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.

Goolma is a small town on a railway line that never happened.  It is still ticking along however with a hotel, general store, couple of churches and a neat and tidy little school.

Home Rule , located in a farming land near Mudgee has just an old public school, now a private residence.  I wonder where the odd name comes from?

Cudgegong  in the 1870s had a couple of hotels (one of them a Royal), two stores, a school, church and post office. There was mining in the area and it also served as stopping off point for teams carrying wool. By the 1890s there was a butter factory processing local cream but later modern transport brought about its decline. There was little left to the town when it reached its final extinction in the 1980s, drowned by the waters of Windermere Dam. The headstones from the churchyard cemetery have were moved to higher ground and now look over the lake. I'll try to go and see them one day.

Windyer is an old gold mining town of which there is little left. Parts of the town are spread over quite a distance along the road which gives some indication that it was once a substantial settlement but today is home to about 50 people. In the main cluster there is is a hotel, a church, a sports field, some houses and a rather nice camping ground. A good place to spend a weekend for those the like to camp out or stay in cabins. We stayed on a frosty night in a cosy cabin and had a great time.

Hargraves is the man that started the gold rush in NSW by finding gold near Bathurst.  I assume this town is named after him, though while it is in the general vicinity it is not where the rush began. There was however gold found in the area a little later and a couple of thousand miners soon followed. The village has never been large with 60-70 houses in the 1850s and is still a bit off the beaten track. This may change now there is sealed road all the way through to Hill End making for a very interesting drive from the tourist town of Mudgee through to the old gold towns of Hargraves, Hill End and Sofala. Today there are still quite a few houses and a general store.

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.

Oh dear, I noticed that I posted Rylstone twice so have slotted my very last town Darby's Falls into this spot. Darby's Falls is a small village (population 70) on the road between Cowra and the water playground at Wyangala Dam. The school is closed and there are just a few houses.  We noticed there is an astronomical observatory there too. Apparently it has a gold mining history and like a lot of these old gold towns is currently the focus of new exploration for other minerals.

Bylong is a small town at the end of a beautiful valley of lush farmland watered by a nice river.  The Bylong Valley Way is a truly lovely drive.  Don't miss it.

When I was researching to find out more about this town which I photographed some years ago I found a newspaper article of September 2011 declaring a wake for the town which was being bought up by a mining company with just a few people left to go. So I wonder if it's there any more.  It wasn't totally tiny or dead, just decaying.

Tucklan seems to have some history with gold but whatever was there is now fading quickly.  There is a farm with what appears to be a community hall, an old school which is now a residence, and several buildings in a very advanced state of decay.

Gulgong is old gold mining town (and a railway town) and has hung onto enough of its history to make it an interesting spot to visit today. It is also known at the $10 town because it was used the backdrop for the image of Henry Lawson on the old $10 notes.  Like some other towns in NSW they lay claim to Henry Lawson because he lived there briefly as a child.  There is a Henry Lawson museum. And there is a fabulous Gulgong Pioneer museum full of just about every element of mining, farming and domestic history. Well worth a visit.

Dunedoo is a pleasant country town -- not too big and not too small (population 800).  We have visited there on a number of occasions in a range of seasons and find it to be warm friendly community.  Worth stopping if you are driving that way.

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.

Five years ago 1. Old general store 2. Church 3. Worker's cottage Today 4. Former general store 5. Where once there was a church and cottage 6. Current day worker's accomodation Ulan is one town that doesn't appear to have benefited from the mining boom.  It is over the road from a big coal mine.  When we visited some years ago it was small and down at heel.  Just like so many of the towns in this region the old general store looked like it has long closed.  Over the road there was a neat little church and the aging but attractive workers cottage.  A school, hotel and small cluster of houses completed the scene. Today the general store is smart and repurposed.  But over the road the land is bare! The school and hotel are still operating.

1. Mudgee main street 2. Town clock and art deco picture theatre 3. Anglican Church 4. Catholic Church 5. Railway station 6. Vineyards Mudgee (population 8000) was settled as early as the 1820s. It started small with growth exploding during the gold rush period.  Following that the wool growing sustained the town and the wine industry began.  Wine growing is now a major industry of the region with more than 40 wineries in the district. With its high quality big-town facilities, wineries and rich farmland it is a very popular tourist destination and the kind of town attractive to tree changers. It's well worth spending a weekend (or two) here.

1. Lue Hotel 2. Old shops 3. Cemetery 4. Railway bridge 5. Railway station Lue is a small town (population 100) on the road to Mudgee.  It once would have served the rural community but today is more noticeable for its past than its present.

1.  Rylstone Post Office 2.  Railway Station 3. Anglican Church, St James 4. Catholic Church, St Malachy's  5. Wesleyan Church  6. Dwelling 7. Dwelling 8. Cafe culture 9. Another historic building Rylstone is a delightful town. It began as a rural centre in the early 1800s. In the 1870s and 1880s substantial stone civic, commercial and religious buildings were built. These give the town its special character. Today the entire business district is classified as a Heritage Conservation Zone. It's the perfect spot for a weekend getaway with good food outlets, all the amenities of a substantial town, and plenty of interesting drives in the surrounding area.