Bowenfels is a small town on the western outskirts of
Lithgow, 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 ...
.
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
Lawson may refer to:
Places Australia
* Lawson, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb of Canberra
* Lawson, New South Wales, a town in the Blue Mountains
Canada
* Lawson, Saskatchewan
* Lawson Island, Nunavut
United States
* Lawson, Arkansas
...
, 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 George Evans may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* George "Honey Boy" Evans (1870–1915), American songwriter and entertainer
* George Evans (bandleader) (1915–1993), English jazz bandleader, arranger and tenor saxophonist
* George Evans (si ...
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''](_blank)
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 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
* Main Western railway:
Bowenfels railway station
* Main Western railway:
Bowenfels rail viaducts
Population
According to the
2016 census
Sixteen or 16 may refer to:
*16 (number), the natural number following 15 and preceding 17
*one of the years 16 BC, AD 16, 1916, 2016
Films
* ''Pathinaaru'' or ''Sixteen'', a 2010 Tamil film
* ''Sixteen'' (1943 film), a 1943 Argentine film dir ...
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%.
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References
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