Oxley

Postcode: 2711

Oxley is a community on the lower Lachlan River in the Riverina district of New South Wales, Australia. It is located near the junction of the Lachlan and Murrumbidgee rivers. The township which developed in the mid 1860s was named after the noted Australian explorer, John Oxley.

In about the mid-1840s Phelps and Chadwick took up a run on the lower Lachlan which they called "Thelangerin West". In 1848 the lease was purchased by Thomas D'Archy who re-named the run "Oxley", and called the station homestead "Oxley House". Opposite the “Oxley” run on the north bank of the Lachlan River was the “Tupra” run, held by the Tyson brothers since the 1840s. By the 1860s it was held solely by James Tyson.

In the mid-1860s the squatter James Tyson saw a business opportunity and built a hotel at a new township which was developing at a crossing-place over the river on his “Tupra” run. A report in the Pastoral Times newspaper in November 1866 stated that “Mr. Tyson has built a brick hotel” which was to be opened shortly at the “new township of Oxley”. The report added: “There is not much traffic past the house, and very few men in the neighborhood, so the prospects of doing a good trade are not very encouraging”.

In December 1866 it was reported that a petition was to be sent to Government “to place a sum of money on the estimates to build a bridge at a point of the Lachlan River, about eight miles above the government township of Oxley, which is opposite Mr. D'Archy's station”. The report added that “there is a boat there at present, which is a great convenience to persons travelling”. A Government land-sale, which included lots at Oxley township, was held at Hay on 9 March 1868.

In 1881 Oxley township once again had two hotels when the Royal Hotel was opened with John Westhead as the publican. In 1882 there was a re-shuffle of publicans as Delandre left the Oxley Hotel to be replaced by William Westhead, and Daniel Murphy took over the license of the Royal.

In about 1888 the Royal Hotel had ceased trading at Oxley. In 1889 a license was granted to Thompson S. Page for a new public-house at the township, the Commercial Hotel (possibly a name-change of the old Royal Hotel premises). In 1889 the publican of the Oxley Hotel was John Parr.

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