Blayney is a farming town and administrative centre with a population of 3,378 in 2016, in the Central West region of

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, Australia. Situated on the

Mid-Western Highway Mid-Western Highway, sometimes Mid Western Highway, is a state highway located in the central western and northern Riverina regions of New South Wales, Australia. The highway services rural communities and links the Great Western, Mitchell, ...

about west of

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, west of Bathurst and above sea-level, Blayney is the seat of

Blayney Shire Council Blayney Shire is a Local government in Australia, local government area in the Central West, New South Wales, Central West region of New South Wales, Australia. The Shire is located adjacent to the Mid-Western Highway and the Main Western railwa ...

History

Prior to European settlement the area was occupied by the Aboriginal

Wiradjuri The Wiradjuri people (; ) are a group of Aboriginal Australian people from central New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , ...

and, or,

Gundungara The Gundungurra people, also spelt Gundungara, Gandangarra, Gandangara and other variations, are an Aboriginal Australian people in south-eastern New South Wales, Australia. Their traditional lands include present day Goulburn, Wollondilly Shire ...

peoples. The first European to travel through area was surveyor George Evans, in 1815 and unofficial occupation of the district began in 1821. The first land grant in the general area known as

Coombing Park Coombing Park is a farming property situated in western New South Wales just off the Mid-Western Highway about 5 km west of Carcoar, 260 km west of Sydney and 54 km south-west of Bathurst. The property is of considerable note bec ...

was issued to

Thomas Icely Thomas Icely (3 November 179713 February 1874) was an early colonial New South Wales landholder and stockbreeder. As a nominee Legislative Councillor from 1843, to 1853, and from 1855, until the establishment of responsible government in 1856, h ...

in 1829. In 1836 the locality was known as King's Plains, with Doyle's inn being the only public-house. There was also a mill worked by a man called Lambert. In 1842

Governor Gipps Sir George Gipps (23 December 1790 – 28 February 1847) was the Governor of the British colony of New South Wales for eight years, between 1838 and 1846. His governorship oversaw a tumultuous period where the rights to land were bitterly conte ...

proposed the creation of a village to be named 'Blayney'. His proposed site, however, was about 9 km north-east of the present site in the Kings Plains area, but once that spot proved unsuitable the Blayney village location was established on its present site in 1843. A train line used to run from Blayney to the Lime Kilns, transporting lime. This is situated on land adjoining the Blayney Cemetery and is heritage listed. Remnants of the lime kilns can still be seen today.

Heritage listings

Blayney has a number of heritage-listed sites, including: * Adelaide Street: Blayney Uniting Church * Main Western railway:

Blayney railway station Blayney railway station is a heritage-listed railway station on the Main Western line in Blayney, Blayney Shire, New South Wales, Australia. The property was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999. History The ...

Facilities and services

Blayney has three hotels: The Exchange, the Royal, and Tattersalls, all in Adelaide Street. A fourth, the Club House, has been converted to a Baptist church. There are six churches in all, the other five being Catholic, Uniting, Anglican, Presbyterian and Pentecostal. There are three service stations, one offering unmanned 24-hour service for credit card purchases, one supermarket (IGA/Discount Daves), and various retail shops. A multi-purpose Community Centre with a large auditorium and a commercial standard kitchen is adjacent to the Council Chambers, and council also operate an aquatic centre with a large indoor swimming pool and other exercise facilities, and a public library. There are State Government run primary and high schools, with pupils arriving by school bus from surrounding rural areas, and a Catholic run primary school. The hospital offers emergency and medical care and limited surgical services, with more serious cases being transferred to

Orange Base Hospital The Orange Health Service is a public hospital located on the Bloomfield Health Campus, approximately south of the city , New South Wales in Australia and is operated by Western NSW Local Health District. Orange Health Service was opened in 20 ...

. There is a 24-hour public toilet in Adelaide Street (the

) just before leaving the town heading west.

