Coonabarabran, New South Wales
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Coonabarabran () is a town in
Warrumbungle Shire The Warrumbungle Shire is a local government area in the central western region of New South Wales, Australia. The Shire is traversed by the Newell Highway. The Warrumbungle mountain range and Warrumbungles National Park are major tourist at ...
that sits on the divide between the Central West and
North West Slopes The North West Slopes region of New South Wales, Australia, refers generally to the area west of the Northern Tablelands, to the north of the Central West region and to the east of the Far West region. Despite its name, the region is in north- ...
regions 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 ...
, Australia. At the 2021 census, the town had a population of 2,387, Material was copied from this source, which is available under
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
.
and as of 2021, the population of Coonabarabran and its surrounding area is 3,477. Local and district residents refer to the town as 'Coona'. Coonabarabran is the gateway to the
Warrumbungle National Park Warrumbungle National Park is a Australian National Heritage List, heritage listed national park located in the Orana (New South Wales), Orana region of New South Wales, Australia. The national park is located approximately northwest of Sydney ...
,
Siding Spring Observatory Siding Spring Observatory near Coonabarabran, New South Wales, Australia, part of the Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics (RSAA) at the Australian National University (ANU), incorporates the Anglo-Australian Telescope along with a coll ...
and the
Pilliga Forest The Pilliga Forest, sometimes known as the Pilliga Scrub, constitute over 5,000 km2 of semi-arid woodland in temperate north-central New South Wales, Australia. It is the largest such continuous remnant in the state. The forest is lo ...
.


Etymology

The origin of the name ''Coonabarabran'' is unconfirmed. It may derive from a person's name or from the Kamilaroi language word gunbaraaybaa''' meaning 'excrement', translated earlier as meaning, 'peculiar odour', this is possibly a bowdlerisation. Another possible meaning is derived from 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 ...
word for an inquisitive person, ‘''gunabaraburan''’. 'Coolabarabran' was the name of a station owned by James Weston in 1848.


