Stuart Town, formerly known as Ironbark, is a small town on the Central Western Slopes of

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, Australia within

Dubbo Regional Council The Dubbo Regional Council is a local government area located in the Central West and Orana regions of New South Wales, Australia. The council was formed on 12 May 2016 through a merger of the City of Dubbo and Wellington Council as part of a ...

. It is located north-west of the state capital, Sydney. At the , Stuart Town had a population of 487. The area around the town is rich in cattle farming and orchards, so the town serves as a service centre to that area. It has
public school
an
Catholic
an

churches.

History

The area now known as Stuart Town lies within the traditional lands of the Wiradjuri people. The village was formerly called Ironbark and was established following the discovery of gold in the area in the early 1850s with the heyday of gold mining being in the late 1850s and 1860s. The gold attracted

bushranger Bushrangers were originally escaped convicts in the early years of the British settlement of Australia who used the bush as a refuge to hide from the authorities. By the 1820s, the term had evolved to refer to those who took up "robbery under ...

s to the area. It was renamed Stuart Town in 1879—with the arrival of the Main Western railway from Sydney—after Sir Alexander Stuart. Gold mining in the area was revived, from 1899 and during first decade of the 20th century, when gold dredge mining of the nearby Macquarie River bed and sediments was carried out. It has benefitted from its proximity to

Lake Burrendong Lake Burrendong is a man-made reservoir created by Burrendong Dam. It impounds waters on the Macquarie and Cudgegong rivers, near Wellington, in the central west region of New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales i ...

. Stuart Town is often claimed to be the birthplace of the former New South Wales Premier Sir Robert Askin. In fact, he was born at Glebe in Sydney, but he did spend much of his childhood at Stuart Town. Its original name, Ironbark, is used in the Banjo Paterson poem "

The Man from Ironbark "The Man From Ironbark" is a poem by Australian bush poet Banjo Paterson, Banjo Paterson (Andrew Barton Paterson). It is written in the iambic heptameter. It was first published in ''The Bulletin (Australian periodical), The Bulletin'' on 17 Decem ...

". It conducts an annual Man from Ironbark Festival.

Heritage listings

Stuart Town has a number of heritage-listed sites, including: * Main Western railway: Stuart Town railway station

Transport

Stuart Town station is served by a daily

NSW TrainLink NSW TrainLink is a train and coach operator in Australia, providing services throughout New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, along with limited interstate services into Victoria, Queensland and South Australia. Its primary interc ...

XPT service which runs between

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

and

Dubbo Dubbo () is a city in the Orana Region of New South Wales, Australia. It is the largest population centre in the Orana region, with a population of 43,516 at June 2021. The city is located at the intersection of the Newell, Mitchell, and Gol ...

References

External links

Wellington-NSW:Stuart Town
Towns in New South Wales Towns in the Central West (New South Wales) Dubbo Regional Council Mining towns in New South Wales {{CentralWestNSW-geo-stub