Nyngan

Postcode: 2825

Nyngan is a town in north-western New South Wales, Australia, in the Bogan Shire Local Government Area. At the 2001 census, Nyngan had a population of 2,065.[1]

Nyngan is located between Narromine and Bourke, on the junction of the Mitchell Highway and Barrier Highway, 583 km north-west of Sydney. The Barrier Highway starts at Nyngan, and runs west to Cobar.

The district was originally inhabited by the Ngiyambaa Aborigines. Thomas Mitchell explored the Bogan River in 1835, camping on the future townsite. He recorded the local Aboriginal word 'nyingan', said to mean 'long pond of water', though other meanings have been put forward. Squatters had settled in Mitchell's wake before he had even begun the return journey.

Nyngan was gazetted as a reserve for water in 1865 but a townsite was not reserved until 1880. It was surveyed in 1882 when the Dubbo-Bourke railway was under construction. The track arrived in Nyngan the following year, signalling the end of Canonba's existence. Symbolically enough, a number of houses from the older settlement were dismantled and re-erected at Nyngan in 1883.

By this time the initial emphasis on cattle had been balanced by the grazing of merino sheep for their wool. Wheat-growing also began in the 1880s although unreliable rainfall has always been a problem, as the Bogan only flows after rain. The town received a secure water supply in 1942 when water was relayed along a 62-km canal from the Macquarie River.

Nyngan became a municipality in 1891. A meatworks developed on the outskirts of town in the 1890s for the boiling down of sheep and an experimental farm was established in 1910 to further wheat cultivation. Nyngan, little known in the east, entered the national psyche in 1990 when it was deluged with the worst floods of the century. The townspeople laid 260 000 sandbags on top of the established levee but the waters inundated the entire town, causing $50 million worth of damage and necessitating the airlift by helicopter of 2000 citizens, virtually the entire population. A national relief fund was established to help the town recover. Today Nyngan's role as a rail centre has terminated with the cancellation of the service to Bourke and it is now a service centre to the surrounding district. The Agricultural Show is held in May.

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