Wagga Wagga, New South Wales
Encyclopedia : W : WA : WAG : Wagga Wagga, New South Wales
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| colspan="2" style="line-height: 1.2; border-bottom: 1px solid #CEDEFF;" | Wagga is known as [The Garden City] and [The City of Good Sports] due to the large sporting culture and large list of sporting greats that are from Wagga. 
 Wagga is a Wiradjuri aboriginal language word meaning crow and to create the plural, the Wiradjuri repeat the word. Thus 'Wagga Wagga' translates as 'the place of many crows'. The central business district is focused around the commercial and recreational grid bounded by Best and Tarcutta Streets and the Murrumbidgee River and the Sturt Highway. The main shopping streets of Wagga Wagga are Baylis and Fitzmaurice Streets. Wagga Wagga has a large catchment population as it is the administrative centre of the Riverina. Wagga Wagga draws visitors from towns in the Riverina and Southwest Slopes such as Leeton, Griffith, Narrandera, Deniliquin, Coleambally, Junee, The Rock, Coolamon and Tumut. Contents
Wagga Wagga City CouncilThe current Wagga Wagga City Council was formed from the amalgamation of Wagga Wagga Municipality with Mitchell and Kyeamba Shires in 1981. It includes the suburb of Forest Hill and the towns of Tarcutta, Ladysmith, Mangoplah, Uranquinty and Collingullie.History
The original Aboriginal inhabitants of the Wagga Wagga region were the Wiradjuri people. The first white people to travel over the site of present day Wagga Wagga were Captain Charles Sturt and his men in 1829. Settlers started arriving in the Wagga Wagga area soon after Charles Sturt's expedition and by 1831 there were people living in the area. During this time the Wagga Wagga 'run' was established on the south bank of the Murrumbidgee River whilst on the north bank the Eunonyhareenyha 'run' was established. By 23 November 1849 when the settlement was gazetted as a village, a number of buildings had been erected on the Wagga Wagga 'run', including a hotel, blacksmith's shop, courthouse and lock-up. In 1895 Hampden Bridge, a truss bridge was built across the Murrumbidgee River at Wagga. The bridge is regarded as being of heritage significance. In the 19th century Wagga Wagga briefly gained international notoriety as the home of Roger Orton, known to history as the Tichborne claimant, who owned a butchery in the town. Wagga's Museum of the Riverina is the home to an important collection of Tichborne memorabilia, including a set of four rare plaster figurines depicting characters from the trial, donated by the Mussared family of Adelaide, descendants of William Gibbs, the lawyer who launched the claim on behalf of Orton. The museum also owns a complete set of hard-bound court transcripts, and a monumental painting entitled The Tichborne Trial (painted in 1874 by Nathan Hughes and once described as "a monstrosity", which hangs in the city's council chambers. The Wagga City Library collection also includes a letter written by Orton in 1873. 
 The defence force in Wagga WaggaThe Kapooka Army base includes the Army Recruit Training Centre, where non-commissioned members of the Army undertake their inital seven week training.There is a separate Royal Australian Air Force base at Forest Hill, this is the tri-service (RAN/Army/RAAF) electronic trades school. Royal Australian Navy personnel are based at RAAF Base Wagga. The \"Wagga Effect\"The "Wagga Effect" is a term that has been used frequently in the Australian media to describe the disproportionately large number of elite sportsmen and women that originate from the town.[link] It is speculated that the phenomenon may arise in rural areas where the population is large enough to sustain the presence of a large number of sporting codes, but small enough to ensure that talented individuals are exposed to adult-level competition at an earlier age.According to local legend Wagga's sporting success is due to a mystery nutrient in the Murrumbidgee River, washed down the river when water is released from the Blowering and Burrinjuck Dams. According to the legend it arrives at Wagga Beach as a giant wave, known as the Five O'clock Wave, which surfers can ride all the way to Narrandera. Morris 1999, p. 261 GeographyWagga is 475 kilometres south-west of Sydney, 240 kilometres from Canberra and 440 kilometres from Melbourne. The city is on the Sturt Highway and not on the main Sydney-Melbourne Hume highway. The city is on the main Sydney-Melbourne railway line and is approximately half way between the two major cities.The city of Wagga Wagga provides the central focus for a large catchment region of rural New South Wales and is the centre of administration for the Riverina region. The Murrumbidgee River has not been visible to the town since the introduction of high levee banks to prevent flood damage. The Wollundry Lagoon is the water focus of the town and has been a key element in the development and separation of the north (older) and south (newer) parts of the town. ClimateWagga Wagga has four distinct seasons (Autumn,Winter,Spring and Summer), with hot dry summers and cold winters. Frost and fog is very common in Wagga Wagga during the winter however snow has been reported in the past but is a very rare occurrence.Most of Wagga Wagga's rainfall occurs all year round.
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