Industry

Blayney Railway Station Container Terminal

The arrival of the railway in 1874 boosted development and Blayney replaced

Carcoar Carcoar is a town in the Central West (New South Wales), Central West region of New South Wales, Australia, in Blayney Shire. In 2016, the town had a population of 200 people. It is situated just off the Mid-Western Highway 258 km west of ...

as the major service centre to local farmlands. Blayney then became a municipality in 1882 and by 1900 a butter factory and freezing works employed many within the town. An

abattoir A slaughterhouse, also called abattoir (), is a facility where animals are slaughtered to provide food. Slaughterhouses supply meat, which then becomes the responsibility of a packaging facility. Slaughterhouses that produce meat that is no ...

opened in 1957 and this industry was later supplemented with tanneries and a pet food plant. The abattoirs closed in 1999. In the late 1970s or early '80s a meat canning factory was built on farmland land East of Blayney. This produced

Spam Spam may refer to: * Spam (food), a canned pork meat product * Spamming, unsolicited or undesired electronic messages ** Email spam, unsolicited, undesired, or illegal email messages ** Messaging spam, spam targeting users of instant messaging ( ...

and other canned meats. This was later turned into an export meat boning facility run by Ron Jones Exports and then a pet food factory. Prior to this, the dam on the land was famous for yabbies, with

Sunday school A Sunday school is an educational institution, usually (but not always) Christian in character. Other religions including Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism have also organised Sunday schools in their temples and mosques, particularly in the West. Su ...

excursions frequenting there. In 1989,

Nestlé Nestlé S.A. (; ; ) is a Switzerland, Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland. It is the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other me ...

built a new pet food plant, Nestlé Purina, and purchased adjoining land including Blayney Foods. The Nestlé factory exports pet food to Asia and the Pacific. The Cadia-Ridgeway Mine is a major employer in the area. In 1994, Blayney became home to Australia's largest inland

container A container is any receptacle or enclosure for holding a product used in storage, packaging, and transportation, including shipping. Things kept inside of a container are protected on several sides by being inside of its structure. The term ...

terminal, which is situated beside the

railway station 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 ...

. The Blayney Wind Farm, launched in 2000, is the largest of its type in Australia. It consists of 15 wind turbine generators on elevated ridges between Carcoar Dam and Mount Macquarie. Capacity is 10 megawatts, sufficient energy to supply 3,500 Australian homes.

Climate

Due to its deep valley location, Blayney shows a greater diurnal range but narrower seasonal range throughout the year compared to nearby Millthorpe which is more exposed. On account of this geographical setup (jointly with its altitude), Blayney's absolute minimum of is by far the lowest recorded in the Central West Slopes region. Summers are warm and dry with severe thunderstorms; winters are cool and partly cloudy, with some occurrences of

snowfall Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water throughout ...

Transportation

The town's

is served by the daily

NSW TrainLink NSW TrainLink is a train and coach operator in Australia, providing services throughout New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, along with limited interstate services into Victoria, Queensland and South Australia. Its primary interc ...

XPT service between

and

Dubbo Dubbo () is a city in the Orana Region of New South Wales, Australia. It is the largest population centre in the Orana region, with a population of 43,516 at June 2021. The city is located at the intersection of the Newell, Mitchell, and Gol ...

and the weekly

Outback Xplorer The Outback Xplorer is an Australian passenger train service operated by NSW TrainLink between Sydney and Broken Hill via the Main Western line. Commencing in March 1996, it was initially a locomotive-pulled service. It ceased in 2000 due to the ...

Broken Hill Broken Hill is an inland mining city in the far west of outback New South Wales, Australia. It is near the border with South Australia on the crossing of the Barrier Highway (A32) and the Silver City Highway (B79), in the Barrier Range. It is ...

, as well as several NSW TrainLink Coach and private company bus services connecting with Bathurst and

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower *Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum * ...

Notable citizens

Nathan Burns Nathan Burns (born 7 May 1988) is a retired Australian professional footballer who last played for Wellington Phoenix in the A-League and the Australian national team. Club career Adelaide United He formerly played for Parramatta Eagles and t ...

