Gundagai - River Crossings

River Crossings

Gundagai is located at a crossing place of the Murrumbidgee River. There were several places at Gundagai that travellers could and did cross the river. The route across the Murrumbidgee at Gundagai eventually became the Great South Road.

The Main Roads Management Act of June 1858 declared the Great Southern Road, from near Sydney through Goulburn and Gundagai to Albury, as one of the three main roads in the colony. However, its southern reaches were described as only a 'scarcely formed bullock track' as late as 1858. The road was improved in the mid 1860s with some sections near Gundagai metalled and all creeks bridged between Adelong Creek (approximately 10 kilometres south of Gundagai) and Albury. The highway bypassed Gundagai in 1977 with the opening of the Sheahan Bridge. In 1914 was declared a main road of New South Wales, and subsequently designated as state highway 2 and named the Hume Highway in 1928.