Bowenfels is a small town on the western outskirts of

Lithgow, New South Wales Lithgow is a town in the Central Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia and is the administrative center of the City of Lithgow local government area. It is located in a mountain valley named Lithgow's Valley by John Oxley in honour of Wil ...

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 ...

. Today there are effectively two Bowenfels. Near Lithgow, on the Great Western Highway, is Bowenfels (with the homestead of the valley's first settler, Andrew Brown). About a

kilometre The kilometre ( SI symbol: km; or ), spelt kilometer in American English, is a unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), equal to one thousand metres (kilo- being the SI prefix for ). It is now the measurement unit used for ex ...

south is . Although both are now essentially suburbs of Lithgow, Bowenfels was, in fact, the first settlement in the valley, pre-dating the existence of Lithgow by nearly 40 years.

History

Mount Blaxland, a short distance from South Bowenfels, was the furthest point reached by Blaxland, Lawson, and

Wentworth Wentworth may refer to: People * Wentworth (surname) * Judith Blunt-Lytton, 16th Baroness Wentworth (1873–1957), Lady Wentworth, notable Arabian horse breeder * S. Wentworth Horton (1885–1960), New York state senator * Wentworth Miller (born 1 ...

on their historic expedition across the Blue Mountains in 1813. Later in that year George Evans followed in the footsteps of the explorers to Mount Blaxland and then headed west to discover the O'Connell plains and the Bathurst plains.''Two Journals of Early Exploration in New South Wales''
by George William Evans. Entry for Wednesday, Decr. 6th, 1813. Retrieved 7 March 2014. At South Bowenfels, Magpie Hollow Road heads west to Lake Lyell and then on to

Tarana ''Tarana'' is a type of composition in Hindustani classical vocal music in which certain words (e.g. "odani", "todani", "tadeem" and "yalali") based on Persian and Arabic phonemes are rendered at a medium (''madhya laya'') or fast (''drut laya'') ...

and

O'Connell O'Connell may refer to: People *O'Connell (name), people with O'Connell as a last name or given name Schools * Bishop Denis J. O'Connell High School, a high school in Arlington, Virginia Places * Mount O'Connell National Park in Queensland ...

. Bowenfels was founded in the 1830s to service travellers along the new road to Bathurst, which opened in 1832, following the opening of the Victoria Pass, which sealed the fate of the old Bathurst road in its descent of Mt. York. It was named by

Surveyor-General A surveyor general is an official responsible for government surveying in a specific country or territory. Historically, this would often have been a military appointment, but it is now more likely to be a civilian post. The following surveyor gen ...

Thomas Mitchell after George Mears Bowen, a former member of his department. The town was the first settlement in the valley and pre-dated Lithgow by 40 years. The

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

opened in 1869, and was electrified in the 1950s, although passenger services no longer service Bowenfels station.

Heritage listings

Bowenfels has a number of heritage-listed sites, including: * Great Western Highway: ''Fernhill'', Bowenfels * via Kirkley Street:

Lithgow Heavy Anti Aircraft Gun Stations and Dummy Station The Lithgow Heavy Anti Aircraft Gun Stations and Dummy Station is a heritage-listed former gun emplacements, Anti-aircraft warfare, anti aircraft gun batteries and military dummy, dummy batteries and now disused signalling control, railway sign ...

* Main Western railway:

Bowenfels railway station The Bowenfels railway station is a heritage-listed disused railway station and now visitor's centre and restaurant located on the Main Western line in Bowenfels, City of Lithgow, New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by John Clifton and ...

* Main Western railway:

Bowenfels rail viaducts The Bowenfels rail viaducts are a series of heritage-listed railway viaducts and railway bridges over Farmers Creek on the Main Western line in Bowenfels, City of Lithgow, New South Wales, Australia. It was designed in two stages, by John Whi ...

Population

According to the 2016 census of population, there were 2,048 people in Bowenfels. * Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 9.5% of the population. * 78.9% of people were born in Australia and 84.8% of people spoke only English at home. * The most common responses for religion were Catholic 25.5%, No Religion 24.2% and Anglican 21.8%.

References

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