Exeter () is a village in the Southern Highlands district 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 Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, in

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 ...

. It has a

station Station may refer to: Agriculture * Station (Australian agriculture), a large Australian landholding used for livestock production * Station (New Zealand agriculture), a large New Zealand farm used for grazing by sheep and cattle ** Cattle statio ...

on the

Main Southern railway line The Main Southern Railway (or Great Southern Railway) is a major railway in New South Wales, Australia. It runs from Sydney to Albury, near the Victorian border. The line passes through the Southern Highlands, Southern Tablelands, South West ...

south of

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 ...

History

The village was founded by James Badgery, who was born near the County Town of

Exeter Exeter ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and the county town of Devon in South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter w ...

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

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. He arrived in New South Wales in 1799, and by 1812 was operating ‘Exeter Farms’ near Bringelly. His fortunes prospered and he explored further south arriving in what is now Exeter in 1819. In 1821 Badgery took up a 500-acre land grant on the site of the present village calling the new property Spring Grove. His son Henry continued expansion in the locality and by 1841 there was a flourishing community on the various Badgery properties. Eleven households with 79 people appear on the NSW Census of that year. Their principal property, Vine Lodge, accommodated 33 residents, including 13 convicts and ex-convicts. Following the subdivision of Vine Lodge around 1888, the name of Exeter came into being in 1890 for the present village. There was a railway accident at Exeter in fog on a single line on 13 March 1914, killing 14 people, when the Temora Mail collided with the locomotive of a goods train which had not completed backing into a siding to allow the Mail train to pass. This is NSW's third worst railway accident.

Population

At the , Exeter had a population of 949. At the 2021 census, there were 1,087 people living at Exeter.

Heritage listings

Exeter has a number of heritage-listed sites, including: * Main Southern railway: Exeter railway station

School

Schools in Exeter: * Exeter Public School

References

External links

Exeter page
on the Southern Highlands district website
Detailed history
of the village on the same site Towns of the Southern Highlands (New South Wales) Wingecarribee Shire {{Wingecarribee-geo-stub