Balmoral () is a
Northern Village of the
Southern Highlands area of
New South Wales,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
. It is the northernmost village in Wingecarribee Shire.
Balmoral Village lies mostly on the eastern side of Wilson Drive. The main street is Railway Parade. The village does not have a Post Office or shops. It has a well-maintained Village Hall, including a children's play area, and a tennis court. The village also has
NSW Rural Fire Service brigade There is also an active Balmoral Village Association to run events and raise money for the little community.
Balmoral is formerly a station on the alignment of the
Main Southern railway line, and is known variously as 'Big Hill Lower Siding' (1878), 'Bargo' (1881), and 'Balmoral' (1888). On the
New South Wales Government Railways Secretariat map, the locality is identified as Balmoral Private Village. In 1919, the Picton-Mittagong Deviation opened. The
Loop Line continued to operate until 1978, and is now disused. The Balmoral station building was re-erected adjacent to the old school house (built in 1893) and the Loopline Pottery is on the same property.
The town is served on weekdays by the Bowral to Picton
NSW TrainLink
NSW TrainLink is a train and coach operator in Australia, providing services throughout New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, along with limited interstate services into Victoria, Queensland and South Australia. Its primary interc ...
bus service that runs to the towns served by the old Main South railway alignment, between
Mittagong and
Picton.
In December 2019, Balmoral was affected by the
2019–20 Australian bushfire season
The 201920 Australian bushfire season (Black Summer), was a period of bushfires in many parts of Australia, which, due to its unusual intensity, size, duration, and uncontrollable dimension, is considered a megafire. The Australian National ...
when it was struck twice by fires.
New South Wales Premier
Gladys Berejiklian claimed in a press conference that there was "not much left" of the town, which was disputed by the firefighters involved in efforts to save Balmoral.
An early estimate of the damage was that 18 houses, which made up more than 10% of the town, had been destroyed in the fires.
Population
At the
2021 census, 469 people were living in Balmoral.
In the , there were 426 people in Balmoral. 82.6% of people were born in Australia and 93.9% of people spoke only English at home. The most common responses for religion in Balmoral were Anglican 30.9% and No Religion 25.8%.
Gallery
File:Balmoral Village Entry.jpg
File:Balmoral Village Notices.jpg
File:Balmoral Rural Fire Station.jpg
File:Balmoral Village Hall.jpg
File:Balmoral Tennis Courts.jpg
File:Balmoral Abandoned Railway.jpg
References
ABC News
https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-22/nsw-bushfires-balmoral-town-destroyed-after-devastating-day/11821400
Towns of the Southern Highlands (New South Wales)
Natural disaster ghost towns
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