COOMA, NEW SOUTH WALES

'Cooma' is a town in the south of New South Wales, Australia. It is located 120 km south of the national capital, Canberra, via the Monaro Highway. It is also on the Snowy Mountains Highway, connecting Bega with the Riverina. The town has a population of approximately 7,000.
Cooma is the main town of the Monaro region. It is 800 m (2,600 ft) above sea level.

Contents

History

Education

Climate

Radio stations

Newspaper

Transport

See also

Notes

History

Cooma was explored by Captain J.M. Currie in 1823. It was first surveyed in 1840 and it was proclaimed a municipality in 1879. The railway from Sydney was extended from Royalla to Cooma in 1889 and closed in 1986.^[1][2] Its estimated population was 47 in 1851 and it grew to 2330 (1911), 1969 (1933), 2249 (1947), 9103 (1966), 7353 (1976) and 7978 (1981).
In 1949, the town became the headquarters of the Snowy Mountains Scheme and grew rapidly. In 1959 the tenth anniversary of the scheme was celebrated with the erection of an avenue of flags representing the 27 nationalities of people working on the scheme.
Actresses Carmen Duncan and Paula Duncan, poet and essayist A. D. Hope, poet John Tranter and politician John Tierney were all born in Cooma.
Cooma has developed a growing tourism industry as it became the main rest stop for many travellers heading to the NSW snow fields during the winter months. As a result, the town nicknamed itself the 'Gateway to the Snowy Mountains'.
The Aviation Pioneers' Memorial at Cooma contains artifacts recovered from the Avro 618 Ten aircraft ''Southern Cloud'', which crashed on 21 March 1931 in the Toolong range of the Australian Alps. The wreck was not found until 26 October 1958.

Education

Monaro High School is Cooma's only public high school, however it serves the town and seven of the neighbouring rural towns and villages such as Berridale, Jindabyne, Nimmitabel, Bredbo and Dalgety.
Cooma has two public primary schools Cooma Public School and Cooma North Public School both providing education for students in kindergarten to year 6.
There is a catholic school in Cooma called St Patrick's Parish School providing education from kindergarten to year 10.
Cooma also has a private Christian school known as Snowy Mountains Christian School which provides education from kindergarten to year 8.
TAFE NSW Illawarra Institute Cooma Campus is located in Cooma and provides further education.

Climate

Cooma has a dry, cool climate. The annual mean rainfall is 547mm, with winter being the driest season. Mean daily minimum temperatures range from -2.8°C (July) to 10.5°C (January/February), with annual mean daily minimum of 4.1°C. Mean daily maximum temperatures range from 11.4°C (July) to 26.9°C (January), with annual mean daily maximum of 19.4°C.^[3]
Cooma is also 5 kilometres south of the banks of the Murrumbidgee River. A main tributary of the Murray Darling Basin. Cooma sources its water from the river. For the first time in history the River ceased flowing in December 2006. This is due the extensive drought which crippled Eastern Australia. This forced Cooma to adopt water restrictions, trying to limit Cooma's water consumption to 5 megalitres a day, down from the then consumption of 11 megalitres a day.

Radio stations

★ '2XL' 918 AM (commercial)

★ 'Snow FM' 97.7 FM (commercial)

★ 'Triple J' 100.1 FM

★ 'ABC South-East' 810 AM/1602 AM

★ 'Radio National' 95.3 FM/100.9 FM

★ 'Classic FM' 99.3

★ 'Monaro FM' 90.5 (community)

★ 'Racing Radio' 96.9 FM
Note: transmitters for 2XL and Snow FM, as well as some ABC services, are in place throughout the Snowy Mountains.

Newspaper

The main regional newspaper published in Cooma is the ''Cooma Monaro Express''.^[4] A second regional newspaper known as ''The Monaro Post'' started in September 2006.

Transport

Cooma is serviced by the Snowy Mountains Airport which is 15 kilometres from the CBD. Cooma has a bus service connecting various areas of town three times a day run by Cooma Coaches. Cooma is serviced by CountryLink buses which make daily journeys to both Canberra and the Bega Valley. Cooma has a taxi service run by Cooma Radio Taxis. Passenger trains operated to Cooma (the ''Cooma Mail'') until 1986.^[5]

See also

★ Cooma Correctional Centre

★ Snowy Mountains Scheme

Notes

1. Bombala Line
2. Cooma Railway Station
3. Bureau of Meteorology
4. Cooma Monaro Express.
5. Banger C. ''The Railway Refreshment Rooms of New South Wales 1855-1995. ''ARHS Bulletin, Vol 54, no.790. August 2003.