page_title: Balranald
section_title: Township beginnings
hierarchical_section_title: Balranald / History / Township beginnings
caption_attribution_description: Murrumbidgee River at Balranald, New South Wales
context_page_description: Balranald is a town and local government area in the Riverina district of New South Wales, Australia.
  The town of Balranald is located where the Sturt Highway crosses the Murrumbidgee River in a remote, semi-desert area. Although it is part of New South Wales, Balranald receives Victorian television stations, with a range of Sydney and Melbourne newspapers available.
  Balranald was featured heavily in 2010–2015 Australian tourism ads, displaying the natural flora of the region with over 30 subspecies of shrubs native to Balranald and its surrounds.
context_section_description: In 1848 George James MacDonald, the Commissioner for Crown Lands for the Lower Darling District, arrived at the site of the present-day township with a police escort.  Commissioner MacDonald had chosen the site as his base, and he and his entourage set up their camp under canvas.  In 1848 Leighton Robinson and Thomas Duggan established a general store at Balranald and during the same year a public-house, the Balranald Inn, was erected by a Mr Robertson.
  In 1849 the Crown Lands Commissioner MacDonald recommended to the Colonial Secretary that a township be established at the location.  MacDonald was a Scotsman, born at Balranald on North Uist in the Outer Hebrides; he chose the name of his birthplace for the new settlement. He pointed out that the township's position, on the lower reaches of the Murrumbidgee River, was expected to be of strategic importance with the impending introduction of steam navigation on the Murray.
  During 1849 the surveyor Francis MacCabe laid out large reserves in the region of the Lower Murrumbidgee / Murray-Darling junction. Included in MacCabe's surveys was a site "for a Township at the North End of Caiera, otherwise Balranald Reserve". The decision to lay out Balranald township was made in November 1849. Commissioner MacDonald died in 1851 and he was succeeded by Stephen Cole.  Cole used Balranald as a base until 1853, when the office of Commissioner for Crown Lands for the Lower Darling District was transferred to Euston where a new house was erected for the Commissioner.
  The township of Balranald was gazetted on 4 April 1851 and the first land sale held on 14 January 1852, with thirty-five lots submitted to public auction.  On 1 March 1852 an official post office opened in the township. (An earlier post office had opened in the area on 1 January 1850 but closed and was replaced by an unofficial service). From 1853 the mail contractor, John Bent, operated a service along the Murrumbidgee River between Wagga Wagga and Balranald.
  A second hotel, the Carriers' Arms, was erected at Balranald in about 1852 by the German, Philipp Comitti (but records show he didn't arrive in Australia until Mar 1854).  William Graham acquired the licence of the Balranald Inn in April 1854. Graham held the licence until 1859 when he was murdered. The perpetrator was arrested and later hanged at Goulburn gaol. Denis Hanan then obtained the licence of the Balranald Inn, which he held until 1867. In 1859 Hanan purchased a punt from Captain Cadell and operated it at the southern end of Mayall Street.
  The Victorian gold-rushes, which began as Balranald was being established, had a profound impact on the Riverina region by stimulating the development of the fat-stock market.  The development of the stock-route across the One-tree Plain to Lang's Crossing-place tended to direct attention away from Balranald to the region up-river of the Murrumbidgee-Lachlan junction. By the latter half of the 1850s, when the fat-stock market was at its peak, Balranald was exhibiting signs of stagnation. A correspondent from the area made these comments about the township in August 1858: "This obscure and miserable township, situated on the Lower Murrumbidgee, is here attracting a considerable share of attention, as being one of those rowdy places for which the Australian bush in the interior has become so famous".
caption: The former site of the wharves on the Murrumbidgee River
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