Lochinvar is a village in the

Hunter Region The Hunter Region, also commonly known as the Hunter Valley, Newcastle Region, or simply Hunter, spans the region in northern New South Wales, Australia, extending from approximately to north of Sydney. It contains the Hunter River (New Sout ...

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 ...

, eleven kilometres west of the regional centre of Maitland. Lochinvar is within the boundaries of the

City of Maitland The City of Maitland is a local government area in the lower Hunter region of New South Wales, Australia. The area is situated adjacent to the New England Highway and the Hunter railway line. The mayor of the City of Maitland is Cr. Philip ...

local government area and is named after

Lochinvar Lochinvar (or Lan Var) is a loch in the civil parish of Dalry in the historic county of Kirkcudbrightshire, Dumfries and Galloway Scotland. It is located in the Galloway Hills, around north-east of St. John's Town of Dalry. The loch formerly ...

, a

loch ''Loch'' ( ) is a word meaning "lake" or "inlet, sea inlet" in Scottish Gaelic, Scottish and Irish Gaelic, subsequently borrowed into English. In Irish contexts, it often appears in the anglicized form "lough". A small loch is sometimes calle ...

in southern

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. A historic home and property called "Windermere"
1821
is located near the town which underpins the history of Lochinvar. See Windermere House, NSW. There are other historic houses in the Hunter region and Lochinvar being one of the oldest towns in Australia has a rich cultural and historic culture. Visit various government and tourist websites for more informatio
VisitNSWEnvironmentNSW
has information about the Lochinvar Coach House and other historic houses on the NSW Heritage register Tourist information discusses the Lochinvar hotel being rebuilt 19
./
At the , it had a population of 784 people.

History

The town was very important for the History of agriculture in the area. It is one of the oldest towns in the

. The Windermere homestead (built around 1821-1823) by the Winder family (“Tom” i.e. Thomas White Melville Winder). It is the oldest homestead in the Hunter Region and likely built up by convicts and emancipated previously convict workers. See Windermere House, NSW. The Lochinvar house was built in 1841 and is also recognised as an important historic building in the area. It was operating as a guest house (bed and breakfast as at April 2024. There is some information about convicts that are connected with this house and other historic houses in the area. Temperature and weather records were kept from early times. Some weather history is still available (see references for history between 1843 and 1870, also between 1864 and 1870.

Soil

According t
Maitland Council development study pg.21
the soil on the slopes includes topsoil with clay underneath.

Education

On the highway through the town is a large Catholic convent housing the Sisters of St Joseph (1883). There is a secondary college on the grounds, St Joseph's College - a coeducational college which caters for students from Years 7–12. It was once also a boarding school for girls. It is also the site of Lochinvar Public School, as well as St Patrick's Lochinvar, the local Catholic primary school.

Transport

The town is mostly built up along the busy

New England Highway New England Highway is an long highway in Australia running from Yarraman, Queensland, Yarraman, north of Toowoomba, Queensland, at its northern end to Hexham, New South Wales, Hexham at Newcastle, New South Wales, Newcastle, New South Wales, ...

between the major centres of Maitland and

Singleton Singleton may refer to: Sciences, technology Mathematics * Singleton (mathematics), a set with exactly one element * Singleton field, used in conformal field theory Computing * Singleton pattern, a design pattern that allows only one instance ...

and is 165 kilometres north 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 ...

. Most people in the area work in nearby Maitland or Singleton.

Lochinvar railway station Lochinvar railway station is located on the Main Northern line in New South Wales, Australia. It serves the nearby town of Lochinvar opening on 2 July 1860. It briefly served as the terminus of the Great Northern Railway when it was extended ...

is some two kilometres south of the village. Hunter Valley Buses operates three bus routes through the village of Lochinvar.

Notable people

* Thomas White Melville Winder (1787-1853), originally received the land grant and planted the first grapes in the Hunter Valley, built “Windermere” (See “Windermere House”, NSW). * Actress sisters Abbie and Isabelle Cornish were born in the village in 1982 and 1994 respectively. * John Madsen - academic, physicist, engineer, mathematician

References

Suburbs of Maitland, New South Wales {{Maitland-geo-stub