Carcoar, New South Wales
Encyclopedia
Carcoar is a town in the Central West
region of New South Wales
, Australia
, in Blayney Shire
. In 2006, the town had a population of 218 people. It is situated just off the Mid-Western Highway
258 km west of Sydney
and 52 km south-west of Bathurst
and is 720 m above sea-level. It is located in a small green valley, with the township and buildings on both banks of the Belubula River
.
Carcoar was once one of the most important government centres in Western New South Wales. The town has been classified by the National Trust
due to the number of intact 19th-century buildings. Carcoar is a Gundungura word meaning either frog or kookaburra.
Nearby towns are Blayney
, Millthorpe
, Mandurama
, Neville
, Lyndhurst
and Barry
.
classified village. The Royal Hotel Carcoar has been awarded a coveted "Two Schooner" Good Pub Food Guide ranking which is the pub equivalent of the Australian Good Food Guide "Two Hat" rating for restaurants.
Aborigines
. The first European to travel through the area was surveyor George Evans, who, heading south-west from Bathurst in 1815, set up his camp at the head of Coombing Creek.
The first settlers arrived in 1821. The first official land grant, comprising 560 acres (2.3 km²), was issued to Thomas Icely on 26 May 1829. He named it Coombing Park
. In 1838 Thomas Icely requested that a village be established to service his large pastoral estate. On 29 September 1839 Carcoar became just the third settlement
west of the Blue Mountains to be gazetted.
The first allotments in the town were sold in 1840. By 1850 Carcoar was the second most populous town west of the mountains, second in size only to Bathurst
and became a banking and administrative centre for the area. In 1857 the town's public school opened. It has continued to function as a school since that day making it one of the oldest continuous schools in Australia.
The discovery of gold
further to the west in the mid 1860s started the decline of the town. The government began erecting a number of significant public buildings starting in the late 1870s. At this time, Coombing Park was supplying iron ore to the Lithgow steelworks.
(13 km to the North West) in 1874. By the early 1880s the population was in decline. Carcoar was not on the rail line until 1888 when the Blayney-Demondrille Line, which is an extension of the Main Southern Line
, was constructed.
In the 1980s services were suspended between Cowra
and Blayney
(including Carcoar). This section was re-opened by the Lachlan Valley Railway
. The LVR run tourist trains, mainly from Cowra to Blayney and Canowindra
, and have now moved into general freight haulage.
s and bushranger
s who frequented the area and indeed ventured into the town and its surroundings on quite frequent occasion. In the late 1830s renegade convicts and bushrangers were a problem around Carcoar. Martial law and the withdrawal of all convict privileges were threatened in 1841. However, with the capture of the bushranger Paddy Curran and the arrival of a magistrate and more police the trouble abated.
John Peisley born at Bathurst in 1835 was a notorious horse thief in the area in the early 1850s while a teenager. He was eventually sentenced to serve time on Cockatoo Island near Sydney, now called Biloela, where he met Frank Gardiner. A prisoner who served time there was labelled a ‘Cockatoo Hand’. In December 1860 Bathurst-born convict Peisley gained his Ticket of Leave, conditional upon him remaining in the Hunter River Valley area. He absconded to the Abercrombie Ranges where his parents once lived and adopted the career of lone highway robber, ‘sticking up’ travellers in the area south and west of Bathurst. Earlier bushrangers were mostly transported convicts; colony-born Peisley became one of the first true ‘Wild Colonial Boys’. After two months Frank Gardiner joined him and Johnny Gilbert made a gang of three a three weeks later. Peisley was captured late January 1862 and committed for trial by the Carcoar bench for murdering an Innkeeper at Bigga. Within two months he was convicted and hanged at Bathurst.
Two local lads from the Mount Macquarie area (now Neville) long-term friends Mickey Bourke and Johnny Vane attempted to steal a racehorse from the 'Coombing Park' stables, stablehand German Charley tried to stop them and Bourke shot him in the mouth. Charley recovered and Bourke went on to join Ben Hall's gang.
