Goulburn was named by
surveyor James Meehan after
Henry Goulburn, Under-Secretary for War and the Colonies, and the name was ratified by Governor
Lachlan Macquarie. The
colonial government made land grants to free settlers such as
Hamilton Hume in the Goulburn area from the opening of the area to settlement in about 1820. Land was later sold to settlers within the
Nineteen Counties, including
Argyle County (the Goulburn area). The process displaced the local indigenous Mulwaree population and the introduction of exotic livestock drove out a large part of the Aboriginal peoples' food supply.
Indigenous history The Mulwaree People lived throughout the area covering Goulburn, Crookwell and Yass and belong to the
Ngunawal language group. To the north of Goulburn,
Gundungurra was spoken within the lands of the
Dharawal people. This was due to Gundungurra people of the Blue Mountains being driven south from their traditional land due to Governor Macquarie's punitive parties sent to
massacre the Dharawal and Gundungurra people, at the behest of influential settlers. Their neighbours were the Dharawal to their north and
Dharug surrounding Sydney,
Darkinung,
Wiradjuri, Ngunawal and Thurrawal, eastwards peoples.
European settlement The first recorded settler in Goulburn established 'Strathallan' in 1825 (on the site of the present Police Academy) and a town was originally surveyed in 1828, although moved to the present site of the city in 1833 when the surveyor
Robert Hoddle laid it out. George Johnson purchased the first land in the area between 1839 and 1842 and became a central figure in the town's development. He established a branch store with a liquor licence in 1848. The 1841 census records Goulburn had a population of 655 people: 444 males and 211 females. This number had jumped to 1,171 inhabitants by 1847, 686 males and 485 females. It had a courthouse, police barracks, churches, hospital and post office and was the centre of a great sheep and farming area. A telegraph station opened in 1862, by which time there were about 1,500 residents, a
blacksmith's shop, two hotels, two stores, the telegraph office and a few cottages. The town was a change station (where coach horses were changed) for
Cobb & Co by 1855. A police station opened the following year and a school in 1858. Goulburn was proclaimed a municipal government in 1859 and was made a city in 1863. The arrival of the railway in 1869, which was opened on 27 May by the
Governor Lord Belmore (an event commemorated by Belmore Park in the centre of the city), along with the completion of the line from Sydney to
Albury in 1883, was a boon to the city. Later branchlines were constructed to
Cooma (opened in 1889) and later extended further to
Nimmitabel and then to
Bombala, and to
Crookwell and
Taralga. Goulburn became a major railway centre with a roundhouse and engine servicing facilities and a factory which made pre-fabricated concrete components for signal boxes and station buildings. The roundhouse is now the
Goulburn Rail Heritage Centre with steam, diesel and rolling stock exhibits.
Rail First Asset Management (previously known as CFCL Australia) operate the
Goulburn Railway Workshops.
St Saviour's Cathedral, designed by
Edmund Thomas Blacket, was completed in 1884 with the tower being added in 1988 to commemorate the Bicentenary of Australia. Though completed in 1884, some earlier burials are in the graveyard adjacent to the cathedral. St Saviour's is the seat of the
Bishop of Canberra and Goulburn. The Church of SS Peter and Paul is the former cathedral for the
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn. The Goulburn Viaduct was built in 1915 replacing an earlier structure. This brick arch railway
viaduct spanning the
Mulwaree Ponds is the longest on the
Main Southern railway line and consists of 13 arches each spanning .
Proclaimed a city building, one of many commercial and public buildings constructed during the 19th century Goulburn holds the distinction of being proclaimed a City on two occasions. The first, unofficial, proclamation was claimed by virtue of Royal
Letters Patent issued by
Queen Victoria on 14 March 1863 to establish the Diocese of Goulburn. It was a claim made for ecclesiastical purposes, as it was required by the traditions of the Church of England. The Letters Patent also established St Saviour's Church as the Cathedral Church of the diocese. This was the last instance in which Letters Patent were used in this manner in the British Empire, as they had been significantly discredited for use in the colonies, and were soon to be declared formally invalid and unenforceable in this context. Several legal cases over the preceding decade in particular had already established that the monarch had no ecclesiastical jurisdiction in colonies possessing responsible government. This had been granted to NSW in 1856, seven years earlier. The Letters Patent held authority only over those who submitted to it voluntarily, and then only within the context of the Church—it had no legal civil authority or implications. An absolute and retrospective declaration to this effect was made in 1865 in the Colenso Case, (48. Vict. No. 18), Goulburn was officially proclaimed a City on 20 March 1885 removing any lingering doubts as to its status. This often unrecognised controversy has in no way hindered the development of Goulburn as a regional centre, with an impressive court house (completed in 1887) and other public buildings, as a centre for wool selling, and as an industrial town.
Goulburn School Strike In 1962, Goulburn was the focus of the fight for state aid to non-government schools. An education strike was called in response to a demand for installation of three extra toilets at a local
Catholic primary school, St Brigid's. The local Catholic archdiocese closed down all local Catholic primary schools and sent the children to the government schools. The Catholic authorities declared that they had no money to install the extra toilets. Nearly 1,000 children turned up to be enrolled locally and the state schools were unable to accommodate them. The strike lasted only a week but generated national debate. In 1963 the prime minister,
Robert Menzies, made state aid for science blocks part of
his party's platform. == Heritage listings ==