Matakana is a rural locality in western

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. It is situated just off the

Kidman Way Kidman Way is a state rural road in the western Riverina and western region of New South Wales, Australia. The highway services the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area and outback communities and links the Newell Highway with the Sturt, Mid-Weste ...

, 78 kilometres north of

Hillston Hillston is a township in western New South Wales, Australia, in Carrathool Shire, on the banks of the Lachlan River. It was founded in 1863 and at the had a population of 1,547. History John Oxley and his exploration party were the first Eur ...

and 177 kilometres south of

Cobar Cobar is a town in Outback New South Wales, Australia, whose economy is based mainly upon base metals and gold mining. The town is by road northwest of the state capital, Sydney. It is at the crossroads of the Kidman Way and Barrier Highwa ...

. The small settlement of Mount Hope is located 17 kilometres to the north on the Kidman Way. Matakana is on the route of the

Broken Hill railway line The Broken Hill railway line, extending from Orange, New South Wales to Broken Hill, is now part of the transcontinental rail corridor from Sydney to Perth. The first railway line in New South Wales opened from Sydney to Parramatta Junction ...

, between the Euabalong West and

Ivanhoe ''Ivanhoe: A Romance'' ( ) by Walter Scott is a historical novel published in three volumes, in December 1819, as one of the Waverley novels. It marked a shift away from Scott's prior practice of setting stories in Scotland and in the more ...

stations. Matakana was once a siding on the railway line. A short branch line connecting Matakana to Mount Hope was opened in February 1919 and closed after five years. A small rural community settled in the vicinity of the Matakana siding during its operation.

History

In August 1901 there was a report of a “small gold rush” near Matakana, nine miles south of Mount Hope, after the discovery of a reef where “gold can be seen in the stone”. The discovery by prospectors Eldridge and Grogan caused a flurry of excitement at Mount Hope where “the Warden's clerk has been kept busy issuing miner's rights”. The Matakana to Mount Hope single-track branch railway line was opened in February 1919.''The Railway News'', N.S.W. School Railway Clubs Association, November–December 1977, pp. 104-108. In early July 1924 the train service between Matakana and Mount Hope was discontinued “because of the paucity of business”; there had been “so little hope of a mining revival in the district that the whole of the mining machinery at Mount Hope was dismantled and removed”. In July 1929 “a site near the railway line at Matakana” was selected as the location of “an experimental farm within the area to serve prospective settlers”. The selection of the site was a part of the “preliminary investigations” by E. S. Clayton (Chief Experimentalist of the Department of Agriculture) “for the projected settlement of a large area of the south-western mallee lands in N.S.W.” . The area was expected to “be devoted chiefly to wheatgrowing, with a probable subsequent extension to sheep”. The water supply, "in addition to bores”, was proposed to be drawn from Wyangala dam. In August 1930 Matakana was described as “the proposed Mallee wheatgrowing settlement”. In October 1941 “new trucking yards” were completed at Matakana and it was expected that “persons trucking stock there will find a great improvement”. In July 1952 a description was published of an overnight camp at Matakana, described as “that unexpected railway line break in the midst of miles and miles of thick high mallee”. Trains passed along the track during the night: “on a westward bound goods train we counted 54 trucks in the bright moonlight”. In December 1957 five separate bush fires “were raging out of control” between Condobolin and Hillston. The main Western railway line was cut and tracks destroyed. Fires around Euabalong and Mount Hope were “burning on a 100-mile front”. A fire “threatened to engulf” the “village of Matakana” and “20 women and children were driven through an arch of flames to escape the fire” and provided with accommodation at nearby Mount Hope. Fire fighters “managed to divert the flames” around Matakana.Raging Fires Cut Main Western Line
''Canberra Times'', 23 December 1957, page 3
Heavy Stock Losses in Western Bush fires
''Canberra Times'', 24 December 1957, page 13.

Environment

Matakana is surrounded by two extensive nature reserves, Nombinnie to the south-west and Round Hill to the east. The reserves comprise a large area of plain and ridge country, and together with the

Yathong Nature Reserve The Yathong Nature Reserve is a state park, protected nature reserve that is also a nationally and internationally recognized biosphere situated in the Central West (New South Wales), central-western region of New South Wales, in eastern Austral ...

(north-west of Mount Hope), the area protects the largest remaining contiguous stand of mallee in NSW and supports a rich diversity of flora and fauna, including many rare and endangered species.Yathong Nature Reserve, Nombinnie Nature Reserve and Round Hill Nature Reserve: Plan of Management
NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, November 1996.

Notes and references

{{authority control Towns in New South Wales Cobar Shire