History

The area around Coonabarabran and the
Warrumbungles The Warrumbungles is a mountain range in the Orana region of New South Wales, Australia. The nearest town is Coonabarabran. The area is easiest accessed from the Newell Highway which is the major road link directly between Melbourne, Victoria ...
has been occupied by the
Kamilaroi The Gamilaroi, also known as Gomeroi, Kamilaroi, Kamillaroi and other variations, are an Aboriginal Australian people whose lands extend from New South Wales to southern Queensland. They form one of the four largest Indigenous Australians, Indi ...
people for approximately 7,500 years. In 1818, the area was opened up for European settlement, when the surveyor-general for the
Colony of New South Wales The Colony of New South Wales was a colony of the British Empire from 1788 to 1901, when it became a State of the Commonwealth of Australia. At its greatest extent, the colony of New South Wales included the present-day Australian states of New ...
,
John Oxley John Joseph William Molesworth Oxley (1784 – 25 May 1828) was an English List of explorers, explorer and surveyor of Australia in the early period of British colonisation. He served as Surveyor General of New South Wales and is perhaps bes ...
, made an expedition through the north-west areas of the colony. Oxley surveyed the area around the Warrumbungles mountain range, which he named the "Arbuthnot Range". The former convict, James Weston (1800–1883), who was assigned to the Cassilis area in the Upper Hunter Region before being granted his freedom in 1843, acquired the agricultural area known as "Coolabarbyan" in the district in 1843. Weston was among the first permanent settlers in the district, cultivating 20 acres of wheat and constructing a water-powered mill to make flour from his crops on the southern bank of the
Castlereagh River The Castlereagh River is located in the central–western district of New South Wales, Australia. It is part of the Macquarie-Castlereagh catchment within the Murray–Darling basin and is an unregulated river, meaning no dams or storage have b ...
(now Neilson Park), being appointed postmaster in 1849, and establishing the first inn, the "Castlereagh Inn" in the early 1850s. In 1859, the town was first surveyed by Lewis Gordon, with the first sale of land recorded in 1859. European settlement continued to grow from the 1860s, as the wheat industry moved from coastal areas to further inland, encouraged by the
Robertson Land Acts The Crown Lands Acts 1861 (NSW) (or Robertson Land Acts) were introduced by the New South Wales Premier, John Robertson, in 1861 to reform land holdings in New South Wales and in particular to break the squattocracy's domination of land tenure. ...
. A Police watch house was completed in 1857, and the first Court House was completed in 1861. The Village of Coonabarabran was gazetted on 2 May 1860. In 1870, the Public School was opened. After construction of a new stone courthouse in 1878 the original courthouse was demolished and a post and telegraph office constructed on its site in 1879. The
Coonabarabran Shire The Coonabarabran Shire was a Local government in Australia, local government area in the Orana (New South Wales), Orana region of New South Wales, Australia. The Shire was proclaimed on 7 March 1906 with the enactment of the ''Local Government ...
was proclaimed on 7 March 1906, with the enactment of the ''
Local Government (Shires) Act 1905 Local Government (Shires) Act 1905 was a landmark New South Wales statute notable for the compulsory incorporation of local government areas A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is ...
''. With incorporation, the town continued to grow with the construction of the
railway line Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of land transport, next to road ...
through Binnaway to Coonabarabran in 1917 (extended to Baradine and Gwabegar in 1923) and the establishment of the
Forestry Commission The Forestry Commission is a non-ministerial government department responsible for the management of publicly owned forests and the regulation of both public and private forestry in England. The Forestry Commission was previously also respons ...
in 1916, both of which facilitated the growth of agriculture and forestry as the primary industries of the region. In 1926–1928, a local committee organised the development of the town memorial to the First World War in the form of the Coonabarabran Memorial Clock Tower at the central town intersection of John Street and Dalgarno Street. Built from local sandstone by Edmund Pye of
Gunnedah Gunnedah () is a town in north-central New South Wales, Australia and is the seat of the Gunnedah Shire Local government in Australia, local government area. In the the town recorded a population of 8,338. Gunnedah is situated within the Liver ...
at a cost of £1,300, the clock tower was officially dedicated on 23 August 1928 by Major General Charles Frederick Cox.


Heritage listings

Coonabarabran has a number of heritage-listed sites, including those listed on the
New South Wales State Heritage Register The New South Wales State Heritage Register, also known as NSW State Heritage Register, is a heritage list of places in the state of New South Wales, Australia, that are protected by New South Wales legislation, generally covered by the Heritag ...
(SHR)
State Government Agency Section 170 Registers
(s.170), and th
Warrumbungle Local Environmental Plan
(LEP). The first heritage listings occurred under the now-defunct national
Register of the National Estate The Register of the National Estate was a heritage register that listed natural and cultural heritage places in Australia that was closed in 2007. Phasing out began in 2003, when the Australian National Heritage List and the Commonwealth Heri ...
in 1978, and the Coonabarabran Local Environmental Plan 1990, but no further local level studies have been undertaken since. * Coonabarabran Railway Precinct (s.170) * Dalgarno Street: Coonabarabran General Cemetery (LEP) * John and Dalgarno streets: Coonabarabran Clock Tower (LEP) * John and Dalgarno streets: Coonabarabran Courthouse (LEP & s.170) * Main Road, 55: Flags Inn Site (LEP; Archaeological) * Oxley Highway: Burra Bee Dee Mission and Cemetery (SHR & LEP) * 4 km west of Bulgaldie: Chalk Mountain Area (LEP)


Demographics

According to the 2021 Census, there were 2,387 people in Coonabarabran. * Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 15.8% of the population. * 77.9% of people were born in Australia and 80.2% of people spoke only English at home. * The most common responses for religion were No Religion 27.1%, Catholic 20.8% and Anglican 20.0%.