On 13 July 1863 Johnny Gilbert and John O'Meally led by Ben Hall held up the Commercial Bank at Carcoar. A brave teller in the bank fired a shot into the ceiling of the bank, thwarting the robbery. The manager was shot outside as he was returning to the bank and the gang fled without seizing anything. This was significant as it was Australia's first bank robbery, and in broad daylight. In October 1863 John Gilbert, Ben Hall, John O’Meally, and the two Mount Macquarie lads John Vane and Micky Burke, held up a jeweller’s shop and the Sportsman’s Arms Hotel in Bathurst in broad daylight. They exchanged shots with the police as they made their escape down George Street. They returned three days later to rob more stores, houses and hotels on the outskirts of the town. Weeks after Hall’s gang’s raids on Bathurst twenty-year-old Micky Burke’s very short bushranging career ended at Rockley. Holding up Gold Commissioner Keightley he was wounded in the stomach and, believing he was about to die, shot himself in the head. Still alive and in pain one of his friends killed him (the Coroner named Hall).
Later still the Presbyterian Reverend James Adam was held up by Ben Hall who finding that the Reverend made a good impression upon him decided not to rob him.
Frank Gardiner
, previously working in the area when he was granted a ticket of leave as a part of his parole conditions after a six year stint for horse theft, broke his parole and took up cattle thieving.
Ben Hall was shot dead in a hail of gunfire near Forbes in May 1865 and was buried in the Forbes cemetery. In Ben Hall’s short three-year leadership the gang robbed ten mail coaches, held up towns and stations twenty-one times and stole twenty-three racehorses.
deposit. The deposit was located within a cobalt
mine, in the form of copper uranite ore
.
(starring Sam Neill
), Let the Balloon Go, Brides of Christ and Tommy the Kid.
Central West, New South Wales
The Central West region refers to the area west of the Blue Mountains, New South Wales, Australia. It has an area of 63,262 square kilometers....
region of New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, in Blayney Shire
Blayney Shire Council
Blayney Shire Council is a Local Government Area in the Central West region of New South Wales, Australia. It is on the Mid-Western Highway and the Main Western railway line....
. In 2006, the town had a population of 218 people. It is situated just off the Mid-Western Highway
Mid-Western Highway
The Mid-Western Highway starts at Bathurst New South Wales, where it joins with the Great Western Highway over the Blue Mountains from Sydney.It proceeds via Blayney, Carcoar and Cowra. It then heads west through Grenfell to West Wyalong where it crosses the Newell Highway...
258 km west of Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
and 52 km south-west of Bathurst
Bathurst, New South Wales
-CBD and suburbs:Bathurst's CBD is located on William, George, Howick, Russell, and Durham Streets. The CBD is approximately 25 hectares and surrounds two city blocks. Within this block layout is banking, government services, shopping centres, retail shops, a park* and monuments...
and is 720 m above sea-level. It is located in a small green valley, with the township and buildings on both banks of the Belubula River
Belubula River
The Belubula River is a river of the state of New South Wales in Australia. It flows from Vittoria State Forest South of Vittoria to its confluence with the Lachlan River, East of Gooloogong....
.
Carcoar was once one of the most important government centres in Western New South Wales. The town has been classified by the National Trust
National Trust of Australia
The Australian Council of National Trusts is the peak body for community-based, non-government organisations committed to promoting and conserving Australia's indigenous, natural and historic heritage....
due to the number of intact 19th-century buildings. Carcoar is a Gundungura word meaning either frog or kookaburra.
Nearby towns are Blayney
Blayney, New South Wales
Blayney is a farming town and administrative centre with a population of 2,745 in 2006, in the Central West region of New South Wales, Australia...
, Millthorpe
Millthorpe, New South Wales
Millthorpe is a town located between Orange and Blayney in New South Wales, Australia in the Blayney Shire. At the 2006 census, Millthorpe had a population of 725 people....
