Bargo, New South Wales
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Bargo is a town in the
Macarthur Region Macarthur is a region in the Outer South-West part of the Greater Sydney area, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The region includes the local government areas of the City of Campbelltown, the Camden Council and the Wollondilly Sh ...
of
Greater Sydney Greater Sydney is the most populous metropolitan area in Australia and Oceania. Located in the state of New South Wales, it encompasses the City of Sydney (the state capital), its neighbouring local government areas and surrounding regions. I ...
in
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, in the
Wollondilly Shire Wollondilly Shire is a Peri-urbanisation, periurban Local government in Australia, local government area that is located on the far southwest fringe of the Sydney, Greater Sydney area in New South Wales, Australia. The local government area is pa ...
. It is located approximately halfway between Campbelltown and
Bowral Bowral () is the largest town in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia. It is south-west of Sydney and north-east of Canberra. It is the main business and entertainment precinct of the Wingecarribee Shire and the Southern Highl ...
, about 100 km south west of the Sydney CBD. It is situated between the township of Tahmoor (north) and the village of
Yanderra Yanderra is a small suburb and locality that is located in the Macarthur Region of Sydney in New South Wales, Australia. Yanderra is geographically the southernmost point of the Greater Sydney area that is located on the Hume Highway. The subur ...
(south), and accessible via the Hume Highway that links Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne. It was previously known as West Bargo and Cobargo.


History

The name Bargo may be derived from the local Aboriginal language name ''Barago'', meaning cripple, thick scrub, or brushwood. The earliest reference to ''Barago'' was noted as by
George Caley George Caley (10 June 1770 – 23 May 1829) was an English botanist and explorer, active in Australia for the majority of his career. Early life Caley was born in Craven District, Craven, Yorkshire, England, the son of a horse-dealer. He was ed ...
in a letter to
Sir Joseph Banks Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, (19 June 1820) was an English naturalist, botanist, and patron of the natural sciences. Banks made his name on the 1766 natural-history expedition to Newfoundland and Labrador. He took part in Captain James Co ...
on 25 September 1807. The
Aboriginal people There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...
, called the Bargo area ''Narregarang'', meaning that the soil was not firm – a shaky place. Caley's Aboriginal guide Mowatiin referred to the area's name as meaning "place of cliffs" or "thick shrubs". Early explorers and convicts found getting through the Bargo area a difficult experience due to the thick scrub, explorers dubbing the tricky bush the "Bargo Brush". In early colonial times, Bargo Brush became notorious among travellers for harbouring convicts who had escaped from captivity and become
bushrangers Bushrangers were armed robbers and outlaws who resided in the Australian bush between the 1780s and the early 20th century. The original use of the term dates back to the early years of the British colonisation of Australia, and applied to ...
. Bayley quotes William Riley, who passed through Bargo Brush on horseback in 1830:
"... a miserable, barren scrub, thickly wooded for eight miles; there having been so much rain lately this abominable part of the road was a continuation of bogs for eight miles." Soon the Brush, with its thickets for hideouts, became the lurking place for robbers and caused travel to become fraught with peril. The ''Sydney Gazette'' of 17 March 1832 reported the road as ". . . one uninterrupted morass"!
J. H. Heaton, under the heading 'Crimes and Criminals, Remarkable' lists "Desperate conflict between four police and eleven prisoners at Bargo Brush, N.S.W. Constable Raymond shot dead by a prisoner named James Crookwell, 15 April 1866." Bargo is noted as being where the first recorded sightings of the
lyrebird A lyrebird is either of two species of ground-dwelling Australian birds that compose the genus ''Menura'', and the family Menuridae. They are most notable for their impressive ability to mimic natural and artificial sounds from their environme ...
,
koala The koala (''Phascolarctos cinereus''), sometimes inaccurately called the koala bear, is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia. It is the only Extant taxon, extant representative of the Family (biology), family ''Phascolar ...
and
wombat Wombats are short-legged, muscular quadrupedal marsupials of the family Vombatidae that are native to Australia. Living species are about in length with small, stubby tails and weigh between . They are adaptable and habitat tolerant, and are ...
took place by European settlers. Bargo is also near the site of an infamous
massacre A massacre is an event of killing people who are not engaged in hostilities or are defenseless. It is generally used to describe a targeted killing of civilians Glossary of French words and expressions in English#En masse, en masse by an armed ...
in 1816, when settlers forced local Aborigines to walk off a big cliff and shot them if they refused. Bargo Police Station, now abandoned, is currently used as a doctors' surgery. The lock-ups remain behind the building. The patrol area of the Bargo Police Station included Pheasants Nest, Bargo, parts of Tahmoor and Yanderra.


