By reason of its situation-23 miles southeasterly from Cooma, where it is the connecting point with roads that lead east to the coast and south to Bombala, and thence via Delegate to Victoria, Nimmitabel has loomed largely in the, history of Manaro. The name of the town was in the earlier days "Nimithybale," "Nimity Belle," or Nimmitabel. The second was the most generally used until about twenty years ago. Mr. John Jardine, who has a large knowledge of the locality, states that the name "Nimmitabel" is a, contraction, variation, or derivative of an ordinary English word -"Inimitable." This is, however, open to much question. Long before the English language was born the word NimittiBel was, according to the British Encyclopaedia. known to both Herodotus and Ctesias, as the name of the Salkhu or outwork of the double row of high walls enclosing the ancient city of Babylon which latter was built in the form of a square on both sides of the River Euphrates. "Nimmitabel" is also an aboriginal word meaning "the place where many waters start," or "divide," and local tradition is that the first Hotel at Nimmitabel, known as the "Nimmitabel Inn," was so called because the waters from one pitch of the roof, upon reaching the ground, ran east to the coast and from the other west through the table-land; thus would be created the starting place" or "division of the waters." When settlement first took place at Nimmitabel cannot be determined, but it was seemingly in the late thirties or early forties. One of the oldest of Nimmitabel residents is Mr. William Hayes who, born in Queanbeyan in 1841, has resided at George's Gully since, as an infant, he was taken there by his parents.

In 1833 John Stanton was with Dr. Reid at the Flats (Bunyan), and in May, 1857, his application for a renewal of the license of the Nimmitable Inn, which he had been conducting for some years, was refused on account of the unfitness and disrepair of the premises. In 1848, an hotel which had once been kept by Joseph Ward at Rock Flat, had fallen into ruins, and, as this would be on the road from Cooma to Bombala, which was known in the forties, it is reasonable to assume settlement of some sort was in existence at this time at Nimmitabel, between which place and Cooma the Rock Flat Inn was a half-way house.

As is the case with other Manaro settlements, the early days of Nimmitabel are linked up with those of the various runholders.

In 1848 the lessees of runs included Thomas Roberts (Curry Flat, 16,000 ac.); Dugal McDonald (Nimitybelle, 8,000 ac.), Hugh O'Hara (probably O'Hare), (Nimitybelle, 8,000 ac.); William Scott (Nimitybelle, 36 square rniles); William Stanton (Nimithybale, 4,000 ac.); Morgan Thornton (Square Range, 10,240 ac.); Gilbert Warren (Greenland, 6,400 ac.); D. Rankin (Native Dog Flat, 12,000 ac.); John Williams (Head of Curry Flat, 10,240 ac.); John Tooth, who transferred to Bryce Reid (Nimity Bell, 18,000 ac.); Patrick Malady (Peak Station, 10,240 ac.). In addition to these, Mr. Hayes states Colonel Mackenzie was the owner of "Summer Hill," which he sold to Daniel Driscoll, by whose son, John, it was later held. Francis Cooper owned Boco Run, and sold to Silk, and Norris was at one time a purchaser of Curry Flat.

The growth of the village between 1854 and 1860 can to some extent be gauged by a reference to the "Official and judicial" section of this booklet, wherein records are given of the licenses from time to time granted to publicans, storekeepers, and auctioneers at Nimmitabel.

It has already been recorded elsewhere that St. Andrew's Church was started in 1856. The stone-work of this structure was executed by two men named Beileiter, and a third, John Geldmacher, the latter of whom did the wood-work, and who at his death left moneys to be applied in the establishment of a cottage hospital.

As was the case with other places the Land Act of 1861 carried with it increasing and closer settlement, and the opening up of a road to the coast down the Brown Mountain brought to Nimmitabel greater expansion. Shortly after 1860 Mr. William Jardine acquired Curry Flat and the property has remained in the possession of the family ever since. A land-mark in the village is the old mill built by John Geldmacher. This was originally intended as a flour mill, to be wind driven, but owing to the many protests by horse-owners the project was abandoned. It was later worked by horse-power, and later again used as a timber mill.

Picks, shovels and horse drawn carts were the order of the day. Workers take a break from the Nimmitabel railway cutting in 1910

Nimmitabel in April, 1912, had an extension of the railway from Cooma officially opened and the railway figures are given elsewhere.

For many years a Pastoral and Agricultural Show has been an annual function. Race meetings are regularly held and the town has a Bush Nursing Association.

End