Location

Situated in the south-east corner of New South Wales, Bombala is only a short two hour drive from Canberra. The Bombala region is known for its old growth forests and as well as its many waterways and excellent fishing. And, of course, our most famous and popular resident, the platypus. You can spot our local icon in the river located 200 meters from our front door, or at the Platypus Reserve a few kilometres away. 

The town of Bombala features many unique shops, supermarkets, restaurants and cafes. Plus local pubs and a tourist centre. Bombala hosts many popular events such as the Annual Bombala Bike Show, the Historic Engine Rally and the Riverside Art and Craft Festival. It's an excellent stop on your way through to the coast or the snow, or just a great destination spot on it's own!

 

A bit more about Bombala!

Bombala is a small rural town, home to approximately 1500 people. Located in South-East New South Wales, Australia. Bombala is 504km south of Sydney, 203km south of Canberra, 533km north of Melbourne and 81km south of Cooma (the districts leading town). Bombala is 747m above Sea Level.

The District around Bombala can get extremely cold during winter and supports a wide range of agriculture, vegetable growing and timber milling. Bombala is a timber town. The area around Bombala is also one of New South Wales best trout fishing areas.

Bombala was first inhabited by the Ngarigu Aboriginals, before European settlement. It is believed that the name Bombala comes from the Aboriginal language, meaning ‘meeting of the waters’....

In the 1830’s Europeans settled in Bombala. In around 1848 Captain Ronald Campbell owned nearly 6500 hectares of land, which he named ‘Bombalo’. By the year 1849 Bombala had its own Post Office (which still stands today), with a regular mailing service a year later from Bombala to Eden.

It was around this time that the street plan of Bombala was drawn up and Bombala quickly developed its reputation as one of the major towns in the Monaro. By the year 1856 Bombala’s population sky rocketed and was nearly double the size of Cooma’s population and a few public and commercial buildings were built.

As the town continued to grow two bridges were built over the Bombala River in the 1890’s. It was around this time that Bombala was briefly considered as a possible site for the National's Capital, because of this the public of Bombala wanted to build a railway line but it didn’t arrive until 1921. In 1908 Canberra was selected as the capital of Australia instead of Bombala.

Now Bombala is your typical country town, providing services for the community, such as, The Hospital (with an Emergency service), The Police and Fire Stations, The High School and the two Primary Schools, two Supermarkets (Foodworks and IGA), the Post Office and much more.

Some of Bombala’s most interesting historic buildings are the Olympic Cinema which dates back to the 1930’s, when most of the town would have been regular visitors to the cinema. The National Australian Bank (built in the year 1871) which was the old CBC Bank (the commonwealth bank of Australia). Which was designed by J.F.Hilly. In Caveat Street there are many houses that date back to the 1860’s.

Bombala is also an hour and a half from Thredbo (where it snows), Bega and Jindabyne. Bombala is about half an hour south to Delegate, An hour to Merimbula (on the coast) and to Pambula.

The drive from Cooma to Victoria’s Gippsland coast via Bombala is particularly popular.