Railway

Bargo railway station Bargo railway station is located on the Main Southern railway line, Main Southern line in New South Wales, Australia. It serves the town of Bargo, opening on 13 July 1919 as West Bargo at the same time as a new alignment between Picton railway ...
was first opened on 19 July 1919 as ''West Bargo'' and then renamed in 1921 as ''Bargo''. The station is on the
Main South line The Main South Line, sometimes referred to as part of the South Island Main Trunk Railway, is a railway line that runs north and south from Lyttelton, New Zealand, Lyttelton in New Zealand through Christchurch and along the east coast of the ...
and is served by
Sydney Trains Sydney Trains is the brand name and operator of Railways in Sydney, suburban and intercity train services in and around Greater Sydney in New South Wales, Australia. The metropolitan part of the network is a hybrid urban rail, urban-suburban r ...
Southern Highlands Line The Southern Highlands Line (SHL) is an Inter-city rail, intercity rail service that services the Macarthur, New South Wales, Macarthur, Southern Highlands (New South Wales), Southern Highlands and Southern Tablelands regions of New South Wal ...
services. The original Bargo railway station building on the eastern side of the platform was destroyed by arson; it was replaced by a
demountable A portable, demountable or transportable building is a building designed and built to be movable rather than permanently located. Smaller version of portable buildings are also known as portable cabins. Portable cabins are prefabricated struct ...
building.


Heritage listings

Bargo has a number of heritage-listed sites, including: * Avon Dam Road:
Nepean Dam The Nepean Dam is a heritage-listed dam split across Avon in the Wingecarribee Shire and Bargo in the Wollondilly Shire, both in New South Wales, Australia. The reservoir created by the dam spreads across Avon, Bargo and also Yerrinbool, New So ...
* Hume Highway: Wirrimbirra Sanctuary * Main Southern railway 96.265 km: Bargo railway viaduct


Population

At the time of the 2016 census, there were 4,393 people in Bargo. * Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 3.4% of the population. * 82.6% of people were born in Australia. The next most common country of birth was England at 4.5%. * 89.2% of people only spoke English at home. * The most common responses for religion were Anglican 28.9%, Catholic 28.0% and No Religion 22.6%.


Organisations

Wollondilly AFL Club Australian Football was established in Bargo in 1982 at the Bargo Sportsground. Firstly with the Wollondilly Junior Australian Football Club – The Cygnets with teams from U9's – U15's competing in the Greater West Sydney Competition. Then followed in 1989 Wollondilly Senior Australian Football Club – The Knights fielding First Grade and Reserve teams in the South Coast AFL Competition. In 2014 Wollondilly Senior Australian Football Club moved into the Sydney AFL Competition, competing in Division 4. Both Junior & Senior clubs now play home games at Hannaford Oval, Wilton. Yerrinbool-Bargo Bushrangers Bargo is home to the Yerrinbool-Bargo Bushrangers football team. The team was established by a group of men in the Pub one night, the Bushrangers now have teams from Under 6 to All Age Men & Women competing in the Highlands Competition. Notably, the Yerrinbool-Bargo coalition soccer team is one of the only local soccer teams where two places of different regions and councils form a coalition; Yerrinbool is of the Southern Highlands and
Wingecarribee Shire Wingecarribee Shire is the Local government in Australia, local government area of the Southern Highlands (New South Wales), Southern Highlands in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The Wingecarribee Shire is around southwest of Sydney a ...
while Bargo is part of the
Wollondilly Shire Wollondilly Shire is a Peri-urbanisation, periurban Local government in Australia, local government area that is located on the far southwest fringe of the Sydney, Greater Sydney area in New South Wales, Australia. The local government area is pa ...
and
Macarthur MacArthur or Macarthur may refer to: Arts and media * INSS MacArthur, a fictional starship featured in the science fiction novel ''The Mote in God's Eye'' * ''MacArthur'' (1977 film), a movie biography of General of the Army Douglas MacArthur * ' ...
Region. Bargo Rural Fire Brigade Bargo Rural Fire Brigade was established 1939. From its humble beginnings, the brigade's few handtools and drum of water have been constantly upgraded to its present-day Pumper, Heavy Tanker and Light Tankers, housed in the purpose-built Village Two category building on the outskirts of the township. The brigade's services include fighting structure fires and bush fires in the local area and attending vehicle accidents on the Hume Highway where passes through Wilton, Pheasants Nest and
Yanderra Yanderra is a small suburb and locality that is located in the Macarthur Region of Sydney in New South Wales, Australia. Yanderra is geographically the southernmost point of the Greater Sydney area that is located on the Hume Highway. The subur ...
. Bargo Fire Brigade assists with out-of-area disasters, for example, the 1994 Sydney Bushfires, the Sydney Hail Storm of 1999, the bushfires of the Christmas period 2001/2002, and 2007 Gosford storm damage. The Brigade celebrated its 70th year of operation on 26 December 2009. Bargo Yanderra Tennis Association has recently upgraded facilities with new court surfaces and is currently running an interclub competition between Thirlmere tennis club and Bargo. Ladies social competition are usually run on a Tuesday during school terms.


