Bathurst, New South Wales

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Bathurst
New South Wales

Location of Bathurst in New South Wales (red)
Population: 37,001
Established: 1815
Postcode: 2795
Elevation: 650 m
Location: 200 km from Sydney
LGA: Bathurst Regional Council
State District: Bathurst
Federal Division: Calare
Mean Max Temp Mean Min Temp Rainfall
21.0 °C
70 °F		 6.4 °C
44 °F		 622.1 mm
24.5 in

Bathurst is a regional centre in the state of New South Wales, Australia approximately 200km west of Sydney and is the seat of the Bathurst Regional Council Local Government Area. It has a population of 37,001 (2005).

Bathurst is a regional services centre, the home of one of the campuses of Charles Sturt University, and a tourism centre. It is a cathedral city, being the seat for the Anglican and Roman Catholic bishops of Bathurst.

Bathurst is best known for the Mt Panorama motor racing circuit, venue for the Bathurst 1000 motor race each October. It is also the home of wartime Labor Prime Minister Ben Chifley, who represented the area in the Federal Parliament and is buried in Bathurst.

Bathurst is unique in that it has a collection of house museums representing different periods of its history from first settlement to the 1970s. The house museums include Old Government Cottage, Abercrombie House, Miss Traill's House and Chifley Home.


Contents

[edit] Public Transport

A typical bus stop in the Bathurst region.
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A typical bus stop in the Bathurst region.

Bathurst Station is located ten minutes away from the city centre. It is serviced by CountryLink trains and buses to Sydney or Lithgow and Dubbo. Local bus services operate in the surrounding suburbs of Bathurst, with a bus interchange in Howick Street, opposite Stockland Bathurst.

[edit] Roads

Bathurst is a regional highway hub. Several roads including the Great Western Highway, Mid-Western Highway, Mitchell Highway, O'Connell Road to Oberon and Bathurst-Ilford Road all start in Bathurst.

[edit] History

Bathurst Courthouse on Russell Street, built in 1880
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Bathurst Courthouse on Russell Street, built in 1880
Area of first settlement
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Area of first settlement
Home of Ben Chifley, now a museum, in Busby Street Bathurst
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Home of Ben Chifley, now a museum, in Busby Street Bathurst

The Bathurst area was originally occupied by the Wiradjuri Aboriginal peoples. The government surveyor George William Evans was the first European to sight the Bathurst Plains in 1813.

Bathurst was founded in 1815 on the orders of Governor Lachlan Macquarie, and is the oldest inland town in Australia. The name Bathurst comes from the surname of the British Colonial Secretary Lord Bathurst. It was intended to be the administrative centre of the western plains of New South Wales where orderly colonial settlement was planned.

Local Wiradjuri groups under leaders such as Windradyne resisted the settlers until the Frontier Wars of the early 1820s ended the open conflict.

The initial settlement of Bathurst was on the eastern side of the river in 1816. It is in today's suburb of Kelso. Each of 10 men were granted 50 acres (200,000 m²), five were men new born in the colony and five were immigrants. These men were William Lee, Richard Mills, Thomas Kite, Thomas Swanbrooke, George Cheshire, John Abbott, John Blackman, James Blackman, John Neville and John Godden. In 1818 Governor Lachlan Macquarie stated in his diary: This morning I inspected 10 new settlers for Bathurst. I have agreed to grant each 50 acres (200,000 m²) of land, a servant, a cow, four bushels (141 litres) of wheat, an allotment in the new town, and to provide for them for 12 months from the King's stores.

Bathurst's economy was transformed by the discovery of gold in 1851. It later became the centre of an important coal-mining and manufacturing region. The Main Western railway line from Sydney reached Bathurst in 1876.

In December 2001 the inaugural meeting of the biennial Australasian Ornithological Conference series, initiated and organised by the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union, was held in Bathurst.

[edit] Significant people from or associated with Bathurst

[edit] Radio Stations

Evans Bridge, crossing the Macquarie River, connecting Kelso and Bathurst.
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Evans Bridge, crossing the Macquarie River, connecting Kelso and Bathurst.

[edit] Bathurst-licensed stations

[edit] Orange-licensed stations

[edit] National or unknown stations

  • Life FM 100.1 (Christian)
  • Racing Radio 100.9
  • Triple J 101.9/95.9
  • Radio National 104.3/96.7
  • Classic FM 102.7/97.5
  • NewsRadio 98.3 (proposed)
Further information: List of Australian radio stations

[edit] Reference

    [edit] External links

    Countrylink Western
    Tarana ↔ Bathurst ↔ Blayney


    Coordinates: 33°25′S 149°34′E

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