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Wagga Wagga (pronounced Wogga Wogga) is a city in New South Wales, Australia. Lying on the Murrumbidgee River, Wagga Wagga is the state's largest inland city as well as being an important agricultural, military, educational and transport hub. The population in 2003 was around 57,000. It is home to 22 primary schools, 8 secondary schools a regional TAFE and one of the four main campuses of Charles Sturt University, as well as Wagga Base Hospital, the Kapooka Army base and a separate RAAF base.

Wagga is a Wiradjuri Aboriginal word meaning i and to create the plural, the Wiradjuri repeat the word. Thus 'Wagga Wagga' translates as 'the place of many crows'. The main shopping streets of Wagga Wagga are Baylis and Fitzmaurice Streets. Wagga Wagga has a large catchment population as it is the administrative centre of the Riverina. Wagga Wagga draws visitors from towns in the Riverina and Southwest Slopes such as Leeton, Griffith, Narrandera, Deniliquin, Coleambally, Junee, The Rock and Tumut

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The original Aboriginal inhabitants of the Wagga Wagga region were the Wiradjuri people. The first white people to travel over the site of present day Wagga Wagga were Captain Charles Sturt and his men in 1829.

Settlers started arriving in the Wagga Wagga area soon after Charles Sturt's expedition and by 1831 there were people living in the area. During this time the Wagga Wagga 'run' was established on the south bank of the Murrumbidgee River whilst on the north bank the Eunonyhareenyha 'run' was established. By 23 November 1849 when the settlement was gazetted as a village, a number of buildings had been erected on the Wagga Wagga 'run', including a hotel, blacksmith's shop, courthouse and lock-up.

In the 19th century Wagga Wagga briefly gained international notoriety as the home of Roger Orton, known to history as the Tichborne claimant, who owned a butchery in the town. Wagga's Museum of the Riverina is the home to an important collection of Tichborne memorabilia, including a set of four rare plaster figurines depicting characters from the trial, donated by the Mussared family of Adelaide, descendants of William Gibbs, the lawyer who launched the claim on behalf of Orton. The museum also owns a complete set of hard-bound court tran (painted in 1874 by Nathan Hughes and once famously described as "a monstrosity"), which hangs in the city's council chambers. The Wagga City Library collection also includes a letter written by Orton in 1873.

The "Wagga Effect" is a term that has been used frequently in the Australian media to describe the disproportionately large number of elite sportsmen and women that originate from the town. It is speculated that the phenomenon may arise in rural areas where the population is large enough to sustain the presence of a large number of sporting codes, but small enough to ensure that talented individuals are exposed to adult-level competition at an earlier age.

Wagga is located on the Murrumbidgee River.

Wagga is 475 kilometres south-west of Sydney, 240 kilometres from Canberra and 440 kilometres from Melbourne. The city is on the Sturt Highway and not on the main Sydney-Melbourne Hume highway. The city is on the main Sydney-Melbourne railway line and is approximately half way between the two major cities.

The city of Wagga Wagga provides the central focus for a large catchment region of rural New South Wales and is the centre of administration for the Riverina region.

The Murrumbidgee River has not been visible to the town since the introduction of high levee banks to prevent flood damage. The Wollundry Lagoon is the water focus of the town and has been a key element in the development and separation of the south (older) and north (newer) parts of the town.

Wagga attracts people from all over south western New South Wales to its shopping facilities. Wagga's shopping centres include Wagga Wagga Marketplace and Sturt Mall in the central business district and the suburban shopping centres such as the new South City Shopping Centre in Glenfield Park, the Tolland Shopping Centre, Kooringal Mall in Kooringal and Turvey Tops in Mount Austin. Wagga also has a large HomeBase located on the Sturt Highway. Wagga's central business district, with both Baylis and Fitzmaurice Streets and other surrounding streets, offers people a wide range of specialty stores including national chains such as Myer and Target.

Wagga Wagga Gold Cup - Australia's second oldest horse race held in the first week of May every year[2][3]Wagga Wagga Jazz Festival - first held in 1995, the most recent festival was in September 2005[4][5]Unsound - Wagga Space Program's festival of experimental music. Unsound06 will take place in November 2006[6]

The Australian fast food, the Chiko Roll was first sold in 1951 at the Wagga Wagga show.

The Bee Gees wrote "Morning of My Life" at the Wagga Police Boys Club (renamed the Wagga Police and Community Youth Club).

In the book and movie Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Gilderoy Lockhart claimed to have defeated the Wagga Wagga Werewolf.

Former Parramatta Eels halfback and Rugby League legend, Peter Sterling, was born and raised in Wagga Wagga before moving to Sydney where he began playing for the Parramatta Eels in 1978.