Jerrys Plains

Postcode: 2330

Jerry's Plains is a village in the Hunter Valley in New South Wales, Australia about 33 kilometres west of Singleton on the Golden Highway. The surrounding countryside is home to some substantial horse breeding properties, notably the Australian branch of Ireland's giant Coolmore Stud, as well as viticulture and coal mining.

Mineralogist William Parr ventured as far north as the hills above Doyles Creek, to the south-west of the village, during an expedition in 1817. Two years later another expedition, authorised by Governor Macquarie and led by John Howe, followed roughly the same route then traced what is now known as Doyle's Creek to its junction with the Hunter River. They then pursued the Hunter eastwards to approximately the Jerry's Plains townsite but stopped there and returned to Sydney. However, having travelled overland they did not realise that it was the Hunter until they returned the next year and followed its course to Wallis Plains (Maitland). Howe's Aboriginal guide, Myles, told him that this was 'Coomery Roy', the land of the Kamilaroi peoples who apparently called it 'Pullmyheri' or 'Pullumunbra'.

One theory regarding the town's name relates to Jeremiah Butler, an ex-convict and member of Howe's 1820 expedition, who looked after the party's base camp. An article in the Maitland Mercury claimed he died when gangrene set in after his pistol exploded, blowing his thumb off. He was buried opposite the land then occupied by the village post office. Others believe it was named after the chief of the local Aborigines.

The original village was situated a kilometre or two east of today's township, on the banks of Redmanvale Creek. The present site was surveyed in 1840 although land sales did not proceed until 1857. Even then the village did not really start to drift westwards until the 1870s. The last remnants of the old townsite were washed away in the 1955 floods.

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