100 Towns

Pyramul is in the gold mining district around Sofala and Hill End so I'm fairly sure it would be an old gold mining town.  Today there are some homes, some churches, a school and the old show grounds.

Glen Davis is a tiny settlement situated in the beautiful Capertee Valley.  It came into being when the shale oil mining and refining operations at Newnes closed down and moved to Glen Davis in 1938. But as shale oil was ultimately not viable the operation closed down in 1952 leaving the town to slowly disappear. However there are still some dwellings, a boutique hotel, a camp ground used by walkers keen to explore the nearby Wollemi National Park, the ruins of the old shale oil works (on private land) and a  beautiful backdrop of cliffs. This a great spot to take a day drive or a weekend stay.

As you drive on the Mitchell Highway towards Orange there is a tantilising glimpse of old cottages through the trees at Shadforth, after the exit to their street.  One day we remembered to take the exit and go and see what there was to be found. The were a few streets, some ramshackle buildings, some well kept buildings, orchards and the three cottages which I guess were workers cottages, though they look so picturesque they could be modern replicas for the tourist trade. There was and I think still is a quarry at Shadforth.

Badangora is an old mining town but when the mine closed down in the 1920s went into permanent decline.  Today there is a a church, a war memorial and a smattering of houses along the near empty streets. It is even off the highway along a dirt track, with no reason for any stranger to visit unless they are collecting images of old towns.

In the late 1800s Cobb and Co coaches ran regularly along the highways of the country until motor vehicles in the 1900s  killed off the business.  There were Cobb and Co changing stations at  Neurea  and  Bakers Swamp .

Mount David is a small town in the Oberon district.  In the early 1900s it was the location of a major copper mine.  In the 1920s the ore body run out and the mine closed and the town dwindled into the tiny town it is today. There is evidence of some new homes being built and the old church is a residence.  The extensions to it were in progress when we visited this town years ago and seemed to have totally stalled.  It's now up for sale.

Jenolan Caves is a popular tourist attraction in the Blue Mountains wilderness.  The limestone caves have attracted people in droves since their first discovery by white man in the 1830s despite being in a quite inaccessible spot.  Even today the road is steep, winding and narrow. The road comes to a dramatic end running through the Grand Archway and coming out the other side to the iconic Caves House (with a special place in the memory of many honeymooners), cafe and ticket office for tours to a wide selection of caves. Not a town as such, it is a busy spot especially in weekends.  A pleasant place to spend the weekend, though Caves House goes through times of being comfortable and vibrant to being plain run down.  The caves are fun and there are lovely walks by the lake and in the surrounding area.

Hampton is a small village on the road to the popular Jenolan Caves.  Perhaps in the days when the winding road was a more difficult drive Hampton was a welcome rest spot on the way.  Today it has a pub, the remnants of an old cafe and garage, a cluster of houses and two big wind turbines beating over the town.

Cobbora which is just 15km on the main road west from Dunedoo was once the bigger town.  Today its all but gone while Dunedoo is ticking along nicely. It missed out on the railway back in 1910 and has been going downhill ever since. There are still a few houses - some alive and lovely and others old and abandoned.  There is a corrugated iron community hall but not much community. The streets all laid out but empty and none of them paved.Most of the life seems to have drained into the cemetery with lonely clusters of graves dotted over its acres.

I am guessing that Birrawa sprung up because of the big grain silo. It turned out to be a cluster of houses and churches beside the highway but most were in a pretty sorry state.

There is not much in the village of Uarbry - an old community hall, a neat and tidy church and a few houses.

I don't know anything of the history of Turrill.  It is a wayside stop on the road between Mudgee and Casallis , once upon a time offering fuel, a general store and church on Sunday.

Borenore (15kms outside Orange) proudly announces on the entrance into town that it is home of the Borenore shop (note singular) and Australian National Field Days which according to their website is "Australia's oldest annual agricultural exhibition where visitors will see a vast range of agricultural machinery, implements, services and ideas. Each year over 600 exhibitors from throughout Australia and overseas display their products and services at our event." So for a few days each year the place becomes alive.

The Lagoon is a small settlement not far from Bathurst. The Old School of Arts building is isolated from most of the houses.  Up on a hill from where the top shot was taken there is a school, homes and stables.  There seem to be a number of race horse trainers in the area.

1. Home with mountains behind, Charbon 2. Town park 3. Street view Charbon (home to about 150 people) is a mining settlement started in the 1920s.  The neat grid of streets has tidy fibro workers cottages nestled by a backdrop of mountains.  The nearby Charbon colliery operates both underground and open cut mines digging coal mostly for export.  A coal train departs each day destined for Port Kembla. The town has a park but no shops and other facilities because it is just a couple of kilometres from the bigger centre of Kandos.

1. Closed Railway station, Clandulla 2. Closed general store 3. Closed school 4. One of the local houses 5. The rural setting Clandulla is a railway town.  It sprung into being with the arrival of the railway which facilitated the opening of a coal mine nearby.  With 30 or 40 houses in the vicinity of the railway station it's alive but seems to never have been much of a town in the typical sense -- it doesn't seem to have had churches or a hotel.  There is a general store now very closed like the railway station. Many of the houses are rudimentary and most are set well apart from each other. But it's close to bigger centres and is in a peaceful scenic setting, enough to attract city folk like us to buy into its rural tranquility.

1. Old roadhouse, Ilford 2. Stone house 3. School sign 4. Church 1 5. Church 2 6. Church 3 Ilford has three churches so must have had the population to support these at some time in its past.  It was a stagecoach stop and served as a busy staging point for rural goods.  It was also on one of the roads to the gold diggings though gold was not found around Ilford. It's decline started when the railway bypassed the town.  The station called Ilford was some 12kms away (later becoming Clandulla).  There a some houses and a closed roadhouse and cafe adding to the sense of a place well past it's prime but the school is alive and well with 28 students.

1. St John's Union Church, Running Stream 2. Running Stream Public School 3. Near Foxwood Farm cafe Foxwood Farm specialises in making great apple pies and there is other good food to be had as well, making it the perfect stopping place on the way to Mudgee. Running Stream is a tiny community which has been serving as a stopping place on that route for all its life. There is a church, a school and the cafe as a wayside stop in among lovely farming land. Worth the break.

1. Roadside stalls at Ben Bullen 2. Old house, perhaps once a shop. 3. Disused railway station I guess Ben Bullen is a railway town with a small community of four or five houses springing up around the small railway station.  The station is now derelict, Taking a short drive up the single street we saw there was once a tennis court and down at the vacant lot over the road from the railway there are regularly sellers set up to sell local produce. It's the size of town that you could blink and miss but as it is located at the spot where the road crosses the railway line at a level crossing so you had better not blink.  The line is still in use by a coal train about once a day.

1. All Saints Anglican Church, Baldry 2. Eden Hall Baldry is a community rather than a town.  The church built in 1889 and the hall in 1906.  Both are still in use by the local rural community which farms sheep, cattle and grain.