
Forbes is a town in the
Central West 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 ...
,
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 ...
, located 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 ...
between
Parkes and
West Wyalong. According to the , Forbes has a population of 9,319.
Forbes is probably named after
Sir Francis Forbes, first Chief Justice of NSW.
Located on the banks of the
Lachlan River
The Lachlan River (Wiradjuri: ''Kalari'', ''Galiyarr'') is an intermittent river that is part of the Murrumbidgee catchment within the Murray–Darling basin, located in the Southern Tablelands, Central West, and Riverina regions of New Sou ...
, Forbes is above
sea-level and about west 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 ...
. The district is a cropping area where
wheat
Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...
and similar crops are grown. Nearby towns and villages include
Calarie,
Parkes,
Bedgerebong,
Bundabarrah,
Corradgery,
Daroobalgie,
Eugowra,
Ooma North and
Paytens Bridge. Forbes is subject to a pattern of flooding, generally occurring to a significant level once every seven years, including 2016
and 2022.
History
The area was home to 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 before non-indigenous settlement.
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 ...
passed through in 1817 during one of the first inland expeditions. Oxley named the site Camp Hill. He was unimpressed with the clay soil, poor timber and swamps and he concluded, ''it is impossible to imagine a worse country''.
The first settlers moved into the district in 1834.
Gold was discovered by Harry Stephan, also known as "German Harry", in June 1861.
Initially about 30,000 people moved to the goldfields, but by 1863 this had declined to about 3,500 because of the difficult mining conditions. The Post Office was opened on 1 December 1861 and given the name Black Ridge in response to the demand for postal services by those involved with the gold rush along the Lachlan River. That name was changed before opening. The Forbes Telegraph Office opened on 27 October 1862 after a telegraph line had been constructed from Orange. The two offices merged on 1 January 1870. On opening day of the Telegraph Office in 1862, the results of three days of races at the Lachlan Gold Fields were telegraphed to Bathurst.
The goldfields were originally named "Black Ridge", and the name "Forbes" celebrating Sir Francis Forbes was declared from Sydney as the result of a possible government administrative error. It is said that the name was meant for the town now known as "Hill End" between
Orange and
Mudgee
Mudgee () is a town in the Central West (New South Wales), Central West of New South Wales, Australia. It is in the broad fertile Cudgegong River valley north-west of Sydney and is the largest town in the Mid-Western Regional Council Local gov ...
, where gold was discovered around a similar time. Gold was initially found in the area known as Halpin's Flat. The Albion Hotel, once a
Cobb and Co.
stage coach
A stagecoach (also: stage coach, stage, road coach, ) is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by ...
stop, had tunnels situated underneath which were used during the gold rush to convey gold and money to and from the banks to minimise the chance of theft.
The Albion Hotel burnt down on 10 February 2009, losing years worth of history and memorabilia.
One of Australia's most renowned bushrangers,
Ben Hall, was shot dead in an early morning police ambush about to the north-west of Forbes on 5 May 1865. Hall and his gang were famous for stealing of
gold
Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...
and £3,700 from the nearby town of
Eugowra in 1862. He is buried in Forbes Cemetery.
Kate Kelly, the sister of bushranger
Ned Kelly
Edward Kelly (December 185411 November 1880) was an Australian bushranger, outlaw, gang leader, bank robber and convicted police-murderer. One of the last bushrangers, he is known for wearing armour of the Kelly gang, a suit of bulletproof ...
, lived in the town. She drowned in Lake Forbes while saving an Aboriginal child during a flood in 1898 and was found in a lagoon of the
Lachlan River
The Lachlan River (Wiradjuri: ''Kalari'', ''Galiyarr'') is an intermittent river that is part of the Murrumbidgee catchment within the Murray–Darling basin, located in the Southern Tablelands, Central West, and Riverina regions of New Sou ...
, just outside Forbes.
She is buried in Forbes Cemetery.
Heritage listings
Forbes has a number of heritage-listed sites, including:
* Billabong Creek, Ben Halls Road:
Ben Hall's Death Site
* Forbes Cemetery, Bogan Gate Road:
Grave of Ben Hall
* 118 Lachlan Street:
Forbes Post Office
* Parkes-Stockinbingal railway:
Forbes railway station
Demographics
According to the
2021 census of Population, there are 9,319 people in Forbes.
* Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 13.3% of the population, with 7.9% not stating if they are Indigenous or not
* 86.6% of people were born in Australia and 89.7% of people spoke only English at home.
* The most common responses for religion were Catholic 31.9%, No Religion 25.4 and Anglican at 20.8%
* For those aged 15+ the Participation in the labour force is as follows, In the Labour force 57.7%, Not in the Labour force 33.6% and Not stated 8.7%
Transport
The
Stockinbingal–Parkes railway line passes through Forbes. Passenger trains operated to Forbes until 1983.
Forbes lies at or near the confluence of 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 ...
, the
Lachlan Valley Way and
Henry Lawson Way.
Education
Forbes Shire has four public primary schools: Forbes Primary School, Forbes North Primary School, Corinella Public School and Bedgerebong Public School. There is one Catholic primary school, St Laurence's Primary School.
Forbes High School, a public school, is located to the north of town.
Red Bend Catholic College at Forbes is a co-educational secondary school, with the school located at the site of the former Marist Brothers' College, on the banks of the Lachlan River.
Local tertiary institutions are the Forbes College of
Technical and Further Education (TAFE) and the Forbes Conservatorium.
Sport
The Forbes Camel Races have been held annually since 2001 on
Good Friday
Good Friday, also known as Holy Friday, Great Friday, Great and Holy Friday, or Friday of the Passion of the Lord, is a solemn Christian holy day commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus and his death at Calvary (Golgotha). It is observed during ...
at the Forbes Racecourse.
