/cgi-bin/wsProd.sh/Viewpocdwrapper.p?SortBy=VIC&country= | accessdate = 2008-04-11 ]

The village was made a stopping-place on the Victorian railway line that was extended into New South Wales to Deniliquin. By 1879 it was reported that the village had about six houses of "straggling order" and was supported principally by the timber trade. By 1882 a flour mill had been established at Mathoura; there were two hotels, the Mathoura Inn and the Railway Hotel, as well as a school, a Union church and a sawmill. [Jervis, James, 'The Western Riverina: A History of Its Development', "Royal Australian Historical Society Journal and Proceedings", Vol. XXXVIII 1952, p. 190.]

Today

The town has an Australian Rules football team competing in the Picola & District Football League.

ee also

*Mathoura Football Club

References