DISCOVER WAGGA WAGGA

It is home to 22 primary schools, eight secondary schools a regional Institute of TAFE with 18 campuses and one of the four main campuses of Charles Sturt University, as well as Wagga Base Hospital, the Kapooka Army base and a separate RAAF base.

Wagga is known as The Garden City and The City of Good Sports due to the large sporting culture and large list of sporting greats that are from Wagga.

Wagga is a Wiradjuri aboriginal language word meaning crow and to create the plural, the Wiradjuri repeat the word. Thus 'Wagga Wagga' translates as 'the place of many crows'.

The central business district is focused around the commercial and recreational grid bounded by Best and Tarcutta Streets and the Murrumbidgee River and the Sturt Highway. The main shopping streets of Wagga Wagga are Baylis and Fitzmaurice Streets. Wagga Wagga draws visitors from towns in the Riverina and Southwest Slopes such as Leeton, Griffith, Narrandera, Deniliquin, Coleambally, Junee, The Rock, Coolamon and Tumut.

Wagga Wagga has four distinct seasons (Autumn,Winter,Spring and Summer), with hot dry summers and cold winters. Frost and fog is very common in Wagga Wagga during the winter. While snow has been reported in the past, it is a very rare occurrence.


RECREATION AND TOURIST ATTRACTIONS IN WAGGA WAGGA

The Murrumbidgee River at Wagga Wagga supports a sandy beach, a popular location for picnics and barbeques in the summer months. Between 1977 and 1995 the beach played host to the Gumi Races where people were encouraged to make rafts from inner tubing and sabotage their competition by throwing rotten eggs and flour at them (Morris 1999, p. 261). Those still nostalgic for the event can take a float down the river from "The Rocks" which are located some 600 metres upstream from the main beach area. River cruises also operate on the Murrumbidgee.

Wollundry Lagoon, Lake Albert and various parks also provide recreational facilities. Sporting facilities include the Oasis Regional Aquatic Centre, with Australia's only wave ball. Wagga Wagga Civic Centre and the Forum 6 Cinemas provide entertainment venues.

Other facilities include the National Art Glass Gallery, Wagga Wagga Civic Theatre, Riverina Theatre Company, Wagga Wagga Botanic Gardens, Willans Hill Model Railway, Victory Memorial Gardens, CSU Cheese Factory, Museum of the Riverina, Wagga Wagga RAAF Museum, Wagga Wagga Art Gallery, Wagga Wagga Country Club, Country Golf Club


EVENTS IN WAGGA WAGGA

• Wagga Wagga Gold Cup - Australia's second oldest horse race held in the first week of May every year
• Group 9 Rugby League Grand Final held annually in September
• Miniature Railway
• Tooheys Town Plate Day
• Wagga Wagga Jazz Festival - first held in 1995, the most recent festival was in September 2005
• Unsound - Wagga Space Program's festival of experimental music. Unsound06 will take place in November 2006
• National Horse Festival - a wide range of horse events held around Wagga during March each year
• CSS Tens Rugby League Tournament - a 10 a side rugby league tourny held in March
• Wagga Wagga Food And Wine Festival
• Riverina Rev Fest
• Lake To Lagoon Fun Run - Formerly City to Lake Fun Run

SHOPPING IN WAGGA WAGGA

Wagga attracts people from all over the Riverina and south western New South Wales to its shopping facilities. Wagga's shopping centres include two notable centres of metropolitan standards, Wagga Wagga Marketplace and Sturt Mall in the central business district, and suburban shopping centres such as the new South City Shopping Centre in Glenfield Park, the Lake Village Shopping Centre, Lake Albert, the Tolland Shopping Centre and Kooringal Mall in Kooringal. W

agga also has a large Home Base located on the Sturt Highway. Wagga's central business district, with both Baylis and Fitzmaurice Streets and other surrounding streets, offers hundreds of specialty retailers including national chains such as Myer and Target.

NEW SOUTH WALES TOURS AND TRAVEL

WAGGA WAGGA HOTELS & ACCOMMODATION