Moama

Postcode: 2731

Moama is a town in the Riverina district of southern New South Wales, Australia, in the Murray Shire Local Government Area. The town is directly across the Murray River from the larger tourist town of Echuca in the neighbouring state of Victoria, to which it is connected by a bridge.

The settlement where Moama now stands was founded by James Maiden in the mid 1840s, beginning as a stopping-point for stock and cargo waiting to cross the Murray River by punt. Maiden arrived in the district in 1840; he had been hired to caretake Jeffries' station about 25 miles from the junction of the Campaspe River and the Murray River. He recognised a business opportunity and travelled to Seymour where he built a punt, which he then transported back to the Murray. The punt was placed on the river at the locality which became known as Maiden's Punt (later Moama). Maiden built a wooden public house, the Junction Inn, for which he obtained a license in 1847.

During this early period Maiden's punt operated in opposition to another punt, owned by Isaac White, which was worked from the southern bank at Campaspe Junction (now Echuca). However, it was Maiden's punt that initially captured most of the business.

A demand for land at Maiden's Punt prompted the New South Wales Government to lay out a township there, named Moama. The name is derived from a local indigenous word meaning 'burial ground'. Moama township was gazetted on 16 December 1851. At a land sale in August 1855 James Maiden purchased ten of the thirty lots sold. Maiden sold the Junction Inn to Jeremiah Rolfe in 1855, but the next year he re-purchased it. When applying for a license he told the Bench of Magistrates he "intended to conduct it in a very superior manner with reduction of charges". Maiden also intended expanding the hotel, utilising the brick house that was his former residence as accommodation "for the use of gentlemen and their families to and from Melbourne". The growth of the paddlesteamer as a means for transporting cargo from the 1860s onwards saw both Moama and Echuca grow substantially. Echuca's large wharf and its relatively short distance to Melbourne saw it overshadow its cross-border neighbour.

A traveller passing through Moama in mid-1865 described the township thus: “Here are erected a few straggling houses of wood or brick”. By that stage Moama and Echuca were connected by a pontoon bridge, which, though too narrow for drays or coaches, was used for crossing sheep and horses.

Moama retains some impressive historical buildings (circa 1880's), namely the Moama Court House on Francis Street, the former New South Wales Police Force Sergeants official residence in Chanter Street, and the former Bank of New South Wales adjacent to the railway lines on Meninya Street.

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