Cooma, New South Wales

Cooma is the major town of the Snowy Mountains region and one of the state’s many “gold rush” towns. A hundred years after the Cooma Township was settled by Europeans in 1849, it became the headquarters for the huge Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme. Its historic avenue of flags represents the people of those 27 nations who came to the Snowies to help build one of Australia’s greatest feats in engineering.

Cooma also became the centre of a winter tourist industry in 1889, with the opening of the railway.

Things to do and see around Cooma include the Snowy Hydro Education and Information Centre, the Aviation Pioneers Memorial, Mt Gladstone Lookout with views of the Monaro Plains and the Snowy Mountain Main Range. Visit the vast Deua and Wadbilliga National Parks to see native animals in abundance. The Lambie Town Walk is an easy ramble (or drive) through local history.