Bodalla, New South Wales

Bodalla is a small town the South Coast of New South Wales, Australia. Bodalla is located in the local government area of Eurobodalla Shire It sits on the Princes Highway and is connected by road to Moruya, Narooma and Potato Point.

History

Bodalla is an Aboriginal name and several meanings have been put forward including "Boat Alley", "tossing a child up in the arms", "haven for boats" and "several waters".

European settlement

Thomas Sutcliffe Mort purchased the Bodalla Estate in 1860. Since 1856, Mort had been acquiring land in the Moruya district; he eventually owned 38,000 acres (150 km²) in the district, a very substantial holding in that fertile area. Mort’s vision for Bodalla was as a country estate to retire on and to demonstrate model land utilisation and rural settlement. Mort wished to have a tenanted dairy estate run as an integrated whole. Mort replaced the beef cattle that had been farmed there and carried out extensive improvements including clearing land, draining river swamps, erecting fences, laying out farms, sowing imported grasses, and providing milking sheds, cheese and butter-making equipment. Butter and cheese were produced for the Sydney market. By the 1870s, the tenants were disgruntled sharefarmers and the estate was in Mort’s control again run as three farms with hired labour. After Mort’s death in 1878, and in 1887 his trustees set up the Bodalla Company to put the main asset of the estate on a business footing.

One improvement made was the construction of a horse tramway which would appear to been completed around the end of 1883. The line ran from near the Bodalla Post Office to the North Narooma Wharf at Wagonga Heads. The tramway was seen as going to provide a great saving in conveying the produce of the estate to market. One horse on the tramway could haul, with ease, as much as three could on the road. Large quantities of the farm's milk, cheese and bacon were shipped out to Sydney. The company had a commercial outlet in the Strand Arcade. The tramway closed between 1889 and 1891 following completion of road improvements.

The Bodalla Cheese factory closed down in 1987. At the time the Bodalla Co-operative ceased operation, the thirteen farms supplying Bodalla transferred their supply to the company at Bega. Bodalla Cheese is now a brand associated with Fonterra Brands (Australia) Pty Ltd., formerly Bonland Dairies. Fonterra is a New Zealand owned dairy company.

Bodalla Big Cheese

The Big Cheese is one of Australia's many "big" Roadside tourist attractions. It is located in the township and can be seen on the left when approaching Bodalla from the North. The Big Cheese Visitors' Centre which was part of the Bodalla Cheese factory is closed as at 2007.

External links

• Bodalla - New South Wales. Sydney Morning Herald Travel. Fairfax Digital. (2004). Retrieved on 2006-02-19..

References