, Mandurama
Mandurama, New South Wales
Mandurama is a village in the Blayney Shire, New South Wales, Australia. The site of the village and surrounding areas was home to the Wiradjuri people prior to settlement, and the name "Mandurama" is derived from their word for 'water holes'...
, Neville
Neville, New South Wales
Neville is a small village in the south east of New South Wales, Australia, in Blayney Shire. It is 60km south of Bathurst or about 16 km south east of Mandurama. It is 940 metres above sea level and currently has a population of about 100.-History:...
, Lyndhurst
Lyndhurst, New South Wales
Lyndhurst is a small village in New South Wales, Australia in Blayney Shire. It is 4 kilometres west of Mandurama or about 269 km west of Sydney and 63 km south-west of Bathurst just off the Mid-Western Highway New South Wales. Once serving as the major centre for basic goods and needs...
and Barry
Barry, New South Wales
Barry is a small village in the Central West region of New South Wales, Australia, in Blayney Shire. It is situated within an hours driving time from the townships and villages of Blayney, Millthorpe, Mandurama, Neville, Lyndhurst and Carcoar...
.
The Royal Hotel
The Royal Hotel Carcoar is an historic hotel steeped in old world charm and nestled in the quaint main street of Carcoar in NSW, a National TrustNational Trust
National Trust most commonly refers to an organization dedicated to preserving the cultural or environmental treasures of a particular geographic region. They generally operate as private non-profit organizations, although some receive considerable support from their national government...
classified village. The Royal Hotel Carcoar has been awarded a coveted "Two Schooner" Good Pub Food Guide ranking which is the pub equivalent of the Australian Good Food Guide "Two Hat" rating for restaurants.
Carcoar Pottery
Master Potter Louise Purcell created Carcoar Pottery to showcase her unique designs in domestic and ornamental pottery.Carcoar Cup - Annual Running Festival
The first weekend in November will see the staging of the Carcoar Cup Running Festival. Hosting a full marathon, half marathon and a teams marathons. Entrants run from Carcoar to Neville back via Mount Macquarie and raise money for charity.Carcoar Show
An annual agricultural show held on the last weekend of October with judged events ranging from flower arranging to stud cattle and heavy horse snigging and pulling competitions.Australia Day Fair
The annual festival for Australia Day swells the population of Carcoar to over 3000. The streets are lined with stalls. There are stage coach rides, entertainment, refreshments and historical reenactment of local history.Settlers
The original occupants were probably the WiradjuriWiradjuri
The Wiradjuri are an Indigenous Australian group of central New South Wales.In the 21st century, major Wiradjuri groups live in Condobolin, Peak Hill, Narrandera and Griffith...
Aborigines
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
. The first European to travel through the area was surveyor George Evans, who, heading south-west from Bathurst in 1815, set up his camp at the head of Coombing Creek.
The first settlers arrived in 1821. The first official land grant, comprising 560 acres (2.3 km²), was issued to Thomas Icely on 26 May 1829. He named it Coombing Park
Coombing Park
Coombing Park is a farming property situated in western New South Wales just off the Mid Western Highway about 5 km west of Carcoar, 260 km west of Sydney and 54 km south-west of Bathurst. The property is of considerable note because of its relationship with convicts, bushrangers and the Cobb & Co...
. In 1838 Thomas Icely requested that a village be established to service his large pastoral estate. On 29 September 1839 Carcoar became just the third settlement
Town
A town is a human settlement larger than a village but smaller than a city. The size a settlement must be in order to be called a "town" varies considerably in different parts of the world, so that, for example, many American "small towns" seem to British people to be no more than villages, while...
west of the Blue Mountains to be gazetted.
The first allotments in the town were sold in 1840. By 1850 Carcoar was the second most populous town west of the mountains, second in size only to Bathurst
Bathurst, New South Wales
-CBD and suburbs:Bathurst's CBD is located on William, George, Howick, Russell, and Durham Streets. The CBD is approximately 25 hectares and surrounds two city blocks. Within this block layout is banking, government services, shopping centres, retail shops, a park* and monuments...
and became a banking and administrative centre for the area. In 1857 the town's public school opened. It has continued to function as a school since that day making it one of the oldest continuous schools in Australia.
