Spring Hill is a small village 13 km south-east of Orange,

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 ...

. Its buildings date back to the 1870s and a Heritage Trail has been established for tourists. At the , Spring Hill had a population of 304.

Mining

Following the failure of Messrs G. & C. Hoskins in 1915 to persuade the

New South Wales Government The Government of New South Wales, also known as the NSW Government, is the executive state government of New South Wales, Australia. The government comprises 11 portfolios, led by a ministerial department and supported by several agencies. Th ...

to construct a branch railway from the sidings at Spring Hill to the mines at Cadia where they had agreed to remove the

ironstone Ironstone is a sedimentary rock, either deposited directly as a ferruginous sediment or created by chemical replacement, that contains a substantial proportion of an iron ore compound from which iron (Fe) can be smelted commercially. Not to be c ...

overlay for processing in the ironworks at Lithgow, the company decided to construct a private railway line''The Cadia Ironstone Railway, Spring Hill'' Eardley, Gifford

Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin ''Australian Railway History'' is a monthly magazine covering railway history in Australia, published by the New South Wales Division of the Australian Railway Historical Society on behalf of its state and territory Divisions. History and pro ...

, January, 1971 pp1-9; February, 1974 pp40-43 from the Iron Duke Copper Mine at Cadia to the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, ...

at Spring Hill. The line remained until 1945, having enjoyed a renaissance during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

References

Towns in New South Wales City of Orange (New South Wales) Main Western railway line, New South Wales {{CentralWestNSW-geo-stub