Bathurst is a vibrant regional city located just a few hours drive west of Sydney.
Where is it?: Bathurst is 209 km west of Sydney, on the Macquarie River and a three hour drive from the New South Wales capital by road. Rail services from Sydney to Bathurst and other towns and cities of the Central West operate on a daily basis.
Locals and visitors alike enjoy the best of country life with all the conveniences and facilities of modern living. Set in a pleasant natural environment with warm summers, clear, crisp winters, occasional snowfalls and beautiful spring and autumn colours, Bathurst is one of the region���Ǩ�Ѣs most beautiful cities, offering a diversity of attractions, activities and facilities.
Lookouts: The top of Mt Panorama has excellent views of Bathurst and the surrounding district. The McPhillamy Park lookout gives great views over the track and the Esses.
Events: The Bathurst Motor Festival and Bathurst Harvest Festival are held every April. An eisteddford is held in September/October, around the time of the annual V8 Supercar Bathurst 1000 motor race at Mt Panorama. The district show is held a week after Easter.
Things to see and do
Being Australia's oldest inland town, Bathurst has many fine historic buildings, many of which were financed by the gold discoveries in the area in the 1850s.
Bathurst's place in Australia's history is clearly evidenced by the large number of landmark monuments, buildings, and parks. Many landmark buildings are included in the 'Architecture' section of this article. In the centre of the city is a square known as Kings Parade. Originally a market area from 1849 to 1906, it was redesignated as a public recreation ground and site for a soldiers memorial. Kings Parade now contains three memorials, an open space park and gardens.
The Bathurst War Memorial Carillon is a 30.5 metres tall tower structure located in the centre of Kings Parade. The Parade is located in the centre of Bathurst's CBD. The Carillon is a memorial to the soldiers who lost their lives in the two World Wars. The bell tower contains 35 cast bronze bells that are rung daily at lunchtime, and an eternal flame on the platform level of the structure. The Carillon was officially completed on Armistice Day, 11 November 1933. The Evans memorial stands at the northern end of Kings Parade. Completed in 1920, the memorial commemorates the discovery of the Bathurst Plains in 1813 by George Evans, Assistant Surveyor of Lands. The Boer War memorial stands at the southern end of Kings Parade. This memorial was unveiled in 1910 by Lord Kitchener.
Bathurst is synonymous with motorsport, being the site of the Mount Panorama motor racing circuit. It hosts the Bathurst 12 Hour motor race each February, the Bathurst Motor Festival every Easter, and the Bathurst 1000 motor race each October. During these times, the population swells with tourists. The circuit is a public road when not being used for racing and is a popular tourist attraction for visitors to the city. Bathurst has a long history of racing, beginning with motorcycle racing from 1911.
From 1931 to 1938, motorcycle racing was conducted at the Old Vale Circuit before moving to the newly created Mount Panorama Circuit in 1938. On 16 April 1938, Mount Panorama attracted 20,000 spectators to its first race, The Australian Tourist Trophy The mountain is home to the National Motor Racing Museum and Memorial. The racing circuit is probably one of a few race tracks in the world that you can actually drive on, something many visitors to Bathurst do, as the circuit is a public road for most of the year.
Beside the circuit is the National Motor Racing Museum. This museum was built to encourage visitors to the circuit all year round and includes motor cycles and cars, representing the racing history of Bathurst. Peter Brock, the race car driver, was synonymous with Mount Panorama racing and a memorial sculpture dedicated to him, is located in the museum grounds.
About Bathurst
Australia's oldest inland city, Bathurst is the centre of a long-established pastoral and grain-growing district which also produces fruit and vegetables. Urban secondary industry includes canning and can-manufacturing plants, flour mills, brick, pipe and cement works, and factories for the manufacture of office furniture.
Bathurst has been accurately described as a sedate city of red brick and blue granite in a setting of carefully planned and well-maintained plantations, parks and gardens. Many distinctive buildings face King's Parade, it's central square. Bathurst was the birthplace of J. B. Chifley, Prime Minister of Australia from 1945 to 1949. The Chifley Housing Settlement in the city is his memorial.
