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 ...

Port Macquarie-Hastings Council Port Macquarie-Hastings Council is a Local government in Australia, local government area in the Mid North Coast region of New South Wales, Australia. The area is located adjacent to the Hastings River, the Pacific Highway (Australia), Pacific ...

Port Macquarie Port Macquarie, sometimes shortened to Port Mac and commonly locally nicknamed Port, is a coastal city on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Australia, north of Sydney, and south of Brisbane, on the Tasman Sea coast at the mouth of the ...

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 ...

logging Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidder, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or trunk (botany), logs onto logging truck, trucksBirpai (also known as Birrbay) people have lived in this area for more than 40,000 years. By 1828 a number of land grants had been made along the Hastings River. It was not until 1836 that the village of Wauchope first came into existence. In that year Captain Robert Andrew Wauch (whose father dropped the 'ope' from the end of his name as a result of a family dispute) paid a deposit on on King Creek. He bought more property and built Wauch House. Robert Wauch died in the Macleay area in 1866, and the Government Gazette published the deeds of his properties, specifying that they should be called Wauchope. When the post office opened in a nearby settlement in 1881, it was named Wauchope, although the Government Gazette misprinted the name Wanghope, an error that was not corrected until 1889. It is pronounced ''war-hope'', although the family pronounced their name 'war-cope'. This is similar to the Canadian town which is pronounced 'walk-up'. The Wauchope family currently pronounce their name 'war-cope'.

Floods

The largest recorded flood in the Hastings River at Wauchope occurred on 13 January 1968 and reached a peak level of above the

Australian height datum The Australian Height Datum was introduced in 1971 as the official vertical datum for Australia, and thereby serves as the Benchmark (surveying), benchmark to which all height measurements are referred. The Australian Height Datum is an amalgama ...

(m AHD). The 1968 flood was estimated to be slightly rarer than a 100-year event. The next largest flood was determined to be the flood of 5 to 7 March 1894. This flood reached a peak flood level of 8.9 m AHD at Wauchope. Other major floods occurred at Wauchope in February 1950 (8.45 m AHD), February 1929 (8.3 m AHD), August 1864 (8.2 m AHD), and June 1950 (8.1 m AHD). The 1963 flood, which is notorious for the damage it caused in the lower reaches of the river, is only ranked as the eighth highest flood at Wauchope. It reached a peak level at Wauchope of 7.75 m AHD and was considered to be a 1 in 15-year event at Wauchope. On 23 February 2013 floodwaters peaked at 7.22 m AHD at 7.30pm after heavy rainfall in the upper catchment area.

Industry and economy

Wauchope's economy was traditionally based on the timber industry. At different stages in its history, more timber was transported out of Wauchope than out of any other town in Australia (via Wauchope railway station). Timber from the Yarras Plywood Sawmill near Wauchope was used in the construction of the Sydney Opera House. Many of the mill wokers were transported by Parsons Buses to the opening of the Opera House. Industry in and around Wauchope has transformed primarily into farming and tourism. The town also serves as a 'dormitory suburb' for the nearby and much larger

Port Macquarie Port Macquarie, sometimes shortened to Port Mac and commonly locally nicknamed Port, is a coastal city on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Australia, north of Sydney, and south of Brisbane, on the Tasman Sea coast at the mouth of the ...

. Increasingly, Wauchope and its surrounding villages and farms are becoming known for gourmet produce, including cheeses, wines and organic fruits and vegetables. The Hastings Farmers Markets are held at the Wauchope Showground on the 4th Saturday of every month and showcase a wide variety of local produce. Timbertown, the town's best-known tourist attraction, is a colonial-era themed village, which is located on the outskirts of Wauchope. It features static displays and attractions such as a working steam train,

bullock team A bullock cart or ox cart (sometimes called a Carriage#Bullock carriage, bullock carriage when carrying people in particular) is a two-wheeled or four-wheeled vehicle pulled by oxen. It is a means of transportation used since ancient times in m ...

, and 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 ...

