was dismantled in 1879." On 20 September 1870, the J.H.P., then owned by Edward Warby, journeyed up the Murrumbidgee from Wagga to Gundagai without incident. Photographs of Gundagai Between 1899 and 1900, Dr Louis Gabriel, took up photography, photographing townlife in the period up to around 1906, when his responsibilities for the new hospital took precedence. He is considered one of Australia's best early documentary photographers, partly for his observant, astute and dispassionate approach. However, they are sometimes highly stylised by integrating his and others shadows in the image, or by making full use of the radical perspective of a wide-angle lens. The question of how and why his images are outstanding is central to the novel 'Belonging' written by G McDougall. The equally interesting story of how Gabriel's glass-plate negatives came into the National Library's possession is found in the NLA's 'Gundagai Album'. The negatives were preserved and presented to the National Library of Australia after his death and a selection was published in 1976 as a Gundagai Album. Demographics In 1911 the total population of Gundagai Shire was 1,921. It changed little in the course of the twentieth century being 2,308 at the time of the 1981 census and 1,998 at the 2006 census. At the 2016 census, Gundagai recorded a population of 1,925. 85.6% were born in Australia and 90.4% spoke only English at home. The most common ancestries in Gundagai were Australian 38.6%, English 33.2%, Irish 9.8% and Scottish 4.3%. The most common responses for religion were Anglican 39.8%, Catholic 32.5% and no religion 11.8%. Geography Gundagai is an inland town with an elevation of . Almost all of the shire is located in the South West Slopes bio-region and is part of the Riverina agricultural region. The eastern part of the shire is considered part of the South Eastern Highlands bioregion. North Gundagai is situated on top of significant, Jindalee Group, Cambrian period geology from which the chrysotile asbestos bearing Gundagai serpentinite originates also indicating prehistoric links to the Gondwana supercontinent. The Shire has been extensively cleared for agriculture and more than 80% of the area is used for dryland cropping and grazing. Less than 1% of the shire is managed for conservation. There are few remaining examples of the original vegetation cover. Gundagai shire is primarily rural, with a small population. Eighty per cent of the shire's population live in the town of Gundagai.