page_title: Moama
section_title: Moama
hierarchical_section_title: Moama / History / Moama
caption_attribution_description: English: A small park in Moama, NSW
context_page_description: Moama is a town in the Riverina district of southern New South Wales, Australia, in the Murray River Council local government area. The town is directly across the Murray River from the larger town of Echuca in the neighbouring state of Victoria, to which it is connected by a bridge. At the 2011 census, Moama had a population of 5,559.
context_section_description: A demand for land at Maiden's Punt prompted the New South Wales government to lay out a township there, named "Moama".  The name is derived from a local indigenous word meaning "burial ground".  The Moama township was gazetted on 16 December 1851. The post office opened on 1 January 1855 and was known as Maiden's Punt until 1857.
  At a land sale in August 1855 James Maiden purchased 10 of the 30 lots sold.  Maiden sold the Junction Inn to Jeremiah Rolfe in 1855, but the next year he repurchased it.  When applying for a licence he told the Bench of Magistrates that he "intended to conduct it in a very superior manner with reduction of charges."  Maiden also intended expanding the hotel, utilising the brick house which was his former residence as accommodation "for the use of gentlemen and their families to and from Melbourne".
  The growth of the paddlesteamer as a means for transporting cargo from the 1860s onwards saw both Moama and Echuca grow substantially.  Echuca's large wharf and its relatively short distance to Melbourne saw it overshadow its cross-border neighbour.
  A traveller passing through Moama in mid-1865 described the township thus: "Here are erected a few straggling houses of wood or brick". By that stage Moama and Echuca were connected by a pontoon bridge, which, though too narrow for drays or coaches, was used for crossing sheep and horses.
  Moama retains some impressive historical buildings (circa 1880s), namely the Moama Court House on Francis Street, the former New South Wales Police Force Sergeants official residence in Chanter Street, and the former Bank of New South Wales adjacent to the railway lines on Meninya Street.
caption: A park in Moama, NSW
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