Jugiong, NSW: The big revival story of a miniature town

There was a time when townships bypassed by highways devolved to their quieter district residents, or they withered to a nest of cobwebbed houses and mostly closed shops in increasing states of dereliction.

Until the 1995 rerouting of a section of the Hume Highway, 40 kilometres north of Gundagai, Jugiong had a few petrol stations, a really old hotel, a motel, a rambling general store and an unkempt cemetery occupied by multiple generations of the Quinns, Franks, Cooneys and Murphys.

So tiny, it was less than a handful of business buildings strung along Riverside Drive. Yet so picturesque too, a sense enriched by stories of drovers coming along the stock route from Junee; of bushrangers who murdered a local policeman; of being a Cobb & Co staging post, not to mention the multiple flood events.

Settled in the bosom of the red gum embowered Murrumbidgee Valley,  Jugiong lies 370 kilometres south of Sydney and 500 kilometres north of Melbourne. It could easily have gone belly-up when the cars were deflected, and indeed, some of the 150-year old stone buildings did start to tumble.

But Jugiong – that even today has a barely-registering district population of 222 – refused to be extinguished.

Fast forward to 2021: With traffic so routinely diverging the two kilometres off the Hume to graze or stay over at the stylishly-revived Sir George pub, or to dine so deliciously at The Long Track Pantry that is credited with starting the townlet’s revival, it’s becoming hard to find a parking spot.

Local realtor, Kaitlyn Smart of Ray White Gundagai, reckons “Jugiong is crazy busy now. There’s always more people there than in Gundagai’s main street”. Gundagai has 10 times the population.

There is no property for sale in or around Jugiong “, and we haven’t sold anything there for about 10 years”, yet lots of people, including grey nomads, and the campers who linger long enough to fall for the place’s beauty and sophisticated hospitality, would love to buy in.

“It’s gone crazy with Canberra people who want weekenders”, Ms Smart reports. “People ring up and email and say ‘if you hear of anything, let me know’.”

That’s not likely anytime soon because when land does become available, “it sells off-market. The farmers tend to sell to their neighbours”.

Ex-farmer Brian Allen counts himself lucky to have bought a few riverside hectares and one of the four original old service stations when he moved across from Young five years ago, in search of a “business bolthole with no immediate neighbours”.

What he discovered in Jugiong ticked all his boxes. Even if the 1950s servo was so decrepit that the walls were mouldy, it had a commercial license and scope for him and partner Trish Wimpenny to open it as The Quirky Crow gallery and studio.

In the brief window of their residency, the couple has grown roses and vines over the former petrol station and watched the town’s incredible popularity trajectory, which Brian emphasises, “everyone is pretty comfortable with”.

He credits most of it to the endeavours of “a lot of strong-minded businesswomen”.

Women such as Jenny Polimeni from Gino’s Fruit and Veg and Juliette Robb, “who with Huw Robb started it all with the Long Track Pantry”. The Pantry opened in 2006 and now not only caters to diners but creates loads of packaged country-style product and conducts regular in-house cordon bleu cooking classes.

Mother and daughter combo Liz Prater and Kate Huflon “really kicked the place into high gear”, says Allen, when from 2015 they commenced an ambitious restoration of a defunct 1852 verandahed pub with 50-centimetre-thick stone walls.

The Sir George has since expanded to multiple stay-over offerings, with a series of swanky new cabins rustically referred to as The Black Barns. According to the booker for the Sir George, “since COVID, the accommodation has gone gangbusters … even midweek. It’s amazing!”

“The pub brings in so many people with money to spend”, says Trish Wimpenny. “People come from Canberra for day trips”. You can pick the Canberrans by their crisp, non-highway smart clothing.

With gourmet dine-in food options and a tricked-up but still unspoilt colonial charm, its little wonder that the tiny town that barely deserves the title is rockin’!