Moree Hotels

Moree is a large town in Moree Plains Shire in northern New South Wales, Australia. It is located on the banks of the Mehi River in the centre of the rich black-soil plains. Moree is a major agricultural centre, noted for its part in the Australian cotton growing industry which was established there in the early 1960s. The town is located at the junction of the Newell Highway and Gwydir Highway and can be reached by daily train and air services from Sydney. It is situated in the Shire of Moree Plains. Like many towns and cities in Australia, Moree shares its name with a much smaller community in Northern Ireland Moree County Tyrone. At the 2001 census, Moree had a population of 9,247 declining to 8,083 in 2006. Moree is home to artesian hot spring baths which are famous for their reputed healing qualities and was a focal point of 'freedom-ride' protests against racial segregation in the 1960s c. The Kamilaroi people, whose descendants are still in the town, were the early inhabitants of the area. Major Sir Thomas Mitchell went to the district at the request of the acting governor after the recapture of escaped convict George Clarke who told of a great river called the Kindur in 1832. Clarke had been living in the area to the south with the Kamilaroi from 1826-1831. Squatters soon followed in Mitchell's wake establishing pastoral runs, among which was 'Moree' (1844), from a Kamilaroi term believed to mean either 'long waterhole' or 'rising sun'. In 1851 James and Mary Brand arrived and built a general store on the banks of the river in 1852. A post office was added the following year. The family sold up and moved to the Hunter Valley in 1857 but James died in 1858 leaving Mary with six children so she returned opened another business and in 1861 she opened the town's first inn. Moree was gazetted as a town in 1862 with land sales proceeding that year. A court of petty sessions was established in 1863 and was followed by a severe flood in 1864. The first constable arrived and a police station was set up in 1865. The first church (Wesleyan) was built in 1867 when the town had a population of 43.