A pleasant 2km stroll viewing many historic points of interest starts and finishes at the Gundagai Visitor Information Centre. Here you may also wish to purchase the excellent book Gundagai – A track winding back, by Cliff Butcher, which will enrich your visit with a wealth of historical information and images.
- See Rusconi’s Marble Masterpiece, the Gemstone Collection and historic photographs at the centre.
- Proceed up Sheridan St on the north side past Carberry Park, named after a very popular citizen and Shire President for 29 years.
- Turn left up Kitchener St (named Wilhelm St until WWI) to view the former Literary Institute at No16, classified by the National Trust and now a private residence. The ground floor was built in 1870 and the upper storey added in 1910.
- Returning to Sheridan St, see the Gundagai Theatre, erected in 1928 by Gundagai Masonic Lodge, with the Temple at the rear. Freemasonry commenced in Gundagai in 1866.
- The Family Hotel was built in 1858. The original sign beside the bar door proclaims “Fry’s Hotel”, agents at the time for Cobb & Co coaches.
- The National Australia Bank building was formerly the Commercial Banking Co of Sydney. The branch opened in 1877 and this building was erected in 1880.
- No199 was built in 1876. Now a private residence.
- The Gabriel Gallery, on the first floor of Butcher Roberts Mitre 10, exhibits hundreds of photographs of C19th and early C20th Gundagai.
- Crossing Byron St, view the old slate walls around the historic former gaol. Not open to the public.
- The majestic Gundagai Court House, built in 1859, also houses the Boer War monument.
- The Green Dog Gallery occupies the C19th Tracey’s Hall, renamed the Gundabidgee Theatre in the early C20th, which was run as a cinema from1919 until the late 1920s, and also housed dances and boxing matches.
- The Blueheeler Guesthouse was begun in 1853 and has been variously the Crown Inn, Tracey’s Club House Hotel and the Gresham Hotel. Note the original sandstock bricks of the front wall.
- On the corner of Homer St, St Patrick’s Catholic Church opened in 1885.
- Up Homer St behind St Patrick’s Hall, Lanigan Abbey Estate occupies the former St Stanislaus School, erected in 1898, and the 1888 convent which housed the Sisters of Mercy who taught there. The Estate is named after Dr Lanigan, first Bishop of Goulburn.
- Back in Sheridan St, Cracker’s Pizza occupies the shop built in 1903 by hotelier Aristide Cauvarel.
- The Rural Lands Protection Board building, now remodelled, is where Frank Rusconi began his marble masterpiece. Note local slate used at the entrance.
- At the end of this block stands the Cenotaph, designed and built by Frank Rusconi
- Behind it is Rusconi Place, dedicated to Frank Rusconi for his contributions to the town’s heritage.
- Follow the sign down to the longest timber Railway Station in NSW, restored to its original 1886 glory.
- Back to Sheridan St, see Araluen, the corner house on the south side opposite the Cenotaph, where Frank Rusconi completed his masterpiece and displayed it for many years. Now a bed-and-breakfast.
- The Prince Alfred Bridge and Railway Bridge can be seen from a short walkway that allows viewing access to the first timber spans of the former.
- Turning down Sheridan Lane, walk past the old flour mill, constructed in 1849 and the only major building left in the flood area after the disaster of 1852.From here you can either take up the tour at the Gundagai Museum, below, or take an additional 2km round trip across the river to South Gundagai.
- At the junction of Sheridan Lane and Homer St, turn left across Yarri Bridge. Continue on Middleton Drive past its bend to the left; walk onto the golf course to the Rose Inn Cairn which commemorates the public house constructed by Thomas Lindley in 1852.
- Continue on Middleton Drive to the open section of the Prince Alfred Bridge, where remains of the old Gundagai Pumping Station can be seen.
- Over Prince Alfred Bridge, right into Tumut St and left into Mount St to the Star Hotel, site of a mural of rural life by Gundagai artist Louise Klein.
- Back across the bridge and up Middleton Drive and Homer St to the Gundagai Historic Museum.
- The Gundagai Post Office was built in 1879. Gundagai had the last official “pony express” to deliver mail, a service which ceased in 1984.
- Walking down Sheridan Street’s south side, see murals illustrating the original dog on the tuckerbox bush ballad on the walls of the Gundagai Pharmacy.
- Next door is the decorative entrance to Surrey, a private home built in 1884 by Billie Payne, a Cobb & Co coach driver and later hotelier and businessman.
- Behind the counter of Smart’s Butchery at No 120 you can see a series of paintings by Bernie Spratt depicting animal husbandry from paddock to shop.
- The Yellow Shop occupies a building which housed the Bank of New South Wales from1864-82.
- The Niagara Café was made famous by the visit of Prime Minister John Curtin in 1942. The present shop was rebuilt after the original was gutted by fire in 1975.
- On the corner of Sheridan and Byron Sts the Criterion Hotel houses murals of bushranger holdups and imagined scenes of the 1852 flood.
- The history of the Gundagai Bakery, believed to be Australia’s oldest working bakery, is told on its wall.
- Opposite the Visitor Centre, the Services Club dining room was erected in 1870 as a flour mill. The thick walls built of local slate (now obscured by subsequent extensions) can be seen in the historical photographs displayed in the foyer.
