Bodalla Heritage Area

Bodalla boasts two significant churches designed by two of the most prominent architects of the 19th century in the colony.

Thomas Sutcliffe Mort, a leading Sydney businessman, established the Bodalla Estate in 1860 as his country estate. Mort was responsible for revolutionizing the wool industry in Australia, pioneering specialised wool auctions and pastoral finance, developing Mort’s dock, and pioneering the export of frozen meat.

Mort is known as ‘the father of Australian dairying.’ In 1864, he introduced a factory system that replaced the traditional cottage industry, allowing milk from different sources to be manipulated to produce a consistent quality cheese that could compete with English imports. These ideas were adopted by dairy farmers across the country.

Initially, Bodalla’s village was on the river flats, but Mort established a new village on higher ground following floods in the 1860s and 1870s. The Bodalla Estate remained in the Mort family for over a century.

You can visit the All Saints Anglican Church, which was built between 1883 and 1902 as a memorial to Thomas Mort and his first wife, Theresa. The shingled Catholic Church, built in 1886, is also worth a visit. The Bodalla Dairy Shed offers a fascinating insight into the town’s history. Take a stroll through the village and visit the Bodalla Arms Hotel (1910), the bakery (mid-1880s), and the Post Office (1899).