Westward, Ho! Beyond the Blue Mountains to Bathurst
Bathurst, approximately 200 km west of Sydney on the edge of the Great Dividing Range, was Australia’s first inland settlement. The site of the depot where Governor Macquarie stayed on his 1815 trip over the Blue Mountains is located in present-day Kelso, and it is from here that he proclaimed the town and named it after the British Secretary of State for the Colonies, Lord Bathurst.
Beginnings of a settlement
It wasn’t until February 1818 that Macquarie granted 50 acres of farmland to ten men: James and John Blackman, George Cheshire, William Lee, Richard Mills, John Abbott, John Neville, Thomas Kite, Thomas Swanbrooke and John Godden.
By 1822 the population of Bathurst at the in September included:
- 17 free men (11 born in Colony)
- 14 free women (seven born in Colony)
- 284 convicts (only one of which was a woman), and
- 33 children, of which 15 were boys and 18 were girls
Bathurst was under the control of a Commandant and remained a small and isolated settlement for many years. It was, however, used regularly as a launching pad for a number of explorers such as George Evans (1815), John Oxley (1816-17), Allan Cunningham (1823) and Charles Sturt (1828).
John Oxley, on his second visit to Bathurst in 1817 commented on the development of the town and the potential for future growth based around farming and agriculture.
New developments
1825
Convicts
There are twelve pages of to the new Commandant of Bathurst, John Fennell, that provide a tantalising glimpse into the life of the inhabitants of early Bathurst. Convict life was heavily regulated, from the huts they lived in, what they wore and when they worked and ate.
Convicts were given a yearly allowance for:
- two shirts
- two frocks
- two pairs of shoes
- two pairs of trousers and
- a straw hat
Their other belongings were limited to a blanket, knife, fork, spoon, plate, jug and a .
Convicts were to work on agricultural activities such as cultivating wheat, oats, flax and . The Commandant was also under strict instructions on how to run the Convict Establishment, with several pages devoted to the required recordkeeping of a day book, letterbook, personal journal and receipt books. One of the final instructions to Fennell is
never to be absent from your Command. You are faithfully and honestly to discharge the duty of Commandant.
NRS-897 [4/3514, p.174].
Building Plans
This plan accompanies a letter from John Maxwell, Superintendent of Crown Stock at Bathurst to the Governor requesting permission to build his long awaited house on No. 2 Kings Run outside of Bathurst.
1830s
Several events opened Bathurst and the West for more expansion in the 1830s.
Victoria Pass
The first of these developments was the discovery of Victoria Pass in 1832 by the Surveyor General Thomas Mitchell. This allowed for improved and quicker travel across the Mountains. By 1835 a regular coach service between Sydney and Bathurst had been established.
Town allotments
Another development was the decision to open up the Government Reserve at Bathurst for sale to the public in 1833 by Governor Bourke. Mitchell was charged with drawing up plans for a new town of Bathurst and the location was changed to its present-day site. The town was then surveyed and laid out by Assistant Surveyor JB Richards on 12 September 1833. The sale of the first town allotments occurred in the previous month with sales to JH Barsden, John Blackman and the Presbyterian Church (Greaves p.19).
Churches
Improved access through the Mountains and the corresponding population growth was followed by a number of churches establishing themselves at Bathurst. In 1825 Rev John Espy Keane became the first Anglican minister to be stationed at Bathurst and by 1834 the Holy Trinity Church at Kelso had been built, thereby becoming the first church building west of the Mountains. The first Catholic Mass was celebrated in November 1830 by Fr John Joseph Therry and work began on St Michael’s Church in 1839.
By 1834 the of Bathurst had increased to:
- 873 free men and 251 free women
- 1880 convict men and 119 convict women
- 176 boys and 153 girls.
Boom times in the 1850s
The discovery of payable gold at Ophir in 1851 brought about a boom time for Bathurst. Although gold had been discovered in the region as far back as 1823 it wasn’t brought to the public’s attention until 12 February 1851 when Edward Hargreaves announced his discovery of payable gold.
Bathurst became the commercial hub for the thousands of gold miners on their way to the diggings in the surrounding area. The population rapidly grew and the town expanded, becoming a municipality in 1852. moved their headquarters from Victoria to Bathurst in 1862. More hotels and inns flourished, postal and gold coach runs were established, coal mining started and in 1876 the Main Western Railway line reached Bathurst, providing another important industry for the town.
Agriculture
For many years farming and agriculture had been the mainstay for Bathurst and the surrounding area. Sheep farming for wool, in particular, was a success on the Bathurst Plains but cattle and horses were also farmed. Agriculture, such as fruit and vegetable production and orchards developed from the 1900s onwards and several canneries were established to utilise the freshly grown produce.
Teaching Farm
Bathurst Experiment Farm (Agency 1976 in Archives Investigator) opened its doors in 1895 with the aim of educating student and local farmers. By 1913 there was accommodation for 34 resident students undertaking the two-year study course with several permanent staff members.
During World War II the Teaching Farm was suspended and the site used as an Ordnance Depot. The Farm location eventually became the site for the Bathurst Teachers College in 1951. Education and tourism remain important economic contributors for Bathurst.
Population
The population for the town had also grown over these years.
Census1861 Census*1871 Census*1881 Census*1891 Census^Total pop4042503072219162Male2127261136574591Female1915241935644571
*NRS 687 [6/5602pt], Census of 1881, Table 14, p.xix
^NRS 688 [6/5604], Results of a Census of NSW, 1891, p.7
Related photos
Browse more images of Bathurst in Photo Investigator
Research by
Suzanne Upton, (former) Archivist, Collections
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