URANQUINTY Since 1888
Uranquinty, an unusual name, and a unique place on the map. The village of Uranquinty began, like most other settlements throughout the area, from a need for expansion and settlement of new lands during the 1800s. Uranquinty is an aboriginal word meaning yellow box tree and plenty of rain. The town itself has had three names. Initially it was called Glenrouth and proclaimed a village on 22 September 1888 and in 1889 the name changed to Uranquintry. It was officially altered to Uranquinty in 1966, although residents have referred to the last name since the turn of the century.
Today, Uranquinty has a population of around 800. The railway station has long gone, the last station master left in 1984 and the building demolished in 1988. The grain silos closed in 2007 and the old community hall closed. The Neighbourhood Centre was opened in 1983 and a new Community Hall in 2010. The establishment of our memorial, Wirraway Park, is a tribute to all those involved in its construction and maintenance. 
Transport Development
With the coming of the railway the town began to emerge to house the railway workers building the line to Albury. The Sandy Creek railway station opened on 1 September 1880 which comprised a waiting shed in the middle of the station with a small ticket office at one end. In 1929 a branch line was built from Uranquinty to Kywong to handle wheat trains and passenger services. The main road at this time ran on the northern side of the railway line and was known as Hanging Rock Road, where the first school was built in 1880 on the western end of the travelling stock reserve. Numerous hotels were built on this road during the construction of the railway line. By 1881 as the line moved beyond Albury, all the hotels in Uranquinty had disappeared and it was to be nine years before another licence was granted for this location. 
Development of the village
In 1890 William Hardiman was granted a licence at Sandy Creek for Hardimans Hotel to meet the need for accommodation at the Sandy Creek Railway Station. In 1911 the name was changed to the Uranquinty Hotel and rebuilt on the same site in 1925 with a shop erected next door, leased out by the publican. In 1929 Cyv Taber leased the shop and called it the London Café. During the war years the café became a popular meeting place for service men and women. Most of the town developed on the northern side of the railway line in the early days of settlement and by 1900 there were shops, post office, chaff mill, café and the newly built Public School. On the southern side of the railway line were the hotel, Federal Hall, a blacksmith shop and police station. A new community hall was built on the northern side in 1910, and the Federal Hall converted into a store and residence. |
Airforce Base
By 1941 the landscape of the area changed dramatically when the Department of Defence requisitioned 1002 acres of prime agricultural land to build a training base for pilots under the Empire Air Training Scheme. The cost of construction was £100,000 and began in September 1941. The first 50 trainee pilots arrived to begin their flying training at five Service Flying Training Schools. Over 1500 pilots received their wings at Uranquinty flying Wirraway aircraft, an aboriginal word meaning “challenge.” In 1945 the airforce base was wound down and it functioned more as a care and maintenance unit with some refresher courses offered to navy pilots and Dutch pilots. The base was reopened as No.1 BFTS and continued to train pilots until November 1958. During this period the main aircraft used was the Winjeel, an aboriginal name for “Young Eagle.” In 1958 the base was moved to Point Cook as a result of the Airforce moving into jet aircraft which needed longer runways than the existing ones. At the instigation of two ex-trainee pilots and the local community, a memorial was unveiled in 1999 by the then Governor General, Sir William Deane, to commemorate all those pilots who trained at Uranquinty and subsequently lost their lives overseas with no known graves. 
Migrants in the village
In 1949 the living area of the base was handed over to the Department of Immigration to be used as a holding camp for Eastern European migrants fleeing war-torn Europe from Yugoslavia, Estonia, Latvia and Poland. Mostly women and young children, they arrived with all their worldly possessions in boxes and blankets rolls. In 1951 the conflict in Korea saw migrants transferred to Bonegilla or resettled. A school was set up in 1949 to teach English so that children could be enrolled in state schools when they were resettled. As many of the women were pregnant, a hospital was also set up and over 250 babies were delivered over the next four years. Among these migrants were the Conrad family, including John and his sister Ilsa who went on to become famous swimmers holding eight individual world records in the late 1950s. In 2001 a migrant memorial was added, and the war memorial returned to Morgan Street in 2004. Uranquinty now has an area which attracts tourists and locals alike and a permanent reminder of the unique history of this village |