: professional football player with

A-League A-League Men (known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons) is the highest-level professional men's soccer league in Australia and New Zealand. At the top of the Australian league system, it is the country's premier men's competiti ...

club

Wellington Phoenix Wellington Phoenix Football Club is a professional association football club based in Wellington, New Zealand. It competes in the Australian A-League, under licence from Football Federation Australia. Phoenix entered the competition in the ...

and the Australian national team. * Frank Cooper:

Premier of Queensland The premier of Queensland is the head of government in the Australian state of Queensland. By convention the premier is the leader of the party with a parliamentary majority in the unicameral Legislative Assembly of Queensland. The premier is ap ...

from 1942 to 1946. *

Peter Toohey Peter Toohey (born 20 April 1954) is a former Australian cricketer who played in 15 Test matches and five One Day Internationals between 1977 and 1979. Toohey was one of the cricketers who came to the fore when the bulk of Australia's top cri ...

, Australian Test cricketer of the late 1970s

Gallery

File:Blayney NSW Looking Southwards.jpg, File:BlayneyStreetscape.jpg, Image:BlayneyWindFarm.jpg, File:Blayney Catholic Church.jpg, File:Blayney Christ Church.jpg, File:Blayney Saint Pauls Church.jpg, File:Blayney Town Library.jpg, File:Blayney Council Chambers.jpg, File:Blayney Post Office.jpg, File:Blayney Court House.jpg, File:Blayney Masonic Temple.jpg, File:Blayney National Australia Bank.jpg, File:Blayney Railway Station.jpg, File:Blayney Royal Hotel.jpg, File:Blayney Club House Hotel.jpg,

References

Bibliography

* ''St. Paul's Church, Blayney, 1862-1937 : an historical sketch.'' Alan Dougan. layney, N.S.W.? : Presbyterian Church of Australia, 1937* ''The Anglican Church of Australia, the Diocese of Bathurst : a history of the development of the Parish of Blayney, 1833-1991.'' ompiled and edited by J.T. Clarkson, C.H.R. DentBlayney, N.S.W. : Christ Church Anglican Church, 1991. : * ''The kings colonials.'' Garry Reynolds ; illustrated by Christine Reynolds. illthorpe, N.S.W. : G. Reynolds 1982. : * ''Together travel on : commemorating 150 years of Christian worship, service and mission through the Blayney nitingChurch, 1843 to 1993 : Wesleyan Methodist (1843-1902), Methodist (1902-1977), Uniting (1977-1993)'' Blayney, .S.W.: Uniting Church in Australia, 1993. * ''Dear Mother : a nominal roll of the men and women from Blayney and surrounding districts who served "Queen and country" in the South African (Boer) War 1899-1902.'' Blayney, N.S.W. : Blayney Shire Local & Family History Group Inc., 2002. * ''Notes on the geology of the Blayney area. '' G.A.M. Henderson. anberra: BMR Geology and Geophysics, Australia, c1991. * ''Blayney, list of interments : from Blayney Shire records and headstones found in cemetery.'' compiled by Helen Jeuken and Alan Nesbitt. Bathurst, N.S.W. : Bathurst Family History Research, 1989. * ''The Blayney advocate and Carcoar herald.'' Originally published weekly: Blayney, N.S.W. : John Mellor. National Library of Australia Microform * ''Blayney Shire pioneer register'' St. Joseph's Central School Blayney. Blayney, N.S.W. : St Joseph's Central School, Blayney, P. & F. Association,

993 Year 993 ( CMXCIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Spring – The 12-year-old King Otto III gives the Sword of Saints Cosmas and Damian ...

* ''Blayney District Hospital, 1910-1960 : a brief history to commemorate its 50th anniversary.'' compiled .e. writtenby A.A. Cheney layney, N.S.W. : Blayney Newspaper Co., 1960* ''Blayney Public School : established 1858'' andra RetallackBlayney, N.S.W., : Blayney Public School, 2008.