Narrabri, New South Wales

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Narrabri is a town of about 8000 people and and the seat of Narrabri Shire Council Local Government Area in north-central New South Wales, Australia. It is situated on the Namoi River and lies 531 kilometres northwest of Sydney. It sits on the junction of the Kamilaroi Highway and the Newell Highway. The Namoi River floods quite frequently.

It is the centre of a major cotton growing industry. Other industries include wheat, beef and lamb. Nearby attractions are Mount Kaputar National Park, the Australia Telescope Compact Array at the Paul Wild Observatory (administered by the CSIRO) and a number of agricultural centres, including the Australian Cotton Centre. Just to the south of town is the Pilliga Forest, the largest remnant temperate forest in Eastern Australia. Narrabri also boasts The Crossing Theatre, a 1000 seat auditorium and cinema complex of a standard normally only found in larger Australian communities.

Narrabri's mobile phone tower services a large area, being the only one for quite some distance. The tower is located behind the Post Office in the Central Business District, and can be seen from quite some distance away, as it is fitted with red obstacle lighting to indicate its presence to aircraft. The tower is one of the tallest around Australia, and provides quite extended service (despite the relatively poor quality) due to the lack of hilly terrain surrounding it.

Narrabri is also able to lay claim to the title of Australia's Sportiest Shire. This is backed up by a large number of ovals and Sporting Clubs within the town.

[edit] Media

Narrabri has a twice-weekly published newspaper, The Courier. This is one of the few remaining independant regional newspapers remaining in Australia.

There is also a local community radio station, 2MAX FM. This volunteer run community radio station broadcasts on 91.3 FM, from the nearby Mt Dowe, and is able to cover a very large area due to this height. The station has been running for 7 years full time. 2MAX FM has a focus on country music and older listeners.

2MAX FM has been instrumental in various local emergencies, as it remained live. An example has been the 2006 Bushfire Emergency, where 2MAX FM broadcast regular updates.

[edit] Transport

Post Office

The town is served by daily by Countrylink Xplorer train services between Sydney and Moree, and twice daily flights to Sydney with QANTAS The Town is almost equally distant from Brisbane and Sydney.