Surrounding area
Hill End
Gold Country: the area around Bathurst is goldmining country and was the scene of one of the biggest gold rushes the world has ever seen. Gold was first discovered at Summer Hill Creek, near Orange, in 1851, and soon the whole area was alive with prospectors panning the creeks for gold. The Gold Country Heritage Drive visits some of the old goldmining ghost towns of the area, including Sofala and Hill End.
Two kilometres on the Bathurst side of Hill End you'll find History Hill Museum, with over 10,000 rare and unusual artefacts from the goldfields of the 1800s as well as 175 metres of underground working to explore, completing the gold rush experience. The museum reflects all that was on the land of the goldfields during the time of a gold rush. There are many other interesting villages in the Bathurst region, many of which had their origins in the gold rush days. Many have relics from the goldmining era such as old mines, equipment, etc. as well as period buildings. They are easy to get to and hold much of interst for the visitor.
Bathurst to Bourke Cobb & Co Heritage Trail largely follows old coaching routes established by Cobb & Co during the 19th Century. As you travel these roads today, you can imagine yourself back in the past - hear the cracking of whips, tramping of hoofs and the churning of wheels along dusty tracks. The Cobb & Co. business was a horse drawn coaching transport business originally established in Victoria but relocated to Bathurst in 1862 to follow the gold rush. The business provided gold escorts, mail services and passenger services to the towns and rural settlements. Cobb & Co. coaches were constructed in the coaching workshops located in Bathurst and the Bathurst Information Centre contains a restored Cobb & Co. coach.
A visit to the Abercrombie Caves (70km south via Trunkey Creek) makes for a good day trip from Bathurst. The entrance to the Abercrombie Caves is through the majestic Grand Arch, the largest Natural Limestone Arch in the Southern Hemisphere. Solid masses of marble decorate the walls of the caves highlighted by the soft natural light entering from each end. The main cave was the hideout of bushranger Ben Hall. The caves are open daily for self guided tours, and on weekends for guided tours. Guided Tours - 2pm weekends only.
Brief History
In the early years of settlement, Bathurst was a base for many of the early explorers of the NSW inland, including George Evans in 1815, John Oxley in 1817���1818, Allan Cunningham in 1823, and Thomas Mitchell during the 1830s.
Flecks of gold were first discovered in the Fish River in February 1823, but it was 12 February 1851 in a Bathurst Hotel when Edward Hargraves announced the discovery of payable gold. Soon, gold was found at Ophir (later Sofala) and Hill End in the 1850s. In the 1860s, the town of Bathurst began to boom. Bathurst was to become the first gold centre of Australia. The nearby gold localities would transport their gold to Bathurst then to Sydney. The mail and gold transport coaches became an obvious target for bushrangers, which became a major problem for the authorities.
The Ribbon Gang and the Bathurst Rebellion occurred in 1830, when a large group of over 80 convicts roamed the Bathurst district. They were eventually captured and charged with murder, bushranging and horse-thieving. On 2 November 1830, ten members of the Ribbon Boys were hanged in Bathurst for their crimes. The site of the first and largest public hanging in Bathurst is still marked by the laneway sign Ribbon Gang Lane in the CBD. Ben Hall, who became a notorious bushranger, was married in St Michael's Church at Bathurst in 1856. In October 1863, a gang of five (including Hall) raided Bathurst, robbing a jeweller's shop, bailed up the Sportsmans Arms Hotel and tried to steal a racehorse. They returned three days later and held up more businesses. John Piesley, another bushranger, was tried and hanged for murder at Bathurst Gaol in 1862.
Bathurst's economy was transformed by the discovery of gold in 1851. One illustration of the prosperity gold brought to Bathurst is the growth and status of hotels and inns. The first licensed inn within the township was opened in 1835, the Highland Laddie. At the peak of hotel activity in 1875, coinciding with the gold rush period, there were 61 operating concurrently. A total of 89 hotel locations have been identified in the town of Bathurst, with 112 operating in the immediate district during the course of the history in Bathurst. Initially many pubs were simply a cottage with stables. As prosperity increased during the gold rush, the Hotels became typical of architecture of pubs known today.
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