Climate
Forbes lies in the transitional zones of the
cold semi-arid climate
Cold is the presence of low temperature, especially in the atmosphere. In common usage, cold is often a subjective perception. A lower bound to temperature is absolute zero, defined as 0.00K on the Kelvin scale, an absolute thermodynamic ...
(''BSk'') and
humid subtropical climate
A humid subtropical climate is a subtropical -temperate climate type, characterized by long and hot summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between ...
s (''Cfa''), with a large temperature variation between seasons, and moderate rainfall spread evenly throughout the year. Extreme temperatures have ranged from on 11 January 1882, to on both 11 July 1958 and 15 June 1959; the warmest minimum was on 24 January 1896; and the coolest maximum, on 27 June 1904.
Notwithstanding its northerly latitude and low elevation of just , snow has been known to fall on a few occasions—one of which saw a daily snowfall total of on 5 July 1900. It is considerably sunny with 133.2 clear days annually.
Floods
Since 1887 Forbes has experienced a major flood on average every seven years, with major flooding occurring in June 1952 with a peak of ; September 2016 with a peak of ;
August 1990 with a peak of ; October 1955 with a peak height of ; March 2012 with a peak height of ; and in August 1998 with a peak height of .
Forbes' most recent major flood was in late September 2016 after heavy rain fell on much of inland NSW; as the Bureau of Meteorology declared 2016 as the third-wettest winter on record. Unseasonal heavy rainfall in most of the state, centred on the catchment area of the upper Lachlan during autumn and winter 2016, resulted in
Wyangala Dam water storage levels increasing from 38 per cent to 90 per cent.
By early August, the Bureau of Meteorology had issued flood warnings for the
Orara,
Macquarie,
Bogan and Lachlan rivers. In late August, Water NSW began releasing up to per day from Wyangala Dam ahead of expected daily rainfall in the range of in the dam's catchment area. Moderate to major flooding first hit Forbes and in early September, and by mid-September predictions were for widespread flooding across most of inland New South Wales. By late September, flooding had peaked in Forbes at , with 1,000 people evacuated, as the Newell Highway was cut north and south of Forbes' central business district. Forbes was declared a natural disaster zone after flash flooding occurred, resulting in some residents being without homes.
Back up support was provided by the State Emergency Service and the
Australian Defence Force
The Australian Defence Force (ADF) is the Armed forces, military organisation responsible for the defence of Australia and its national interests. It consists of three branches: the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), Australian Army and the Royal Aus ...
. As the Lachlan flowed into the
Murrumbidgee River
The Murrumbidgee River () is a major tributary of the Murray River within the Murray–Darling basin and the second longest river in Australia. It flows through the Australian state of New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, desce ...
, major flooding occurred downriver during late October and early November at and .
Newspapers
There are two local newspapers servicing Forbes.
* ''The
Forbes Advocate'' is owned by
Fairfax Media
Fairfax Media was a media (communication), media company in Australia and New Zealand, with investments in newspaper, magazines, radio and digital properties. The company was founded by John Fairfax as John Fairfax and Sons, who purchased ''The ...
.
* ''The Forbes Phoenix'' is a free weekly paper that is published on Fridays. It is part of the independently owned Phoenix Group of papers.
Notable residents
*
Phil Adams, former Olympian and Commonwealth Games (record) medal holder in sport shooting
*
Chris Anderson, who played for and coached the Australian rugby league team, attended Red Bend Catholic College in Forbes
*
Grant Bartholomaeus, former Sydney Swans Australian rules footballer
*
Nedd Brockmann, ultramarathon runner
*
Janet Dawson, Australian artist, spent childhood years in Forbes
*
Sir Hugh Robert Denison, tobacco manufacturer, newspaper proprietor and philanthropist, was born in Forbes in 1865
*
Richard Dixon, former national president of the
Communist Party of Australia
The Communist Party of Australia (CPA), known as the Australian Communist Party (ACP) from 1944 to 1951, was an Australian communist party founded in 1920. The party existed until roughly 1991, with its membership and influence having been ...
, was born in Forbes in 1905
*
Malcolm Johnston - Australian Racing Hall of Fame jockey
*
Eve Langley,
New Zealand-famed novelist, was born in Forbes in 1904
* Celia Pavey, known professionally as
Vera Blue
Celia Pavey, known professionally as Vera Blue, is an Australian singer-songwriter signed with Island Records Australia, which is part of Universal Music Australia. Her folk-inspired album '' This Music'' peaked at number 14 on the Australian ...
, is an Australian singer-songwriter who was born in Forbes January 1994
*
Cec Pepper (1916-1993), first-class cricketer, was born in Forbes
*
Charlie Staines, rugby league player for the
Wests Tigers
The Wests Tigers is an Australian professional rugby league football team, based in the Inner West of Sydney and South Western Sydney. The Tigers have competed in the National Rugby League (NRL) since being formed at the end of the 1999 N ...
, born in Forbes.
*
Carolyn Simpson,
a judge of the
Supreme Court of New South Wales
The Supreme Court of New South Wales is the highest state court of the Australian States and territories of Australia, State of New South Wales. It has unlimited jurisdiction within the state in civil law (common law), civil matters, and hears ...
; Member of the first all-female
bench to sit in an Australian court
*
Carmel Tebbutt, former Deputy Premier of New South Wales
*
Damian Kennedy former western suburbs magpies and Canberra Raiders player
*
Adrian Toole former north Sydney bears player
References
External links
Forbes - VisitNSW
{{authority control
Towns in New South Wales
Towns in the Central West (New South Wales)
Newell Highway
1861 establishments in Australia
Forbes Shire
Mining towns in New South Wales