One of the most interesting stories we’ve ever heard is the tale of the tunnels that Deniliquin apparently has or had.
Most people are probably thinking ‘What Tunnels?’ but quite a number of locals are insistent that there were tunnels and that they go for a long distance.
The cellars of a number of Deniliquin businesses are said to have had sealed up entrances/exits in their walls so people could have hopped from one business to another without needing to go above ground.
Reports currently suggest that part of the system ran from the old Dublin Hotel and goes along to St George and then goes down Cressy Street and ends up at Target right before the Jewellers.
Below are comments from locals when asked about the tunnels.
“Tunnel under the Target building as well, it has an access door under the carpet over on the side of the shop closest to the Jewellers”
“Yes. They run underneath the shops in Napier St and Cressy St. I was told that in the 1800’s the tunnels were a security measure against bushrangers to carry the day’s cash takings to the bank.”
“Yes they exist, run in Napier St also. Have seen and been in one.”
“There is also the one under the Exchange that connects to the Coach House”
“I’ve even heard that there’s a tunnel underneath the road from the Feddy linking it to the other tunnel.”
“When they knocked the blue sea cafe down where current black cat is they filled the tunnel underneath of bricks.”
“When my Greek friends were building their fruit shop in Cressy St, they uncovered the remains of one.”
The above was shown when our sister site Deniliquin News Service looked into the matter, it was taken by Janine Luz Clarke who said ‘The manhole is behind the front door. There are stairs leading up into the shop next door, and the tunnel you can see. It has a dirt floor.
Another says that the entrance of tunnels was where Centrelink is now and crossed to the Federal Hotel, it branched off to go as far as Black Cat and the St George Bank.
As indicated above there is said to be a connection between the Exchange Hotel and the Coach House though the configuration is unknown, maybe somebody knows this particular wall and could give more details.
Let’s say that tunnels exist, were they for protection from Bushrangers and later expanded for war purposes or avoiding the police who were picking off illegal customers on the surface by the score particularly on Sundays.
What if the supposed tunnels are really cellars all connected up to each other and the entrances was where the hotels got their stocks brought in from?
Searches through trove have not revealed any information and locals reporting about tunnels never described the height and width of what they saw or what has been bricked up, could a person have strolled through these tunnels? Did they have to crawl? What held them up?
As of May 2026, we cannot conclusively state that the tunnels are fact or local legend, we may have to wait a very long time until an opportunity arises to examine mentioned locations for any sign of a blocked passage and maybe probe for a tunnel.
Deni History 