Borenore is a small rural community located 14 kilometres (8.7 miles) west of

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

along The Escort Way, in the central western region of

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 ...

. Borenore is situated in the

Cabonne Shire Cabonne Council is a local government area in the Central West region of New South Wales, Australia. The Shire is located adjacent to the Mitchell Highway and the Broken Hill railway line, partly surrounding the City of Orange. The administrat ...

local government area.

History

The area now known as Borenore lies on the traditional lands 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. The first settler homes in the Borenore district were built in the early 1860s. Borenore soon became a large settlement. The first European settlers adopted the aboriginal name of the area "Bora-Nora". A Bora is the name given both to an initiation ceremony of

Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...

, and to the site on which the initiation is performed. At such a site, boys achieve the status of men. "Nora" refers to the overhanging rock near where such ceremonies were held, probably around the area of the Borenore Caves. The original spelling and pronunciation of Bora-Nora is said to have been altered on maps made in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

and became Borenore. The first recorded settler in the area of what is now known as Borenore was

William Wentworth William Charles Wentworth (August 179020 March 1872) was an Australian statesman, pastoralist, explorer, newspaper editor, lawyer, politician and author, who became one of the wealthiest and most powerful figures in colonial New South Wales. He ...

. After his conquest of the Blue Mountains, Wentworth pushed further into the Central Western region. In 1820s Wentworth squatted at Boree. At that time what is now the County of Wellington was considered to be outside the bounds of civilised settlement. Wentworth held an area that extended from Boree to Mount Canobolas to Toogong to Borenore. The first survey of the

district was done in 1828/29. This was followed by Major Mitchell's expedition to the Darling in 1835 during which he passed through the Borenore area. An entry in his journal dated 5 April 1835: :"Here I at length took leave of my friend, to pursue a long and dreary ride along the track which led to Buree. The wood consisted chiefly of those kinds of eucalyptus, termed box and apple-tree – forming a very open kind of forest, the hollows being in general quite clear of trees. The farther I proceeded westward, the more the country exhibited the withering effects of long drought. The mountain mass of the Canobolas, lay to the southward of my route; and on crossing the lofty range which here divides the counties of Bathurst and

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

, the summit was distant only four miles. The country in the neighbourhood of that mass, consists of trap and limestone, and is, upon the whole, very favourable for sheep-farming. The region to the westward of the Canobolas is still unsurveyed, being beyond the limits of the county divisions." The area would be used by Mitchell as the assembly location for his

second The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of U ...

third Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system Places * 3rd Street (di ...

and fourth expeditions. On his second expedition to the Darling and

Bogan River Bogan River, a perennial river that is part of the Macquarie– Barwon catchment within the Murray–Darling basin, is located in the central west and Orana regions of New South Wales, Australia. From its origin near Parkes, the Bogan River ...

s, Michell met the main party there; it had come from Parramatta, under the command of Mitchell's second-in-command, his Assistant Surveyor,

James Larmer James Larmer (b. 1808 or 1809 – d. 1886) was a government surveyor in the colony of New South Wales. Between 1830 and 1859, he surveyed land, roads and settlements in New South Wales. He was an Assistant Surveyor to the Surveyor-General, Thomas ...

. The Borenore area was the homeland of a Wirajuri man, Yuranigh, who Mitchell described in his journal as his ''"guide, companion, counsellor and friend"''. Yuranigh's main contribution, to Mitchell's fourth expedition, lay in his ability to negotiate with other Aboriginal people, through whose territory they passed, and in his extensive bush lore and knowledge of country, with which he advised Mitchell. In 1836, Mitchell visited the "Little Caves" at the Borenore Caves and collected some bones of extinct animals.

Australian National Field Days

Borenore is home to the Australian National Field Days. The Australian National Field Days is an annual agricultural exhibition. Each year it attracts around 20,000 people and over 600 exhibitors over 3 days in October.

Borenore School

Education in Borenore began with small part-time schools, one of the earliest being a family one at Stanley Farm where the Watts family settled. In 1875 an application was lodged to the Council of Education for the establishment of a public school at Borenore. The building was completed in May 1878.

Borenore railway station

The first train to reach the Borenore Railway Station on the

Broken Hill railway line The Broken Hill railway line, extending from Orange, New South Wales to Broken Hill, is now part of the transcontinental rail corridor from Sydney to Perth. The first railway line in New South Wales opened from Sydney to Parramatta Junction ...

arrived on 21 December 1885. The station is now closed. The station buildings were used by the local tennis club but this has since become defunct. All but the old station bathrooms are closed to the public and disused.

References

{{authority control Towns in New South Wales Towns in the Central West (New South Wales) Cabonne Council