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| The verandahed street
outside the museum in Gulgong |
Gulgong
Superb historic gold town
If you wish to gain some insight into how a 19th-century
Australian goldmining town looked, it would be hard to do
better than Gulgong - a highly picturesque and
well-preserved settlement of single-storey weatherboard,
iron, stone and brick buildings with old-fashioned iron-lace
verandahs, tiny wooden cottages, horse troughs and hitching
rails. The generally antiquated and intimate air also arises
from the narrow winding streets which developed as bullock
tracks connecting the major mining claims.
Gulgong is now a town of some 2500 people, located 293 km
north-west of Sydney, 28 km north of Mudgee and 466 m above
sea-level. The mainstays of the local economy are kaolin
clay mining, magnetite mining, a flour mill, the enormous
coal mine at Ulan (25 km north-east), tourism and rural
industries such as wool, wheat, oats, cattle and fat lambs.
Prior to white settlement, the district was occupied by
the Wiradjuri people whose language furnished the term
'Gulgong', said to mean 'deep waterhole'. Relations were
amicable when white numbers were negligible but as
settlement of the area west of the Blue Mountains escalated
in the 1820s conflict increased. Kangaroos and possums, meat
staples of the Wiradjuri, were slaughtered wholesale, sacred
sites were desecrated, prime riverside land taken. Martial
law was declared in 1824 and armed settlers roamed the
countryside murdering Aborigines on sight, thereby
decimating the tribe which was dispossessed and completely
broken by the 1840s. William Cox, who made a significant
contribution to their extermination, claimed the last local
black died in 1876.
William Cox's sons extended their
Mudgee holdings into the Gulgong area when they
established the 'Guntawang' cattle run in 1822, 8 km
south-west of the present townsite. Conflict with the
Wiradjuri saw them withdraw. However, the Rouse brothers
took cattle to the property and, in 1825, Richard Rouse was
granted the station, upon which the village of Guntawang
developed.
The discovery of gold saw the gazetting of the Gulgong
goldfield in 1866 but initial finds were negligible.
However, Tom Saunders, one of Rouse's shepherds, uncovered a
treasure trove on the future townsite (at Red Hill) on April
14, 1870, thereby sparking off a major goldrush. There were
500 people on the site within six weeks and when the town
was gazetted in 1872 there were reputedly 20 000 people in
the area.
Gulgong became a municipality in 1876 although the gold
had already began to dwindle. In all it is estimated that 15
000 kg of the precious metal were removed from the Gulgong
fields between 1870 and 1880. By 1881 the population was
down to 1212 and the boom years were over, although gold was
found in small quantities until the end of the century. From
that point, wheat and wool production, boosted by the
arrival of the railway in 1909, sustained the town.
Australia's first novelist of note, Thomas Alexander
Browne (alias Rolf Boldrewood) was the police magistrate
here during the boom years, from 1871-1881. During that time
he hosted a luncheon for English novelist Anthony Trollope
who visited the town and recorded his impressions in
Australia and New Zealand (1875). Browne drew on his
experiences at the goldfields in his novel The Miner's Right
(1890).
One of Australia's most famous poets and short-story
writers, Henry Lawson, lived at Gulgong as a young boy
(1871-72) as his family pursued the prospect of quick money
from
Grenfell to Eurunderee (see entry on
Mudgee) to Gulgong. Several of his stories are set at
Gulgong, although the references are not flattering. In
'Water Them Geraniums' post-goldrush Gulgong is described as
'a wretched remnant of a town on an abandoned goldfield'. In
'Brighten's Sister-in-Law' it is 'dreary and dismal'.
On a less salubrious note, 73-year-old Alexander McKay
became one of the victims in the murderous rampage of Jimmy
and Joe Governor (see entry on
Gilgandra) when, in 1900, he was bludgeoned with a
tomahawk near Ulan, 25 km north-east of Gulgong.
The Gulgong Folk Festival is held in December/January,
the annual show in March, the Henry Lawson Festival in June.
Things to see:
Tourist Information
The Gulgong Visitors' Centre is located at 109 Herbert St.
It is open from 8.00 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. on weekdays, from
9.00 a.m. to 3.00 p.m. Saturdays and from 9.30 a.m. to 2.00
p.m. on Sundays and public holidays, tel: (02) 6374 1202.