Astronomy

Coonabarabran is the closest town to the
Siding Spring Observatory Siding Spring Observatory near Coonabarabran, New South Wales, Australia, part of the Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics (RSAA) at the Australian National University (ANU), incorporates the Anglo-Australian Telescope along with a coll ...
, which is home to the 3.9-metre
Anglo-Australian Telescope The Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) is a 3.9-metre Equatorial mount, equatorially mounted telescope operated by the Australian Astronomical Observatory and situated at the Siding Spring Observatory, Australia, at an altitude of a little over 1, ...
, the largest optical telescope in Australia. It is operated by the
Australian Astronomical Observatory The Australian Astronomical Observatory (AAO), formerly the Anglo-Australian Observatory, was an optical and near-infrared astronomy observatory with its headquarters in North Ryde in suburban Sydney, Australia. Originally funded jointly by the G ...
(formerly the Anglo-Australian Observatory). A dozen other telescopes are on Siding Spring Mountain, a number of which are operated by the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics of the
Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...
. Siding Spring is also home to the Uppsala Telescope where Robert H. McNaught discovered his now famous daylight comet
C/2006 P1 Comet McNaught, also known as the Great Comet of 2007 and given the designation C/2006 P1, is a non-periodic comet discovered on 7 August 2006 by British-Australian astronomer Robert H. McNaught using the Uppsala Southern Schmidt Telescope. I ...
in August 2006. The
Mopra Observatory The 22-metre Mopra Radio Telescope, located near Coonabarabran, New South Wales, is part of the Australia Telescope National Facility, operated by CSIRO. The name hails from the location of the facility close to Mopra Rock a geological formatio ...
, which is home to a 22-metre radio telescope owned and operated by the
CSIRO The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is an Australian Government agency that is responsible for scientific research and its commercial and industrial applications. CSIRO works with leading organisations arou ...
is also near the Siding Spring Observatory, but is operated remotely from Narrabri. A recent addition to the town was the construction of the world's largest virtual
Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Sola ...
drive on the roads leading to the observatory. Coonabarabran markets itself as the "astronomy capital of Australia", many of the businesses and government buildings in the town feature astronomically themed information plaques.


Recreation

Coonabarabran Unicorns rugby league team play in the
Castlereagh Cup The Castlereagh League (also known as the Castlereagh Cup and Group 14) is a rugby league competition in western New South Wales, Australia, run under the auspices of the New South Wales Country Rugby League, Country Rugby League. For all intent ...
.


Churches

The
Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...
Christ Church at 94 Dalgarno Street was opened in 1939 by Bishop Arnold Wylde to a design by Lindsay Gordon Scott. Other Churches include St. Lawrence's Catholic Church, Presbyterian Church, Uniting Church and Seventh Day Adventist Church.


Climate

Coonabarabran has a
subtropical climate The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical and climate zones immediately to the north and south of the tropics. Geographically part of the temperate zones of both hemispheres, they cover the middle latitudes from to approximately 3 ...
(
Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...
''Cfa''), with hot summers and cool winters. On average, 56.6 mornings (including 16.3 in July) fall below ; and in July 2002 the monthly mean minimum was as low as . Rainfall is greatest from December to February with summer
thunderstorm A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm or a lightning storm, is a storm characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustics, acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere, known as thunder. Relatively weak thunderstorm ...
s. Temperature extremes have historically ranged from to .


Media

Independently owned and operated, the '' Coonabarabran Times'' newspaper circulates throughout the Warrumbungle Shire area. Approximately 2700 copies are distributed each Thursday across the townships of Coonabarabran, Binnaway, Baradine, Coolah, Dunedoo, Mendooran and Mullaley. The ''Coonabarabran Times'' was founded in 1927 as an amalgamation of ''The Bligh Watchman'' (1877–1927) and ''The Clarion'' (1910–1927). It continues to be a solid publication, consisting of local news and issues facing the community, sport, events and advertisements. Coonabarabran registered Coonabarabran.com in 1999 and creating a website in 2001. Coonabarabran.org began in 2013 and it hosts Coonabarabran News, an online curation of local news and interest stories. Coonabarabran also has a
Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
page and
Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
account under the Coonabarabran name. Coonabarabran can receive television from both Northern NSW and Southern NSW television markets via Mount Dowe (Northern NSW) and Mount Cenn Cruaich (Southern NSW). The area is currently served by a small community radio station, 2WCR FM. This station broadcasts on 99.5 FM. It has a good broadcasting range but it can be a bit scratchy due to the hill-like terrain.