. The Big Bull was a notable tourist attraction between Wauchope and Port Macquarie for twenty years, but was removed in 2007. Other important attractions include the historical society, historic buildings, Broken Bago vineyards and natural attractions including state forests and Bago Bluff National Park. Wauchope railway station serves as an interchange for passengers travelling to nearby coastal centres such as

Port Macquarie Port Macquarie, sometimes shortened to Port Mac and commonly locally nicknamed Port, is a coastal city on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Australia, north of Sydney, and south of Brisbane, on the Tasman Sea coast at the mouth of the ...

.

Layout

The township is set out along the southern bank of the Hastings River with the back drop of Bago Mountain further south. The main street is High Street (a small section of the Oxley Highway), running generally westward through the town after coming east from Port Macquarie and across the North Coast railway line. The main street includes the Co-op general store (previously Parkers) and a number of smaller businesses and local bank branches. At the corner of Hastings Street is the local post office. Further up the main street is the town clock, a legacy of the days the town was the centre of the Hastings Shire local government area. Back along Hastings Street is the Co-op supermarket as well as the court house. In 2009 work commenced on the rebuilding of this supermarket. The old building was completely demolished and a much larger and more modern structure was completed and opened in 2010. Wauchope Heritage Building

The main cross street is Cameron Street. The Hastings Hotel is on the south-east corner of Cameron and High and the Star Hotel is a short distance north. The RSL club is another north. Cameron Street leads to the Hastings River. A wharf was built at the northern end of Cameron Street for shipping produce downstream to Port Macquarie, but this no longer exists. South of the main shopping area is the Wauchope Golf Course and Country Club, which occupies a premium site within the middle of the town. Further west is Timbertown, on the edge of large tracts of forestry land leading into the Bago Mountain area. East of the main shopping area is the railway line from Sydney. The Hastings dairy and milk factory is located close to the point where the railway line crosses the Hastings River.

Schools

* Wauchope Public School * St Joseph's Primary School * Wauchope High School

Transport

Wauchope has its own railway station on the North Coast Line of New South Wales. It is serviced by six

NSW TrainLink NSW TrainLink is a regional train and coach operator in Australia, providing services throughout New South Wales and into Australian Capital Territory, the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria (state), Victoria, Queensland and South Australia ...

trains per day 3 heading South (to Sydney), 3 heading further north to Grafton, Casino, and Brisbane. Passengers can alight at this station for connecting coaches to the nearby Port Macquarie.

People from Wauchope

* Bill Bain –

Emmy award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

-winning TV director * Di Cook – Statistician * Iva Davies – Musician, Icehouse * Reginald Elliott Davies – Former Independent Member of Western Australian Parliament and Member of Special Air Service Regiment * Rhali Dobson – W-League footballer for Melbourne City * Angus Gill – Musician *

Phil Jamieson Philip William H Jamieson (born 18 April 1977) is an Australian musician from Hornsby, New South Wales. He is a founding member and singer-guitarist for the rock music, rock band Grinspoon. Early life and education Philip William H Jamieson wa ...

– Musician, Grinspoon * Allison Langdon – television presenter and journalist * Mark Laurie – former

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

footballer * Robert Laurie – former

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

footballer * Ian Schubert – former

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

footballer and current

NRL The National Rugby League (also known as the NRL Telstra Premiership for sponsorship reasons) is a professional rugby league competition in Oceania which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria (state), Victoria, the Austral ...

Salary Cap auditor. * Andrew Stoner – NSW

National Party of Australia The National Party of Australia, commonly known as the Nationals or simply the Nats, is a Centre-right politics, centre-right and Agrarianism, agrarian List of political parties in Australia, political party in Australia. Traditionally represe ...

leader, Member for Oxley * Rex Terp – former

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

footballer

Sister cities

The following city has been identified as a sister city of Wauchope by

Sister Cities International Sister Cities International (SCI) is a non-governmental organization (NGO) with the goal of facilitating partnerships between communities within the United States and other countries by establishing sister cities. Sister cities are agreements of ...

: * Canisteo, New York, United States

References

External links

Timbertown

Town History
{{authority control Towns in New South Wales Mid North Coast