In popular culture

W. A. Bayley observed:
"The whole road was a nightmare with its succession of bogs where
bullock Bullock may refer to: Animals * Bullock (in British English), a castrated male cattle, bovine animal of any age * Bullock (in American English), a young bull (an uncastrated male bovine animal) * Bullock (in Australia, India and New Zealand), an o ...
waggons sank to their axles. Drivers cut saplings to
corduroy Corduroy is a textile with a distinctively raised "cord" or wale texture. Modern corduroy is most commonly composed of tufted cords, sometimes exhibiting a channel (bare to the base fabric) between them. Both velvet and corduroy derive from fu ...
sections of the road and threw stones into bogholes. Teams on unbogged waggons were attached to teams on bogged vehicles to help pull them free; sometimes only to see them sink again! A waggon could take a couple of days from Bargo River to
Mittagong Mittagong () is a town located in the Southern Highlands (New South Wales), Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia, in Wingecarribee Shire. The town acts as the gateway to the Southern Highlands when coming from Sydney. Mittagong is si ...
, camping the night anywhere around Yerrinbool, then called Little Forest, before the steep climb of Catherine Hill which would then be attacked with fresh bullocks in the morning... The ''Sydney Morning Herald'' of 2 June 1865 reported that it had not been uncommon to see all the types of vehicles 'stuck fast or rather half buried in the numerous sloughs ... filled with mud .'
A verse of the Australian folk song ''
Stringybark A stringybark can be any of the many ''Eucalyptus'' species which have thick, fibrous bark. Like all eucalypts, stringybarks belong to the family Myrtaceae. In exceptionally fertile locations some stringybark species (in particular messmate strin ...
and
Greenhide ''Greenhide'' is a 1926 Australian film directed by Charles Chauvel. Only part of the film survives. Plot High society girl Margery Paton (Elsa Chauvel) leaves the city to live on her father's cattle property, run by "Greenhide Gavin" (Bruce Go ...
'' (''circa'' 1865) celebrates the bad reputation among
bullock Bullock may refer to: Animals * Bullock (in British English), a castrated male cattle, bovine animal of any age * Bullock (in American English), a young bull (an uncastrated male bovine animal) * Bullock (in Australia, India and New Zealand), an o ...
drivers of the Bargo roads: "If you travel on the road, and chance to stick in Bargo,
To avoid a bad capsize, you must unload your cargo;
For to pull a dray about, I do not see the force on,
Take a bit of greenhide, and hook another horse on."


See also

*
Bargo River The Bargo River, a watercourse of the Hawkesbury- Nepean catchment, is located in the Southern Highlands and Macarthur districts of New South Wales, Australia. Course The Bargo River rises in the southern slopes of Southern Highlands, north o ...
*
Murder of Ebony Simpson The murder of Ebony Jane Simpson (born 22 December 1982) occurred on 19 August 1992 in , New South Wales, Australia. Aged nine years, Simpson was abducted, raped, and murdered by asphyxiation when Andrew Peter Garforth (born 5 August 1963) dro ...


References


External links


Bargo Volunteer Rural Fire Brigade

Storybook Alpacas, Bargo
{{Authority control Towns in New South Wales Towns in the Macarthur (New South Wales) Wollondilly Shire