Pamphlets can be obtained here outlining The Gulgong Town
Trail which takes in the town's heritage sites.
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| Gulgong Pioneer Museum
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Gulgong Pioneers' Museum
The Gulgong Pioneers Museum at 73 Herbert St (corner of
Bayley St) is located in the Old Times Bakery (1872-73)
which was featured on the old Australian $10 note. The ovens
and baking equipment remain on-site and unaltered. The
museum is open seven days from 9.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m.
This popular and well-awarded country museum focuses on
social and industrial history. The domestic artefacts have
been arranged thematically into an 1870s dining room, a
bedroom and parlour c.1880, an 1872 kitchen and an 1872
bakehouse. The museum's one-acre grounds include a
reconstructed blacksmith's shop and the Gudgeon Cottage
which provides an insight into a typical working-class home
from 1891. There are four very small rooms clustered around
a narrow hallway. Other attractions include a Cobb & Co.
display, mining equipment, horsedrawn vehicles, an old
schoolhouse, as well as Aboriginal and geological artefacts
and displays. The Museum of Sight and Sound is devoted to
the history of Australian cinematography and sound
recording.
The town was particularly well-documented
photographically, owing to the Holtermann Collection, some
of which is on display at the museum. After making a grand
fortune goldmining at Hill End Bernard Holtermann hired Charles Bayliss and
Beaufoy Merlin to photograph the major goldmining towns and
areas of NSW in order to exhibit them abroad and attract
migrants to the country where he made his own fortune. What
turned out to be one of the largest wet-plate collections
ever made was displayed at international exhibitions in
Philadelphia (1876) and Paris (1878). Some of Merlin's
photographs provided the basis of the images on the rear
side of the old $10 note. Copies of some of the images are
situated in the museum.
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| Post Office Hotel
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Some Heritage Buildings
About 130 of the town's buildings are registered with the
National Trust. Many date back to the 1870s. In Bayly St
there are the Roman Catholic Church, the convent school and
the presbytery, as well as St Luke's Anglican Church
(1874-76). Herbert St has the courthouse, the
Italianate-style Post Office Hotel, Ulan County Council
chambers, the Classical Revival decoration of the library
(formerly the Wylandra Shire Hall) and the simple
weatherboard facade of the former Australian Joint Stock
Bank. The police station and residence (1878-79) are in
Medley St.
Mayne St has the Greatest Wonders of the World, the Fancy
Goods Emporium, the Ten Dollar Town Motel (originally the
Royal Hotel) and the American Tobacco Warehouse. The latter
was one element of the montage on the old Australian $10
note. However, as the word 'American' was considered
inappropriate for inclusion on the note, the awning in the
reproduction reads 'Gulgong - Dispensary - D. Zimmler'.
Another historic feature of Mayne St is the Prince of
Wales Opera House. It was erected of bark in 1871 and was
probably the largest free-standing bark structure ever
built. At that time it was known as Cogdon's Assembly Rooms.
Thomas Alexander Browne, who wrote under the pseudonym 'Rolf
Boldrewood', was arguably Australia's first novelist of any
distinction or notoriety. He was also the town's police
magistrate from 1871 to 1881. It is said he initially held
court at Cogdon's Assembly Rooms. He is supposed to have
used a piano in the room as the official bench. A new roof,
weatherboard facade and wooden floor were later added and
the name changed. In the town's heyday it was not unknown
for female performers to have gold nuggets thrown in their
laps whilst performing at the venue. Renowned boxer Les
Darcy fought an exhibition bout at the 'Opera House' before
he departed for the USA and Dame Nellie Melba gave one of
her earliest performances here while still performing under
the name of Mrs Armstrong (then her married name).
At the corner of White and Queen Sts is the former flour
mill and Station St has Loneragan's Flour Mill (1913) which
is still in operation.
The Georgian cottage known as 'Lansdowne' was built by
Henry Lawson's father with Henry himself assisting in the
original painting.
