RIVERINA
The Riverina..... We've got it all, from some of the nation's best food and wine, to the widest, most breathtaking horizons filled with wonderment, just waiting for your discovery. We've national parks, picnic grounds, unique wildlife, heritage buildings, festivals, art galleries, historic trains and planes, walking trails, country music, haunted houses, botanical gardens, agricultural shows, museums, producer's markets, rivers and ancient aboriginal culture.
The Riverina's playground offers golf courses, swimming pools, horse-riding, ballooning, fishing, tennis courts, boating, sky-diving, bowling greens, picnic race meetings, vintage car rallies and cricket, football and netball facilities - entertainment for all ages. You can spend the night in a grand colonial hotel, a village pub, a modern motel, a B & B, genuine farmstay or the simplest caravan park, and choose from a range of restaurants, cafes and clubs offering the best of our superb natural produce.
We can relate our history, thrill with breathtaking scenery, and offer the friendliest of hospitality. You can fossick for gold or semi-precious stones; go fruit-picking with your backpack; or study the fauna and flora on a bushwalk. Yes - we've got something for everyone.
Wagga Wagga is one of Australia's leading regional cities. Apart form its excellent educational facilities, it's cultural and sporting achievements are outstanding. With a population of 57,000 it is located on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River.
Wagga Wagga is the hub and major retail/industry centre of the Riverina, Australia's food bowl and New South Wales biggest wine-producing region and is bounded by the Snowy Mountains to the east and the fertile Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area to the west. Wagga Wagga has dozens of restaurants and cafes and many national food chains.
Charles Sturt University runs an award winning winery and cheese making facility. The gourmet Magpies Nest restaurant produces the Wagga Wagga Wild olive oil. The Wagga Wagga Winery and Restaurant is housed in a rustic building with an extensive collection of memorabilia, a huge 'moving' mural and one of the biggest fireplaces in the Riverina.
Wagga Wagga is famous as a nursery for sports stars. Some say this is due to a mystery nutrient in the Murrumbidgee River but you can draw your own conclusions by visiting the Wagga Wagga Sporting Hall of Fame Website or pop into the Museum of the Riverina in the historic Council Chambers.
Wagga Wagga has a stunning new National Art Glass Gallery where regular exhibitions from world class art to local community groups feature in the Gallery programs. Public artwork has also become one of the city's key features, superb sculptures dotted around the CBD.
Wagga Wagga is home to Australia's oldest professional theatre company Riverina Theatre Company, which along with Charles Sturt University's Theatre Ensemble and dozens of cultural groups creates a packed calendar of events. Wagga Wagga's award winning Botanic Gardens are the jewel in the crown of the 'garden city'. Garden lovers should also visit the Victory Memorial Gardens, designed by Sir Thomas Kerr (designer of Sydney's Botanic Gardens) as a tribute to those who fought and died during the WW1.
