Cobargo, New South Wales
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Cobargo is a village in the south-east area of the state of New South Wales in Australia. It is 386km south of Sydney on the Princes Highway between Narooma and Bega.
Cobargo's streetscape features many turn of the century buildings. It has developed in the last decade from a sleepy village into a popular tourist destination. Its attractions include olden-style stores, leather and wooden craftworks, potteries, an iron forge, art galleries, tea rooms and antique shops. Wadbilliga National Park is 20km west of Cobargo.
The name Cobargo may have originated from the local Indigenous Australian word 'cubago' which some sources claim was used to describe nearby Mount Gulaga.
The area was settled in the late 1820s when graziers moved stock into the district. William Duggan Tarlinton is thought to have been the first white man to set foot in the district in 1829, seeking pasture for his cattle. He later settled in the district and became one of its prominent citizens. By the 1830s the Imlay brothers had substantial holdings. Cobargo was known as 'The Junction' in the late 1860s as it was located at the junction of the Narira and Bredbatoura Creeks. A school opened in 1871 and by that year the village had a post office, store, hotel, church and blacksmith shops. Development gained pace following the construction of a bridge over the Narira Creek in 1882 and improvement of the coast road in the 1880s. By the 1890s the town was large enough to sustain a local newspaper, the Cobargo Watch. A butter factory was established in 1901 and continued butter production until 1980. In 1903 a branch of the Bank of New South Wales was opened. The office built in 1917 on the corner of Bermagui Road operated until 1997.
The town has been in decline for much of the twentieth century as transportation has made the larger centres more accessible. Like other nearby villages it has recently been revitalised as a tourist destination.
Cobargo hosts a country market on the fourth Saturday of every month in the grounds of the Cobargo RSL Hall. An annual folk music festival[1] is held here every February.
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