Goulburn

Goulburn (/ɡoʊlbərn/ GOHL-bərn) is a regional city in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia, approximately 195 kilometres (121 mi) south-west of Sydney and 90 kilometres (56 mi) north-east of Canberra. It was proclaimed as Australia's first inland city through letters patent by Queen Victoria in 1863. Goulburn had a population of 24,565 as of the 2021 census. Goulburn is the seat of Goulburn Mulwaree Council.

Goulburn is a railhead on the Main Southern line, and regional health & government services centre, supporting the surrounding pastoral industry as well as being a stopover for travellers on the Hume Highway. It has a central historic park and many historic and listed buildings. It is also home to the monument the Big Merino, a sculpture that is the world's largest concrete sheep.

Goulburn was named by surveyor James Meehan after Henry Goulburn, Under-Secretary for War and the Colonies, and the name was ratified by Governor Lachlan Macquarie.

The colonial government made land grants to free settlers such as Hamilton Hume in the Goulburn area from the opening of the area to settlement in about 1820. Land was later sold to settlers within the Nineteen Counties, including Argyle County (the Goulburn area). The process displaced the local indigenous Mulwaree population and the introduction of exotic livestock drove out a large part of the Aboriginal peoples' food supply.

The Mulwaree People lived throughout the area covering Goulburn, Crookwell and Yass and belong to the Ngunawal language group. To the north of Goulburn, Gundungurra was spoken within the lands of the Dharawal people. This was due to Gundungurra people of the Blue Mountains being driven south from their traditional land due to Governor Macquarie's punitive parties sent to massacre the Dharawal and Gundungurra people, at the behest of influential settlers.

Their neighbours were the Dharawal to their north and Dharug surrounding Sydney, Darkinung, Wiradjuri, Ngunawal and Thurrawal, eastwards peoples.^{[citation needed]}

The first recorded settler in Goulburn established 'Strathallan' in 1825 (on the site of the present Police Academy) and a town was originally surveyed in 1828, although moved to the present site of the city in 1833 when the surveyor Robert Hoddle laid it out.

George Johnson purchased the first land in the area between 1839 and 1842 and became a central figure in the town's development. He established a branch store with a liquor licence in 1848. The 1841 census records Goulburn had a population of 655 people: 444 males and 211 females. This number had jumped to 1,171 inhabitants by 1847, 686 males and 485 females. It had a courthouse, police barracks, churches, hospital and post office and was the centre of a great sheep and farming area.