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The Boundaries

I didn't think the boundary of the Monaro was any different then than it is now. I believed that it took in the tableland or plateau bounded by the mountains in the east, south and west. I thought that its northern boundary would be just north of Bredbo but:
Mitchell suggests that...."Monaro originally included the whole of the southern tablelands from Michelago to Gippsland and across to Kiandra....... in more recent years (1926) it has generally been recognised as comprising that network of towns and villages.....that took in Michelago, Bredbo, Umeralla (Chakola), Cooma, Nimmitabel, Berridale, Dalgety, Jindabyne, Adaminaby and Kiandra, with a large trace of country between Cooma, Braidwood and Queenbeyan. Bombala and its associated towns may be considered to constitute a separate area under the name of Southern Monaro"

Following is an extract from William Henry Wells' 1848 Geographical Dictionary or Gazetteer of the Australian Colonies: 
MANAROO, MENAROO (Or Monaroo); One of the squatting districts of NSW, adjacent to the counties of  St Vincent and Murray, keeping the right bank of the Murrumbidgee, but extending over the whole district known by the name of the Menaroo plains; it contains 1916 inhabitants, viz.: -1321 males and 595 females, with 185) houses. The stock of the district is reckoned at 4544 horses, 113,291 head of horned cattle, 623 pigs, and 307,596 sheep. This country, known as Brisbane Downs, is called by the natives Moneroo, it is not exactly a plain as generally denominated, but is a series of gentle undulations, the soil rich and fertile, and the land gently diversified with hill and dale lightly timbered, and remarkably well watered. The level of the plains is an elevated tableland or terrace parallel to the coast, and affording a firm basis for the Snowy Mountains, Australian Alps, or the Great Warragong chain to spring from. These plains form a square of about 100 miles in extent, and present a country well fitted in every respect for the residence and sustenance of civilized man. The district of Menaroo contains a larger extent of land available, whether for pasture or agriculture, than the whole island of Tasmania. This district has for its outlet the convenient and safe harbour of Twofold Bay, situated in the county of Auckland, about 25 miles to the northward of Cape Howe. The plains of Menaroo, which are at least from 2000 to 3000 feet above the level of the sea, and of which, in winter, the climate is exceedingly cold, is now occupied by a daily increasing multitude of squatters. This country was discovered by Captain Currie, R.N., in 1823, in the course of an expedition to the southward, and named by him in honor of the Governor "Brisbane Downs," now called Menaroo. The rivers watering this district are the Deua,
Shoalhaven, Queanbeyan, Murray, Murrumbidgee, and Mitta Mitta. The most conspicuous mountains are the Australian Alps, the highest elevation of which is Mount Kosciusko, Mount Garangura, Coruncal, Dargal, Mount Murray: Mount Dromedary, on the sea coast, is 3000 feet high. - Steve Painter