Nowendoc is a parish and village on the

Northern Tablelands, New South Wales The Northern Tablelands, also known as the New England Tableland, is a plateau and a region of the Great Dividing Range in northern New South Wales, Australia. It includes the New England Range, the narrow highlands area of the New England regio ...

, Australia. It is 360 km north of the state capital, Sydney, 66 km south of Walcha in the

Walcha Shire Walcha Shire is a local government area located in the New England region of New South Wales, Australia. The Shire is situated adjacent to the junction of the Oxley Highway and Thunderbolts Way and is east of the Main North railway line passi ...

local government area. A sealed road,

Thunderbolts Way Thunderbolts Way (and at its northern end as Bundarra Road) is a country road located in the Northern Tablelands region of New South Wales, Australia, linking Inverell via Bundarra, Uralla and Walcha to Gloucester The road is partially seal ...

, is about three hundred metres to the south of Nowendoc and provides links to the south and north.

History

In 1836 William Telfer marked a tree line from

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...

through Giro on the Barnard River, over Hungry Hill to Nowendoc and on to Ogunbil via Whites Sugarloaf. The

Australian Agricultural Company The Australian Agricultural Company (AACo) () is a public-listed Australian company that, as at 2018, owned and operated feedlots and farms covering around of land in Queensland and the Northern Territory, roughly one percent of Australia's la ...

(AACo) set up stations and resting places for their travelling sheep along this route to be known as the ‘Peel Line’. During the years 1840 to 1845 Nowendoc was one of the AACo outstations for their sheep.Donald, J.Kay, Exploring the North Coast and New England, Kangaroo Press, Kenthurst, 1978, In 1857 John Hall surveyed 39 allotments to define the village of Nowendoc. Thomas Laurie discovered alluvial

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...

there in 1872 and by 1873 there were about 100 people camping at Township Spur. By 1945 nearly all mining has ceased. Some dairying was done during the earlier years of settlement. The name Nowendoc comes from a

Worimi The Worimi (also spelt Warrimay) people are Aboriginal Australians from the eastern Port Stephens and Great Lakes regions of coastal New South Wales, Australia. Before contact with settlers, their people extended from Port Stephens in the sout ...

term meaning 'rough ground'. The village has a cemetery, church, school, sports ground, store, police station, a

New South Wales Rural Fire Service The New South Wales Rural Fire Service (NSW RFS) is a volunteer-based firefighting agency and statutory body of the Government of New South Wales. The NSW RFS is responsible for fire protection to approximately 95% of the land area of New South ...

station and community hall. The store perhaps temporarily, ceased trading in March 2012. There is also a small motel on the edge of the village on the Taree road. A post office operated intermittently from 1861 to 1979. The completion of the telephone line to Walcha in 1921 reduced the isolation of the area. Rural electricity was supplied during 1964-5 to those who made the contribution of £248/10/- towards the cost of connection. The local

Uniting Church The Uniting Church in Australia (UCA) was founded on 22 June 1977, when most congregations of the Methodist Church of Australasia, about two-thirds of the Presbyterian Church of Australia and almost all the churches of the Congregational Unio ...

was officially opened in 1976. At the 2016 census, Nowendoc and the surrounding area had a population of 146. Australian Bureau of Statistics (27 June 2017)
(State Suburb)"
''2016 Census QuickStats.'' Retrieved 29 June 2018. The main industries are beef cattle breeding and timber. Nowendoc is a centre for those keen on bushwalking, fishing and similar activities and lies near the top of the escarpment that contains the bulk of the Barrington Tops National Park. Many scenic walks and drives can be easily accessed from Nowendoc with the Nowendoc National Park nearby. Tennis, football and cricket are popular sports that enjoyed by residents. An annual rodeo is held on the Nowendoc sports ground.

Manhunt

In late 2011 and early 2012 Nowendoc featured heavily in the media, as it was the base for a

NSW Police The New South Wales Police Force (NSW Police Force; previously the New South Wales Police Service and New South Wales Police) is the primary law enforcement agency of the state of New South Wales, Australia. Divided into Police Area Commands (P ...

manhunt for

Malcolm Naden Malcolm John Naden (born 5 November 1973) is an Australian former fugitive from the law. At the time of his capture and arrest in March 2012, Naden was reported as being one of Australia's most wanted men and his arrest attracted international ...

, who had been wanted by police for some six years. Up to 90 police were based in the village at the height of the operation. In late March 2012 Naden was captured by NSW Police about 30 km west of Gloucester.

Citations

References

*"Nowendoc - A Glimpse into History" by Jean Holstein and Suzanne Lyon {{authority control Towns in New South Wales Towns in New England (New South Wales) Mining towns in New South Wales