Gunning was once a very noisy town where every truck travelling between Sydney and Melbourne rumbled down the main street. It is a small rural town located 53 km west of Goulburn, just off the Hume Freeway, and is 246 km south-west of Sydney. It produces principally sheep, wool and cattle. Noted colonial explorer Hamilton Hume had established a sheep property near Gunning by 1821, three years after he and James Meehan became the first Europeans to set foot on the Goulburn Plains. Plans for a town were approved in 1838. Cooper's Store was in existence by 1840 when Hume's brother John Kennedy Hume was shot dead by members of the Whitton gang while he was trying to help people who had been bailed up at the store. He had a wife and nine children. By 1848 the town had 95 residents, the store and an hotel. The railway arrived in 1875 and Gunning became a busy terminus for some time. Today, having been by-passed, it is sleepy and attractive.