The Henry Lawson Centre
The Henry Lawson Centre at 147 Mayne St has the largest
collection of material (paintings, prints, cuttings,
photographs, books) outside of the Mitchell Library relating
to Henry Lawson, one of Australia's best-known poets and
short-story writers. Items include a flour bin made by
Lawson's father, which got a mention in one of the author's
poems, together with rare editions, writings and
memorabilia. It is located in an old 1920s Salvation Army
hall and is open from 10.00 a.m. to 12.00 p.m. daily with
hours extended to 3.00 p.m. on Saturdays, school and public
holidays, tel: (02) 6374 2049. There is a statue of Henry
Lawson off Tom Saunders Ave.
The Wallaby Track
Copies of the Wallaby Track drive tour are available from
the Mudgee Visitors' Centre. It takes in various sites
associated with Henry Lawson, including the old Eurunderee
School, the Henry Lawson Memorial, the Budgee Budgee Inn,
Sapling Gully and Golden Gully.
Red Hill Reserve, Mining Museum and Field Study Centre
A memorial at Red Hill Reserve, on the corner of White and
Fitzroy Sts, marks the site of Tom Saunders' original 1870
stike which sparked the goldrush that was the making of
Gulgong. An open-air mining museum has been established on
the site which includes an old poppet head and shaft, a
stamper, a windlass and other pieces of mining equipment.
There is also a relief map of the mining leads around town
and a slab hut schoolroom. Plans for the future include a
walk-through mine.
The Field Study Centre has been set up to facilitate the
study, by educational groups, of the town, its history and
community. There is a dormitory with kitchen for that
purpose. Interested parties should ring (02) 6374 2558.
Lookout
Flirtation Hill Lookout is located off Wenonah St. It
affords fine views north to Barney's Reef Hills, east to the
Great Dividing Range, Home Rule to the south-east and Mudgee
to the south.
Anzac Park
ANZAC Park at Fitzroy and Medley Sts has free electric
barbecues, toilets and childrens' play facilities. The
bandstand is one of earliest tributes to the ANZACs being
erected in 1916, just a year after Gallipoli.
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| The countryside between
Dunedoo and Gulgong |
The Drip
The Drip picnic area is 37 km from Gulgong and 10 km north
of the Ulan Mine on the Cassilis Rd. Cross the Goulburn
River and turn right at the signpost. A walking track begins
on the northern side of the parking area and follows a cliff
face adjacent the Goulburn River and over a footbridge.
Follow the rock face and you will cross a small bridge, a
tumble of rocks and Curra Creek. Walk through the ferny
glade then you will pass by a large rock to the right. To
the left there are rock orchids and ferns on the cliff face.
The track then proceeds on to the sandy riverbank and
through a hollowed arch rock. A sign indicates a left turn
back to the honeycombed cliff face which you follow to the
end. Cross over the grassy bank and a sharp left brings you
to the Drip where the river flows over a rock platform.
Hands on the Rock
2.3 km further north on the Cassilis Rd there is a
signposted left onto a dirt road. After 100 m turn right
into a small clearing and a 400-m walking track starts from
the far side. It leads to overhanging rocks where there are
Aboriginal hand stencils dating back hundreds of years.
Goulburn River National Park
The Goulburn River National Park is located to the
north-east of town. It covers around 70 000 ha of land
adjacent the river which wends its way past sandstone
cliffs, caves and gorges that contain some 250 Aboriginal
sites, reflecting the fact that the area was situated on a
major trading route between the coast and the western
plains. The park is also a haven for animal, bird and plant
life.
Access is via Ringwood Rd which bisects the park, joining
Wollar to the Merriwa-Cassilis Rd. There are no camping
facilities but plenty of opportunities for bush camping. A
sign along the route points you to White Box Camp which is
available for vehicle-based camping. Spring Gully is a
campsite by the river, although it lies along what is really
a 4WD track, suitable only in dry weather. This track
departs from the road that runs between Ulan and Wollar.
Also along Ringwood Rd is a sign indicating a gem
fossicking area to the left, which is one possibility that
the park offers. Bushwalking is another obvious attraction.
A number of creeks can be followed westwards from Ringwood
Road down to the river. The most easily accessible trail is
that to Lees Pinch Lookout. A signpost indicates the
starting point of the walk. It is but a short distance to
some spectacular elevated views from the escarpment to the
eastern section of the park. Swimming, canoeing, liloing,
photography and wildlife observation can also be pursued.
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Gulgong
