Nyngan [pr: ning-g'n] is a town in the central west 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...

. It is located in the Bogan Shire Local Government Area. At the 2006 census

Census in Australia

The Australian census is administered once every five years by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The most recent census was conducted on 9 August 2011; the next will be conducted in 2016. Prior to the introduction of regular censuses in 1961, they had also been run in 1901, 1911, 1921, 1933,...

, Nyngan had a population of 1,975 people. Nyngan is situated on the Bogan River

Bogan River

The Bogan River is an inland river in the central west of New South Wales, Australia.This river rises at Goonumbla, 19 kilometres north-west of Parkes and flows in a generally north-north-westerly direction past Tottenham, Peak Hill and through Nyngan. The Bogan River is about 590 km in length...

 between Narromine

Narromine, New South Wales

Narromine is a town located about 40 kilometres west of Dubbo in the Orana region of New South Wales, Australia. It is the centre of Narromine Shire. At the 2006 census, Narromine had a population of 3,599 people...

 and Bourke

Bourke, New South Wales

-Transportation:Bourke can be reached by the Mitchell Highway, with additional sealed roads from town to the north , east and south . The town is also served by Bourke Airport and has Countrylink bus service to other regional centres, like Dubbo...

, on the junction of the Mitchell Highway

Mitchell Highway

The Mitchell Highway is a major rural highway in Australia, travelling through central and northern New South Wales and south central Queensland. The highway starts from its northern end in Queensland with the Landsborough Highway near Augathella and continues south to Charleville and Cunnamulla...

 and Barrier Highway

Barrier Highway

The Barrier Highway is a highway in New South Wales and South Australia signposted as in South Australia and in New South Wales, Australia.The Barrier Highway starts at Nyngan where it joins the Mitchell Highway. It heads west past Hermidale and Boppy Mountain to Cobar, a mining town. It then...

, 583 km north-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...

. The Barrier Highway starts at Nyngan, and runs west to Cobar

Cobar, New South Wales

-Notable people:*Nik Kosef, former rugby league player for the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles, 1996 premiership player, NSW & Australia representative*Ernie Toshack, cricketer, member of Bradman's Invincibles* Jemma Heather, state representative 4 times....

 and on through Wilcannia

Wilcannia, New South Wales

Wilcannia is a small town located within the Central Darling Shire in north western New South Wales, Australia. This was the third largest inland port in the country during the great river boat era of the mid-19th century. At the 2006 census, Wilcannia had a population of 596.- Geography...

 and Broken Hill

Broken Hill, New South Wales

-Geology:Broken Hill's massive orebody, which formed about 1,800 million years ago, has proved to be among the world's largest silver-lead-zinc mineral deposits. The orebody is shaped like a boomerang plunging into the earth at its ends and outcropping in the centre. The protruding tip of the...

 into South Australia

South Australia

South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...

.

It is on the Main Western railway line

Main Western railway line, New South Wales

The Main Western Railway is a major railway in New South Wales, Australia. It runs through the Blue Mountains, Central West, North West Slopes and the Far West regions.- Description of route :...

 of New South Wales but is no longer served by passenger trains. The line remains open to freight traffic.

History

The district was originally inhabited by the Ngiyambaa

Ngiyambaa language

The Ngiyambaa language is a Pama–Nyungan language of the Wiradhuric subgroup. It was the traditional language of the Wangaaybuwan and Wayilwan peoples of New South Wales, Australia, but is now moribund; according to Donaldson by the 1970s there were only about ten people fluent in Wangaaybuwan,...

 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....

. Thomas Mitchell explored the Bogan River in 1835, camping on the future townsite. He recorded the local Aboriginal word nyingan, said to mean 'long pond of water', though other meanings have been put forward, such as mussel or crayfish.. Squatters had settled in Mitchell's wake before he had begun his return journey.

The 1990 Nyngan floods

In April 1990, unusually heavy rains caused major flooding in the town, despite a massive effort by local people to build levee walls using sandbags. With the town almost completely flooded, all the residents had to be evacuated by helicopter from the railway station, the highest point of the town, which was not flooded. Army helicopters, TV news helicopters and private helicopters all cooperated in the airlift. The total damage amounted to $50 million.

The airlift is commemorated by an Army helicopter placed outside of the Nyngan Railway Station. The helicopter took only a few minutes to arrive.

Ironically, the flood damage to railway tracks provided the justification to withdraw passenger railway services to Nyngan and the railway station is now a museum.