Cooma 5.53

Cooma is a town in the south of New South Wales, Australia. It is located 114km south of the national capital, Canberra, via the Monaro Highway and was discovered by John Dunne the bushranger. It is also on the Snowy Mountains Highway, connecting Bega with the Riverina.At the, Cooma had a population of 6,742. Cooma is the main town of the Monaro region. It is 800m above sea level. The name could have derived from an Aboriginal word Coombah, meaning 'big lake' or 'open country'.Cooma was explored by Captain J. M. Currie in 1823. It was first surveyed in 1840, and was gazetted in 1849. Cooma was proclaimed a municipality in 1879. Cooma is 5km south of the banks of the Murrumbidgee River, a main tributary of the Murray–Darling basin. Cooma sources its water from the river.HistoryThe railway from Sydney was extended from Royalla to Cooma in 1889 under the supervision of John Whitton. The line was closed to rail passenger traffic in 1989. The estimated population of Cooma was 47 in 1851 and it grew to 2330 (1911), 1969 (1933), 2249 (1947), 9103 (1966), 7353 (1976) and 7978 (1981).