The discovery of gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
further to the west in the mid 1860s started the decline of the town. The government began erecting a number of significant public buildings starting in the late 1870s. At this time, Coombing Park was supplying iron ore to the Lithgow steelworks.
Railways
The location of the town in the bottom of a steep valley counted against it for railway construction. Another blow came to the town when the railway went to BlayneyBlayney, New South Wales
Blayney is a farming town and administrative centre with a population of 2,745 in 2006, in the Central West region of New South Wales, Australia...
(13 km to the North West) in 1874. By the early 1880s the population was in decline. Carcoar was not on the rail line until 1888 when the Blayney-Demondrille Line, which is an extension of the Main Southern Line
Main Southern railway line, New South Wales
The Main Southern Railway is a major railway in New South Wales, Australia. It runs through the Southern Highlands, Southern Tablelands, South West Slopes and the Riverina regions.- Description of route :...
, was constructed.
In the 1980s services were suspended between Cowra
Cowra, New South Wales
Cowra is a town in the Central West region of New South Wales, Australia in the Cowra Shire. It is located on the Mid-Western Highway, 317 kilometres west of Sydney on the banks of the Lachlan River at an altitude of 310 metres above sea level. At the 2006 census Cowra had a population of 8,430...
and Blayney
Blayney, New South Wales
Blayney is a farming town and administrative centre with a population of 2,745 in 2006, in the Central West region of New South Wales, Australia...
(including Carcoar). This section was re-opened by the Lachlan Valley Railway
Lachlan Valley Railway
The Lachlan Valley Railway Society Cooperative Limited is a non-profit rail preservation society based in the NSW Central Western town of Cowra, New South Wales, Australia. The museum's ex-NSWGR fleet ranges from their operational steam and diesel locomotives, to the fleet of heritage passenger...
. The LVR run tourist trains, mainly from Cowra to Blayney and Canowindra
Canowindra, New South Wales
Canowindra is an historic township located near Cowra in the central west of New South Wales, Australia in Cabonne Shire. Canowindra is on the Belubula River. The curving main street, Gaskill Street, is partly an urban conservation area. At the 2006 census, Canowindra had a population of 1,499...
, and have now moved into general freight haulage.
Convicts and bushrangers
Carcoar's population growth in the mid-19th century also brought forth problems with the local renegade convictConvict
A convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison", sometimes referred to in slang as simply a "con". Convicts are often called prisoners or inmates. Persons convicted and sentenced to non-custodial sentences often are not termed...
s and bushranger
Bushranger
Bushrangers, or bush rangers, originally referred to runaway convicts in the early years of the British settlement of Australia who had the survival skills necessary to use the Australian bush as a refuge to hide from the authorities...
s who frequented the area and indeed ventured into the town and its surroundings on quite frequent occasion. In the late 1830s renegade convicts and bushrangers were a problem around Carcoar. Martial law and the withdrawal of all convict privileges were threatened in 1841. However, with the capture of the bushranger Paddy Curran and the arrival of a magistrate and more police the trouble abated.
John Peisley born at Bathurst in 1835 was a notorious horse thief in the area in the early 1850s while a teenager. He was eventually sentenced to serve time on Cockatoo Island near Sydney, now called Biloela, where he met Frank Gardiner. A prisoner who served time there was labelled a ‘Cockatoo Hand’. In December 1860 Bathurst-born convict Peisley gained his Ticket of Leave, conditional upon him remaining in the Hunter River Valley area. He absconded to the Abercrombie Ranges where his parents once lived and adopted the career of lone highway robber, ‘sticking up’ travellers in the area south and west of Bathurst. Earlier bushrangers were mostly transported convicts; colony-born Peisley became one of the first true ‘Wild Colonial Boys’. After two months Frank Gardiner joined him and Johnny Gilbert made a gang of three a three weeks later. Peisley was captured late January 1862 and committed for trial by the Carcoar bench for murdering an Innkeeper at Bigga. Within two months he was convicted and hanged at Bathurst.
