March 15 marks 150 years since Wagga was founded as a standalone municipal area.
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On that date in 1870, the town was declared a 'borough', and given the right to form its own council area. But it was far from the first in the area to seek that recogition.
The Municipalities Act of 1867 had given rise to many towns around NSW petitioning for township.
"There would have been bigger places even around here," said Wayne Doubleday, manager at the CSU Regional Archives.
"Hay, Deniliquin, Goulburn and Yass were all bigger at that stage.
"There was always the Albury and Wagga competition, and Albury had gotten their title in 1859."
George Forsyth, Wagga's first leader
With the town's gazetting formally approved, the first town council was formed in June 1870, with George Forsyth elected as the first mayor.
Mr Forsyth was one of nine aldermen from the city's three wards - north, south and central - called to serve during June 11th, 1870 general election.
"He received the highest votes of any candidate and was re-elected four times, at the time I think the elections for mayor were held every year," Wayne Doubleday, manager of the CSU Regional Archives.
"The only time he didn't win it was in 1875, because that's when he didn't run for it."
Prior to entering the civic life, Mr Forsyth had been a man with huge involvement in the town's industries.
"He was involved in a lot of different fields, he was a stock and station agent and from memory he was one of only two in Wagga by the 1860s," Mr Doubleday said.
"By about 1869 he'd moved into wholesale distribution and owned a store on Kincaid Street."
He was born in 1817 England, the son of a cobbler, before the family immigrated to Sydney in the early 1840s.
Moving south west, he and his brother Thomas set up a store near Tarcutta Creek, before Mr Forsyth married Margaret Anne Broughton, the daughter of a bishop in 1851, and moved to Wagga in 1855.
At the time of his arrival in Wagga, there were just 300 people living in the district. Over the next 20 years of his residence, it would boom to a thriving population of 3000.
Mr Forsyth profited extraordinarily from the gold rush boom as both a stock agent and a store owner. He capitalised greatly on the thousands of stock passing through Wagga en route to markets in Melbourne.
As a precursor to his time as an alderman, Mr Forsyth spent 20 years setting up schools, hospitals, mechanics' unions and the Presbyterian Church in Wagga.
The founding director of the Wagga Bridge Co, he was responsible for setting up a toll bridge over the Murrumbidgee in 1862.
After his successful career in politics, Mr Forsyth retired to Yarrangobilly before he travelled to Kempsey died of suspected heart disease in 1887.
Frederick Tompson 'Father of Wagga'
Known in history as 'the father of Wagga' Frederick Anslow Tompson was the only man who could eclipse George Forsyth in greatness.
One of the first to call Wagga home, as a young man, Mr Tompson followed his convict father Charles Tompson to the town in 1832.
A stock agent in his early years, Mr Tompson ran the successful 'Eunonyhareenyha' 20-acre lot with the help of 17 free men, 11 convicts, three ticket of leave holders, and two Indigenous boys. It was the largest lot in the area at the time.
"These men moved around and changed jobs a lot," Mr Doubleday said, of the numerous career-reinventions Mr Tompson would have throughout his 50 years in Wagga.
Mr Tompson became a man of many firsts in Wagga. In 1847, he was made the first clerk of petty sessions inside Wagga Court, just months after petitioning for the role to be added.
In January 1849, Mr Tompson took on the role of Wagga's first postmaster.
"In 1858, George Forsyth succeeded Tompson as the postmaster, which was obviously what you had to do to become anyone at the time," Mr Doubleday said.
In 1872, he also became the city's coroner.
But perhaps his greatest contribution to civic life came when he offered his home - 'Waterview', near to where Romano's now stands - as the first council meeting place until 1881.
Despite his enormous city involvement, he never did seek election to the alderman council. After suffering some financial hardship, he retired from all civic duties in 1882 and re-located to Sydney.
He died of heart disease on May 8, 1884. An obituary in The Daily Advertiser days after his death reads described Tompson as "...justly termed one of the founders of the town and...was during his long career here, one of the most useful and estimable citizens of whom the community could boast."