Carcoar

Postcode: 2791

Carcoar is a town in the Central West region of New South Wales, Australia, in Blayney Shire. It has a population of almost 400. It is situated just off the Mid-Western Highway 258 km west of Sydney and 52 km south-west of Bathurst and is 720 m above sea-level. It is located in a small green valley, with the township and buildings on both banks of the Belubula River.

Carcoar was once one of the most important government centres in Western New South Wales. The town has been classified by the National Trust due to the number of intact 19th-century buildings. Carcoar is a Gundungura word meaning either frog or kookaburra. Nearby towns are Blayney, Millthorpe, Mandurama, Neville, Lyndhurst and Barry.

The original occupants were probably the Gundungura Aborigines. The first European to travel through the area was surveyor George Evans, who, heading south-west from Bathurst in 1815, set up his camp at the head of Coombing Creek.

The first settlers arrived in 1821. The first official land grant, comprising 560 acres (2.3 km²), was issued to Thomas Icely on 26 May 1829. He named it Coombing Park. In 1838 Thomas Icely requested that a village be established to service his large pastoral estate. On 29 September 1839 Carcoar became just the third settlement west of the Blue Mountains to be gazetted.

The first allotments in the town were sold in 1840. By 1850 Carcoar was the second most populous town west of the mountains, second in size only to Bathurst and became a banking and administrative centre for the area. In 1857 the town's public school opened. It has continued to function as a school since that day making it one of the oldest continuous schools in Australia.

The discovery of gold further to the west in the mid 1860s started the decline of the town. The government began erecting a number of significant public buildings starting in the late 1870s. At this time, Coombing Park was supplying iron ore to the Lithgow steelworks.

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