Two local lads from the Mount Macquarie area (now Neville) long-term friends Mickey Bourke and Johnny Vane attempted to steal a racehorse from the 'Coombing Park' stables, stablehand German Charley tried to stop them and Bourke shot him in the mouth. Charley recovered and Bourke went on to join Ben Hall's gang.
On 13 July 1863 Johnny Gilbert and John O'Meally led by Ben Hall held up the Commercial Bank at Carcoar. A brave teller in the bank fired a shot into the ceiling of the bank, thwarting the robbery. The manager was shot outside as he was returning to the bank and the gang fled without seizing anything. This was significant as it was Australia's first bank robbery, and in broad daylight. In October 1863 John Gilbert, Ben Hall, John O’Meally, and the two Mount Macquarie lads John Vane and Micky Burke, held up a jeweller’s shop and the Sportsman’s Arms Hotel in Bathurst in broad daylight. They exchanged shots with the police as they made their escape down George Street. They returned three days later to rob more stores, houses and hotels on the outskirts of the town. Weeks after Hall’s gang’s raids on Bathurst twenty-year-old Micky Burke’s very short bushranging career ended at Rockley. Holding up Gold Commissioner Keightley he was wounded in the stomach and, believing he was about to die, shot himself in the head. Still alive and in pain one of his friends killed him (the Coroner named Hall).
Later still the Presbyterian Reverend James Adam was held up by Ben Hall who finding that the Reverend made a good impression upon him decided not to rob him.
Frank Gardiner
Frank Gardiner
Frank Gardiner was a noted Australian bushranger of the 19th century. He was born in Scotland about 1827 and migrated from to Australia as a child with his parents in 1834,. His real name was Francis Christie, though he often used one of several other aliases including Gardiner, Clarke or Christie...
, previously working in the area when he was granted a ticket of leave as a part of his parole conditions after a six year stint for horse theft, broke his parole and took up cattle thieving.
Ben Hall was shot dead in a hail of gunfire near Forbes in May 1865 and was buried in the Forbes cemetery. In Ben Hall’s short three-year leadership the gang robbed ten mail coaches, held up towns and stations twenty-one times and stole twenty-three racehorses.
Mining
Carcoar was the sight of Australia's first documented uraniumUranium
Uranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table, with atomic number 92. It is assigned the chemical symbol U. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons...
deposit. The deposit was located within a cobalt
Cobalt
Cobalt is a chemical element with symbol Co and atomic number 27. It is found naturally only in chemically combined form. The free element, produced by reductive smelting, is a hard, lustrous, silver-gray metal....
mine, in the form of copper uranite ore
Ore
An ore is a type of rock that contains minerals with important elements including metals. The ores are extracted through mining; these are then refined to extract the valuable element....
.
Film and television
In recent years the town has been used as a location for numerous film and television productions including JessicaJessica (Mini Series)
Jessica is an Australian television miniseries originally broadcast by the Ten Network in 2004. It is a heart-rending story of one woman's remarkable fight for justice against enormous odds...
(starring Sam Neill
Sam Neill
Nigel John Dermot "Sam" Neill, DCNZM, OBE is a New Zealand actor. He is well known for his starring role as paleontologist Dr Alan Grant in Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III....
), Let the Balloon Go, Brides of Christ and Tommy the Kid.
Notable residents
- Kurt FearnleyKurt FearnleyKurt Fearnley OAM is an Australian wheelchair racer, who competes at the Olympic level. At the 2004 Olympic Games, he finished 5th in the demonstration sport of Men's 1500m wheelchair...
, wheelchair athletics world champion who also crawled the 96km Kokoda Trail in November 2009.