In this blog, we would like to share with you a little bit about our town – Junee, New South Wales, Australia.
Set amongst pleasantly rolling hills, in rich farming and grazing country, visitors often remark on how attractive the town is. With a number of heritage buildings, including Aussie Uggs own store front/factory on Lorne Street (pictured above second block left hand side), Junee is attracting increasing numbers of tourists. So why not come and visit us?
The town was founded as a key hub on the first main interstate railway in Australia, running between Sydney and Melbourne. Being roughly halfway between these two state capital cities, it became an important stop over point for travelers making the long trip in the early days of steam trains. As well branch lines to the west brought overnight travelers to the numerous hotels in Junee and provided these guests with accommodation. Consequently, Junee has some of the best preserved, Victorian era hotels in N.S.W. such as the Loftus Hotel building pictured below.
The main farm enterprises in the Junee district are sheep production for both wool and meat, beef cattle and crops such as wheat, canola, barley and pulses. But lamb meat production is what the town is best known for, with a major export abattoir located close by the town, producing the famed Junee Lamb. Lambskins are a by-product of lamb meat processing eventually becoming the feature component of our premium quality sheepskin ugg boots and slippers.
Junee has a Mediterranean climate; with long (and sometimes) hot summers, temperate inter-seasonal months with a short, cold, but mostly dry, winter. From April onwards the nights start to become chilly, and this is when the locals seek the comfort of sheepskin slippers to keep their feet warm. As we have mentioned in another blog a unique feature of wool is that it ‘breathes’ so that means you can wear sheepskin boots and slippers all year round, without your feet getting hot and sweaty. Even in the warmer months our local customers still wear sheepskin slippers.
Beside its Victorian era hotels, Junee has one of the architecturally finest railway stations in rural Australia. Built in the French second empire style, (the style of the Ritz in Paris), the station and the associated buildings, including the Railway Refreshment Room, (now the Railway Café) give the station precinct a refined elegance often missing in more modern transport hubs.
As a railway town, Junee has a large diesel locomotive maintenance and storage facility and a working (but historic) roundhouse. Associated with the roundhouse is a museum which is now open to the public, storing vintage engines and carriages. The fully restored vintage 4401 diesel engine pictured below is one of the exhibits.
Junee is situated in the Riverina district of N.S.W., approximately 450 km southwest of Sydney and 40km north of the regional city of Wagga Wagga. The aboriginal people native to the region are the Wiradjuri, who lived along the Murrumbidgee River and its tributaries. The Wiradjuri were traditionally hunter gatherers, with the surrounding land providing plentiful game, such as kangaroos, possums, and other marsupials, reptiles like the goanna, and the rivers were plentiful with fish. It is thought the name Junee came from the Wiradjuri word to “speak to me”.
The first European settlers came into the district around the mid19th century. The ‘Junee’ pastoral run was established in 1845 by the squatter, John Hammond. The Junee run was progressively reduced in size as more selectors moved into the district and took up land. A post office opened in 1862, and a village called ‘Junee’ was gazetted in 1863 on the wool road from the Riverina region further south to Sydney. In 1866 Junee’s population was recorded as twelve but the discovery of a gold reef at Junee Reefs triggered a gold rush and the population quickly grew. By the 1880's the district was closely settled with both farmers and pastoralists. The railway also arrived around that time, enabling farmers, and pastoralists, to send their produce to the Sydney markets by rail rather than cumbersome and slow bullock wagons.
Junee currently has a population of around 6,000 people. Some of the other popular attractions in Junee include, the historic (and supposedly haunted) Monte Christo homestead (pictured below) and the Junee liquorice and chocolate factory. The town also has a number of parks and nature reserves, including the Junee wetlands.
Junee has a lot to offer the tourist. Come and visit us at Aussie Uggs, Junee N.S.W. Australia. Enjoy the sites we have mentioned above and many other attractions, but most of all come and visit us at Aussie Uggs 88 Lorne Street, opposite Railway Square and just down the street from scenic Loftus Hotel photographed above. We look forward to meeting you.