Wyalong is part of the
Bland Shire located in the Northern
Riverina Region 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 ...
. Established as a
gold mining town, it is now a quiet town with historic buildings a few kilometres east of
West Wyalong, the major district service centre. At the , Wyalong had a population of 851.
History
The town of Wyalong was established in 1884.
Gold was discovered at Wyalong in September 1893 by Joseph Neeld. The "Main Camp" was erected on the eastern side of the main diggings with impressive government buildings being erected, now classified by the Heritage Trust as being worthy of preservation. The goldfield was named Wyalong by mining warden
William Henry John Slee.
[''Barrier Miner'', 11 April 1907, p. 2.] At its peak in May 1894 there were more than 12,000 miners on the goldfields, digging deep vertical shafts and tunnels to access the quartz reefs which contained the gold. By the end of 1894 the number of miners had reduced to about 4,200. The
Amalgamated Miners' Association of Australasia
Amalgamation is the process of combining or uniting multiple entities into one form.
Amalgamation, amalgam, and other derivatives may refer to:
Mathematics and science
* Amalgam (chemistry), the combination of mercury with another metal
**Pan ama ...
, a precursor of the
Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union, was active in the area, including organising
eight-hour day processions (see
Photo).
The Catholic
Sisters of Mercy started their first school at St. Patrick's, Wyalong, in 1896 with 196 students and 6 Sisters. In 1899 Wyalong became a municipality with council chambers being erected, a courthouse, police station, post office and school of arts.
Homes and businesses were initially built around the main mining area. In 1895
West Wyalong was developed around the bullock track further west. As mining declined West Wyalong became the main service centre for agriculture in the surrounding district, although for many years there was rivalry between the towns.
Both towns wanted the
Temora railway line, constructed in 1903, but settled on a compromise of a station midway between the two towns, called Wyalong Central.
Gold mining in the immediate area declined from 1910 and ceased by 1921. Old tailings were reworked by cyanide processing during the 1930s. In 2004
Barrick Gold
Barrick Gold Corporation is a mining company that produces gold and copper with 16 operating sites in 13 countries. It is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It has mining operations in Argentina, Canada, Chile, Côte d'Ivoire, Democrati ...
is undertaking gold mining 43 km west at
Lake Cowal through the process of in situ cyanide leaching, a variant of the controversial process of
Gold cyanidation.
Development since the 1970s has expanded Wyalong in the direction of West Wyalong with several motels built at Central Wyalong. A shared bicycle and pedestrian track was constructed in 1994 to link Wyalong with West Wyalong.
File:Wyalong Anglican Church.JPG, Wyalong Anglican Church
References
External links
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Towns in New South Wales
Towns in the Central West (New South Wales)
Newell Highway
Mining towns in New South Wales
