Hay is a town in the western Riverina region of south western New South Wales, Australia. It is the administrative centre of
Hay Shire Local Government Area and the centre of a prosperous and productive agricultural district on the wide
Hay Plains.
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Located on the main route approximately midway between the large cities of
Sydney and
Adelaide at
the junction of the Sturt, Cobb and Mid-Western Highways,
Hay is an important regional and national transport node. The township itself is built beside the
Murrumbidgee River, part of the Murray-
Darling river system; Australia's largest. The main business district of
Hay is situated on the north bank of the river.
In late 1829 Charles Sturt and his men passed along the
Murrumbidgee River on horses and drays. They launched their whale-boat near the Murrumbidgee-Lachlan
junction and continued the journey by boat to the
Murray River and eventually to the sea at
Lake Alexandrina (before returning by the same route). During the late-1830s stock was regularly overlanded to South Australia via the Lower Murrumbidgee. At the same time stockholders were edging westward along the Lachlan, Murrumbidgee, Billabong and Murray systems. By 1839 all of the river frontages in the vicinity of present-day
Hay were occupied by squatters. By the mid-1850s pastoral runs in the western Riverina were
well-established and prosperous. The nearby Victorian gold-rushes provided an expanding market for stock. The prime fattening country of the Riverina became a sort of holding centre, from where the Victorian market could be supplied as required. One of the popular routes established in the mid-1850s crossed the
Murrumbidgee River at Lang’s Crossing-place.
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The locality where
Hay township developed was originally known as Lang’s Crossing place (named after three brothers named Lang who were leaseholders of runs on the southern side of the river). It was the crossing on the
Murrumbidgee River of a
well-travelled stock-route leading to the markets of Victoria. In 1856-7 Captain Francis
Cadell, pioneer of steam-navigation on the
Murray River, placed a manager at Lang’s Crossing-place with the task of establishing a store (initially in a tent). In December 1857 Thomas Simpson re-located from Deniliquin to establish a blacksmith
shop and residence at Lang’s Crossing-place. Six months later the Canadian shipwright Henry Leonard arrived; he commenced building a hotel and dwelling-house near Simpson’s buildings and launched a punt on the river. In August 1858 steamers owned by rival owners, Francis
Cadell and William Randell, successfully travelled up the Murrumbidgee as far as Lang’s Crossing-place (with
Cadell’s steamer Albury continuing up-river to
Gundagai).
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Henry Jeffries, the leaseholder of “Illilawa” station (which included Lang’s Crossing-place at its western extremity), was vehemently opposed to Henry Leonard's operations; threats against his punt caused Leonard to stand guard with a loaded gun. An attempt by Jeffries to pull down Leonard’s hotel as it was being constructed caused an outcry from those advocating a settlement at the location. In consequence the NSW Government sent a surveyor to map out a new township. Henry Leonard completed his inn and opened it on 30 October 1858. The Murrumbidgee Punt Hotel was described as a "large size" weatherboard building with a shingled roof "and a fine verandah along the front". By mid-1859 the Department of Lands had proclaimed reservations on either side of the river at Lang's Crossing-place and Henry Shiell was appointed
Police Magistrate. By October 1859 the township had been named "Hay" after
John Hay (later Sir
John), a wealthy squatter from the Upper Murray, member of the NSW Legislative Assembly and former Secretary of Lands and Works. Later the same month successful land-sales were held at
Hay.
During World War II
Hay was used as a prisoner-of-war and internment centre, due in no small measure to its isolated location. Three high-security camps were constructed there in 1940. The first arrivals were over two thousand refugees from Nazi Germany and Austria, many of them Jewish; they had been interned in Britain when fears of invasion were at their peak and transported to Australia aboard the HMT Dunera.
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They arrived at
Hay on 7 September 1940 by four trains from
Sydney. They were interned in Camps 7 and 8 (located near the
Hay showground) under the guard of the 16th Garrison Battalion of the Australian Army. In November 1940 the other compound at
Hay,
Camp 6 was occupied by Italian civilian internees. Camps 7 and 8 were vacated in May 1941 when the Dunera internees left
Hay; some were sent to
Orange (NSW), others to Tatura in Victoria, and others to join the Pioneer Corps of the Australian Army. Upon their departure Italian prisoners-of-war were placed in Camps 7 and 8. In December 1941 Japanese internees (some from
Broome and islands north of Australia) were conveyed to
Hay and placed in
Camp 6. In April 1942 the River
Farm began operating on the eastern edge of the township, enabling market-gardening and other
farm activities to be carried out by the Italian internees and POWs.On 1 March 1946 the Japanese POWs departed from
Hay in five trains, transferred to Tatura. During 1946 the Italians who remained at
Hay were progressively released or transferred to other camps, and the
Hay camps were dismantled and building materials and fittings sold off by June the following year.
The first group of internees at
Hay became known as the ‘Dunera Boys’. The internment at
Hay of this assemblage of refugees from Nazi oppression in Europe was an important milestone in Australia’s cultural history. Just fewer than half of those interned at
Hay eventually chose to remain in Australia. The influence of this group of men on subsequent cultural, scientific and business developments in Australia is difficult to over-state; they became an integral and celebrated part of the nation’s cultural and intellectual life. The 'Dunera Boys' are still fondly remembered in
Hay; every year the town holds a 'Dunera Day' in which many surviving internees return to the site of their former imprisonment.
Todays SHP looged in from the
Daly Waters Turn/off
.