Murrurundi

Murrurundi is a rural town located in the Upper Hunter Shire, in the Upper Hunter region of New South Wales, Australia.Murrurundi is situated northwest by road from Newcastle and north from Sydney. At the the town had a population of 847 people. The town is almost completely surrounded by mountains of the Liverpool Range, and is located on the Pages River, a tributary of the Hunter River.OverviewPrior to European settlement, the Murrurundi district was home to the Wanaruah and possibly the Kamilaroi Aboriginal people. European settlement of the area began in the 1820s, and the town itself was established by the New South Wales government in 1840. In the same year, a local landholder, Thomas Haydon, established an adjacent private township called Haydonton. In 1913, the two neighbouring settlements were merged to create the modern-day town of Murrurundi.The name "Murrurundi" is often erroneously thought to come from an Aboriginal word meaning "nestling in the valley". It does in fact mean "five fingers", a representation of the rock formation visible at the northern end of the township.Benjamin Hall, father of bushranger Ben Hall had a small farm in a valley near Murrurundi in 1839. He opened a butcher's shop at Haydonton in 1842. Ben Hall lived at Murrurundi until the age of 13.