Murrurundi

Postcode: 2338

Murrurundi is a rural town in Upper Hunter Shire, located in the Upper Hunter Valley of New South Wales. Murrurundi, which is 200 km by road from Newcastle and 327 km from Sydney, has a population of approximately 1000 people. The town is almost completely surrounded by mountains of the Liverpool Range, and is located on the Pages River, a tributary of the Hunter River.

Prior to European settlement, the Murrurundi district was home to the Wanaruah - and possibly the Kamilaroi - Aboriginal people. European settlement of the area began in the 1820s, and the town itself was established by the New South Wales government in 1840. In the same year, a local landholder - Thomas Haydon - established an adjacent private township called Haydonton. In 1913, the two neighbouring settlements were merged to create the modern-day town of Murrurundi.

The name "Murrurundi" is often erroneously thought to come from an Aboriginal word meaning "nestling in the valley". It does in fact mean "five fingers", a representation of the rock formation visible at the northern end of the township. The New England Highway runs through the town, and it is served by the daily Countrylink Xplorer services to Sydney and to Armidale/Moree.

Except for shale mining in the early 20th century there has been an absence of heavy industry in the locality and consequently change has been gradual. Murrurundi and its rural heritage have been preserved. The main street has been declared an urban conservation area.

It is known that the area was occupied by the Wanaruah and/or Kamilaroi Aboriginal peoples before colonial settlement and that the two groups had trade and ceremonial links.

The Wanaruah favoured goannas as a food source, covering larger animals in hot ashes and stuffing them with grass. They also adopted burning off practices as the new shoots which emerged after fire attracted kangaroos which they surrounded and killed with clubs and spears (du-rane) barbed with sharp stones. They also used stone axes (mogo) made of hard volcanic rock bound to a wooden handle.

The Kamilaroi wore opossum clothing and, for ceremonial or ornamental purposes, smeared themselves with red ochre and pipe clay, scarred their bodies and wore decorative headwear. Once one of the largest linguistic communities in Australia their last known formal communal ceremony was held in 1905. By the start of the 20th century there were no indigenous people left in the Murrurundi area.

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