West Wyalong
West Wyalong is a town of about 3,000 inhabitants in the center of the Australian state of New South Wales. It is located 467 km west of Sydney, at the intersection of the Newell Highway between Melbourne and Brisbane, with the Mid Western Highway between Sydney and Adelaide. The city is the administrative headquarters of the administrative area ( LGA) Bland Shire.
The area around West Wyalong is the largest grain -growing area in NSW. Besides began here in 1907, the production of eucalyptus oil and West Wyalong is now one of the main producers in the world.
History
The original inhabitants of this region were of the tribe of Aboriginal Wiradjuri before 1817 John Oxley was the first European to a domestic expedition explored the area. But it was only after the Supreme surveyor of the colony Thomas Mitchell had mapped the area 10 years later, in 1833 settled the first settlers. Thomas Mitchell described the area as The Bland, the origin of the Namene today for the Shire.
With the discovery of gold by Joseph Neeld in September 1893, the region experienced a boom. Within a few months up to 12,000 gold seekers arrived in front of the nearly deserted area. As a result, the city Wyalong was planned in 1894. However, in the meantime, the prospectors had to be the only available source of water, known as White Tank, pitched their tents, and also showed no willingness in the newly founded city to move. Then a year later founded in 1895 just west of the originally planned town of West Wyalong. Even today, reflects the somewhat angular course of the main road originating from this time Bullock Track resist.
Towards the end of the 19th century the gold fields around Wyalong were the most productive in the country. Solo 1899 1264 kg of gold were mined here. However, the yield was in the following years further and further behind until 1921, the mining of gold was completely set. Until then, a total of 12.5 tons of gold could be promoted. Newer methods such as cyanide leaching allowed it to gain from the slag heaps more gold in the 1930s.
With the decline of mining West Wyalong was increasingly becoming a service center for the surrounding farms and is now the center of the largest grain -growing region in New South Wales.
In 1981 the city recorded the exploration of ore deposits back at Lake Cowal about 30 km north and you discovered a promising ore body, which is broken down in the Cowal Gold Mine since 2006 in mining.
Sons and daughters of the town
- Dymphna Cusack (1902 - 1981), author
- Mark O'Meley ( b. 1981 ), rugby players
- Scott Staniforth ( born 1977 ), rugby players