Old Junee

Postcode: 2652

Old Junee is a town community in the central east part of the Riverina and situated about 9 kilometres north west from Junee and 32 kilometres east from Marrar. It has a population within a 7 kilometre radius of approximately 355 people.

Junee retains a rather old-fashioned air due to its awnings, verandah posts, hitching rings, old-style buildings and wide streets (notably Broadway). Historically, Junee was a major railway centre and the railway line still runs adjacent and, occasionally, across the main road, straight through the CBD. However, the decline of rail services in country NSW has meant the virtual extinction of the railways as a force in the local economy.

Junee is situated within a district given over to agricultural and pastoral industries. The shire is the state's largest producer of canola while wheat, oats, barley, triticale, pasture seeds, lamb, wool, fat lambs, olives and deer also make contributions to the local economy. Junee has also profited financially from the construction of the state's first high-tech and privately operated correctional centre which houses some 750 inmates. Employment is also provided by an abattoir, rural produce and supply stores, seed and fertiliser merchants, local builders, engineering works and a hospital.

Prior to white settlement the area was occupied by the Wiradjuri Aborigines. It is widely accepted that 'junee' is a Wiradjuri word meaning 'speak to me'. The 'Jewnee' pastoral run was established in the 1840s. A post office opened in 1862 and a village called 'Jewnee' was gazetted in 1863 on the wool road to Sydney. That same year, Ben Hall's bushranging gang, who were very active in the area, raided the village. Hall, Johnny Gilbert and John Vane held up Hammond's store while Michael Burke and John O'Meally bailed up Williams' Pub. Members of 'Blue Cap's' gang also raided an hotel at Jewnee in 1867.

In 1866 the population of the village was recorded as twelve but the discovery of reef and alluvial gold in the 1860s increased interest in the area. The main sites - Old Junee (to the west), Junee Reefs (to the north) and Illabo (to the north-east) - were mined until c.1880.

Selectors began to take an interest in the area when the route of the railway line from Cootamundra to Wagga Wagga became known.

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