Bungonia

Postcode: 2580

Bungonia is a small town in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia.

It was originally called Inverary. A post office opened at Inverary in 1832 and was renamed Bungonia in 1836. When the Great Southern Road bypassed the town, it ceased to grow beyond a very small village.

Located 186 km south west of Sydney via the Hume Highway and 580 metres above sea level, Bungonia is not so much a town as a delightful State Recreation Area which is located between Moss Vale and Goulburn on the escarpment above the Shoalhaven River.

The area features a number of particularly spectacular viewing points (some of which are accessible by wheelchair) in a particularly delightful and accessible section of bushland. The Recreation Area covers 3893 hectares of the Southern Tablelands and is characterised by dry sclerophyll forests, deep limestone gorges and, for the experienced speleologist, it has the deepest caves on the Australian mainland. Recent research has discovered over 300 types of flora in the park and over 70 varieties of birdlife.

The actual township of Bungonia is now little more than a few old buildings spread across a considerable area. There is a sense that the town was once much larger than it is today. It was an important stopover point in the 1820s but was by-passed by the Sydney-Goulburn road as early as 1833. The most significant building in the village is St Michael's Roman Catholic church - the oldest Roman Catholic church in Australia - which was started in 1839 and officially opened by Bishop Polding in 1847. Christ Church Anglican Church (1893), a much more attractive building, stands on the opposite hill.

The Lookdown is the best known viewing area in the park and offers quite extraordinary, and very rugged, views of the Shoalhaven River and Bungonia Creek. The view down into the Bungonia Creek (known as Bungonia Gorge or Bungonia Canyon), a drop of nearly 300 metres in a gorge which is 800 metres long and only 76 metres wide, is the deepest gorge in Australia.

It is spectacular and the view across to the awful limestone quarry is a reminder of how the mining industry can define some of the country's natural wonders.

Bungonia Creek is only ten minutes walk from the main camping area is Bungonia Creek. It is ideal to swim in during summer and is notable for large pools and attractive small waterfalls.

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