Carcoar, New South Wales
From Freepedia
Image:AUS NSW Carcoar Belubula Street.jpgCarcoar is a town in western New South Wales. It is situated on the Mid Western Highway 258 km west of Sydney and 52 km south-west of Bathurst. It's altitude is 720 m above sea-level. It is located on both banks of the Belubula River. Carcoar was once one of the most important government centers in Western New South Wales. The town has been classified by the National Trust due to the number of intact 19th-century buildings. Carcoar is a Gundungura word meaning either frog or kookaburra.
Near-by towns are Blayney, Millthorpe, Mandurama and Neville.
History
The original occupants of were probably the Gundungura Aborigines. The first European to travel through the area was surveyor George Evans. He headed south-west from Bathurst in 1815.
The first settlers arrived in 1821. The first official land grant, comprising 560 acres (2.3 km²), was issued to Thomas Icely on 26 May 1829. He named it Coombing Park. In 1838 Thomas Icely requested that a village be established to service his large pastoral estate. On 29 September 1839 Carcoar became just the third settlement west of the Blue Mountains to be gazetted. The first allotments in the town were sold in 1840. By 1850 Carcoar was the second most populous town west of the mountains, second in size only to Bathurst.
The discovery of gold further to the west in the mid 1860s started the decline of the town. The government began erecting a number of significant public buildings starting in the late 1870s. At this time, Coombing Park was supplying iron ore to the Lithgow steelworks. Another blow came to the town when the railway went to Blayney (13 km to the North West) in 1874. The location of the town in the bottom of a steep valley counted against it for railway construction. By the early 1880s the population was in decline. Carcoar was not on the rail line until 1888. It is on the Blayney-Demondrille Line which is an extension of the Main-South Line.
In the 1980s services were suspended between Cowra and Blayney (including Carcoar). This section was re-opened by the Lachlan Valley Railway. The LVR run tourist trains, mainly from Cowra to Blayney and Canowindra, and have now moved into general freight haulage.
