Oberon

Postcode: 2787

Oberon is a town and Local Government Area in the central tablelands of New South Wales, Australia. The main industries are farming, forestry and wood products. The town is 1,113 m (3,600 ft) above sea level, and usually has snowfalls in the winter.

From 1923 to 1979 Oberon was served by a branch railway line noted for its very steep 4% gradients and very sharp 100 m radius curves. It is the birthplace of Bob Brown. Oberon is close by to the famed Jenolan Caves and The Kanangra Boyd National Park.

Oberon is a settlement of some 2500 people located on a chilly plateau, 1113 m above sea-level, 42 km south-east of Bathurst and 183 km west of Sydney. Prime lambs and beef cattle are the main rural industries although vegetable production, tree nurseries, nut tree plantations and bulb farms all play their role. Timber processing by CSR and Boral Timber is a significant secondary industry with wood taken from NSW State Forests, radiata pine plantations and private forest growers.

Prior to European settlement the area was inhabited by the Wiradjuri peoples. Gold was discovered on the Fish River in 1823 and settlement along the river, and of the area between Oberon and Taralga to the south, began that same decade. The land hereabouts was used for pasturage during drought periods by settlers from the Bathurst Plains.

The first permanent land grant in the area was 'Glyndwr', made out in 1839 to Charles Whalan who was associated with the European discovery of the Jenolan Caves the previous year. He was followed by immigrants from Northern Ireland in the 1840s. Oberon was proclaimed a village in 1863 on the site known as Bullock Flats. Presumably seeking a more euphonious title, a local woman apparently suggested 'Oberon', a name taken from the King of the Fairies in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (in 1904 a nearby village was renamed Titania after the Queen of the Fairies).

Silver, copper and bismuth mining have all occurred in the area over the years, particularly on Wisemans Creek. A local council was formed in 1906. Pea-growing began that year and forestry became a staple industry for the first time in the 1930s. Hardwoods became important after World War II and a pineboard factory was established in 1959.

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