Schools

In Coonabarabran are three schools:


Coonabarabran Public School

Coonabarabran Public School (established 1870) is on John Street, on the Oxley Highway and is Government funded. It has approximately 330 students from kindergarten to Year 6.


Coonabarabran High School

Coonabarabran High School (established 1962) is on the
Oxley Highway Oxley Highway is a rural highway in New South Wales, Australia, linking Nevertire, Gilgandra, Coonabarabran, Tamworth, and Walcha to Port Macquarie, on the coast of the Tasman Sea. It was named to commemorate John Oxley, the first European t ...
and is Government funded providing secondary education to the surrounding area. It has approximately 380 students.


St Lawrence's Catholic Primary School

St Lawrence's Catholic Primary School is on Dalgarno Street, founded in 1888 by the
Sisters of Saint Joseph The Sisters of St. Joseph, also known as the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph, abbreviated CSJ or SSJ, is a Catholic religious congregation of women founded in Le Puy-en-Velay, France, in 1650. This congregation, named for Saint Jo ...
. It caters for kindergarten to Year Six and has approximately 110 students. Education is based around the Catholic faith and is across the road from St Lawrence's Catholic Church. The high school part of the school closed at the end of 2009.


Notable residents

* Ros Bower (1923–1980), was a TV producer and a leader in community arts. She was born here. * Elizabeth Bryan, chair of
Insurance Australia Group Insurance Australia Group Limited (IAG) is a multinational insurance company. It is the largest general insurance company in Australia, and also the largest in New Zealand through its subsidiary IAG New Zealand. IAG had its origins in the Na ...
* Mary Jane Cain, indigenous Australian who was instrumental in the 1912 establishment of the "Burra Bee Dee" Aboriginal Reserve * Gerard Sutton, rugby league referee * Kylea Tink, politician * Kyle Turner, rugby league player 2014 premiership winner with South Sydney * Will Robinson, rugby league player


Transport

The township is on the
Newell Highway Newell Highway is a National Highway (Australia), national highway in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. It provides the major road link between southeastern Queensland and Victoria (state), Victoria via central NSW and as such carries large amo ...
and the
Oxley Highway Oxley Highway is a rural highway in New South Wales, Australia, linking Nevertire, Gilgandra, Coonabarabran, Tamworth, and Walcha to Port Macquarie, on the coast of the Tasman Sea. It was named to commemorate John Oxley, the first European t ...
, approximately halfway between Melbourne and Brisbane and can be reached in about six hours by car from
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 ...
. It is on the main inland truck route between
Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...
and
Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...
. The
Gwabegar railway line The Gwabegar railway line is a railway line in the Central West and North West Slopes of New South Wales, Australia, which passes through the towns of Mudgee, Gulgong, Dunedoo, Coonabarabran Coonabarabran () is a town in Warrumbungle Shi ...
passes through the town. Passenger rail services were replaced by coaches in the 1970s. The section of the Gwabegar line between Binnaway and Gwabegar is booked out of use, from 28 October 2005 for safety reasons. Coonabarabran Airport is 12 km south of the town.


References


External links

*
Strap on your seatbelts and launch into Coonabarabran, The Astronomy Capital of Australia. Experience a scaled model of our Solar System that's 38 million times smaller than outer space!

Coonabarabran Astronomy Capital of Australia

Australia Telescope National Facility
{{Authority control Towns in New South Wales Newell Highway Warrumbungle Shire Coonabarabran, New South Wales