Peak Hill is a town in Parkes Shire in the Central West 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 Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

. At the , Peak Hill had a population of 1,106 people. It is located on the

Newell Highway Newell Highway is a national highway in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. It provides the major road link between southeastern Queensland and Victoria via central NSW and as such carries large amounts of freight. At in length, the Newell is th ...

and the Parkes to Narromine railway line.

History

Before the arrival of Europeans, the Peak Hill area was part of the

Wiradjuri The Wiradjuri people (; ) are a group of Aboriginal Australian people from central New South Wales, united by common descent through kinship and shared traditions. They survived as skilled hunter-fisher-gatherers, in family groups or clans, a ...

people's lands. In 1817, the explorer John Oxley and his party were the first Europeans in the region. In 1889, Gold was discovered in the area, and later that year Peak Hill was gazetted in November 1889. The Post office opened on 7 November 1889, and the Bureau of Meteorology's weather station began in 1965. The first public wheat silo built in Australia was constructed at Peak Hill in 1918 after government surveys indicated the district had great potential as a wheat-producing region.

Agriculture

The district is also a renowned sheep producing area, particularly medium-woolled merinos. There are also five merino studs actively operating in the area, namely Cora Lynn, Genanegie, Towalba, Towonga and Westray. Rams from these studs have been sold throughout Australia, and they all have on-property hoggett ram sales in September, supplying commercial sheep breeders with high-quality young rams to breed from.

Climate

Facilities

Peak Hill has a Catholic primary school St Joseph's, and a public central school. Peak Hill has three motels, one hotel and two caravan parks. It also has a post office, RSL club,

bowling Bowling is a target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball toward pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). The term ''bowling'' usually refers to pin bowling (most commonly ten-pin bowling), though ...

club, golf club, cafes, antique shops, newsagency, supermarket, butcher shop, art gallery, book shop, hairdressers and beauty salons. There is a showground that has harness races and an annual agricultural show. Peak Hill offers many tourist attractions such as the

open cut Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique of extracting rock or minerals from the earth from an open-air pit, sometimes known as a borrow. This form of minin ...

gold mine, flora and fauna reserve nature walk, Bogan Weir, Australia's first upright wheat silo, heritage listed hospital, arts and crafts, Big Fish fossil hut, and a unique street facade which takes visitors back in time. The local community operates a volunteer-run radio station: PeakHillFM89.5. The station provides a round-the-clock service of classic hits seven days per week. Peak Hill styles itself as 'The Town With a Heart of Gold' to reflect its proximity to the goldmine, and lends its facilities as a base for tourists of Wiradjuri Country.

Silos

Peak Hill's central position in the New South Wales wheat belt may have been the reason why Peak Hill became the site for Australia's first upright bulk wheat

silo A silo (from the Greek σιρός – ''siros'', "pit for holding grain") is a structure for storing bulk materials. Silos are used in agriculture to store fermented feed known as silage, not to be confused with a grain bin, which is use ...

in 1918. It was not until 1927 that the next stage, the six-bin silos and weighbridge complex, was completed at Peak Hill. In 1950 the construction of three additional 50,000-

bushel A bushel (abbreviation: bsh. or bu.) is an imperial and US customary unit of volume based upon an earlier measure of dry capacity. The old bushel is equal to 2 kennings (obsolete), 4 pecks, or 8 dry gallons, and was used mostly for agric ...

bins was carried out and the bulkhead was completed in 1959. After viewing the current silo, it will become apparent that they have grown substantially over the years to cope with the local grain production. A lot of locally grown grain is also taken over to the Parkes silo. The Peak Hill silo can be viewed from Lindner Avenue, which runs parallel with the railway line.

War Memorials

Peak Hill has a war memorial at the Peak Hill Cemetery located north of the town on the Newell Highway. There is also the AIF War Memorial School of Arts, the War Memorial park, and the War Memorial Pool.

Places to stay

Double D Caravan Park Oasis Motel Club House Hotel

Places to see

Post Office Lindner Corner Railway Station Wheat Silos Club House Hotel Carrington Hotel CBC Bank Hospital St James Church St Joseph's Primary School Sisters of Mercy Convent Masonic Hall ANZ Bank AIF Memorial School of Arts

Recreation Areas

War Memorial Park Lindner Oval and Recreational area Commercial Gardens Bogan River reserve War Memorial Pool Bowling Club Golf Club

Arts and Crafts

Many arts and crafts are represented in the community.

Notable People

Graham Murray Graham Ernest Murray (6 January 1955 – 28 July 2013) was an Australian professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1970s and 1980s, and coached in the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s. A New South Wales State of Origin head coach, Murray c ...

, rugby league player and coach *

Willie Tonga Villiami Sione "Willie" Tonga (born 8 August 1983), also known by the nickname of "Little Willie", is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who last played for the Leigh Centurions in the Super League. An Australia internat ...

, Rugby League Player *

Esi Tonga Esikeli Tonga (born 5 February 1988) is a former Tonga international rugby league footballer who last previously played for the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles in the National Rugby League. A Tongan international representative three-quarter or sec ...

, Rugby League Player, Entrepreneur * Hanley, Kitty (Kate) (c. 1845–1917) Wiradjuri Elder and midwife

References

{{authority control Towns in the Central West (New South Wales) Newell Highway Parkes Shire Mining towns in New South Wales