Mount Allen is a ghost town in the Orana region of New South Wales, Australia. There was once a village of the same name associated with gold mining. For statistical purposes, it is considered part of Mount Hope.
Mount Allen is a ghost town in the Orana region of New South Wales, Australia. There was once a village of the same name associated with gold mining. For statistical purposes, it is considered part of Mount Hope.
The former gold mining village was located approximately 4 km west of Kidman Way, between Mount Hope and Gilgunnia on the route to Cobar. The closest remaining settlement is Mount Hope.
The landform, Mount Allen, is some distance to the south of the former village. So the village may equally have taken its name from the Parish of Mount Allen or the Mount Allen gold mine. [2]
The area which later became the village of Mount Allen lies on the traditional lands of Wangaaypuwan dialect speakers (also known as Wangaibon) of Ngiyampaa people. [3] After settlers took over the district, it lay across the boundary of Mount Allen and the Coree parishes, within Blaxland County. [2]
In the early 1880s as the mining of copper ore was being established at nearby Mount Hope, a small copper mine was opened at Mount Allen. In November 1882 the Mount Allen copper mine, seven miles north-west of Mount Hope, was described as a holding with "very good indications of copper" which had not yet "been developed to any extent to prove its value". [4]
The gold field was dominated by Mount Allen Gold-Mining Company's mine. [5] [6] Prior to the opening of that mine, Gossan ironstone was mined at Mt Allen and used as flux in the smelters at Mount Hope. The ironstone showed the presence of gold. By August 1891, sampling had produced satisfactory results, the mine had been sold to a syndicate of investors, and machinery was in the process of being erected. [7] Operations had ceased by March 1894, due to lack of water to run the 20-head stamper battery. [8] [6] The mine struck clean clear water, at 114 feet depth, in April 1894 [9] At first, the flow was 100 gallons per hour, and the water was welcomed; when the mine reached 138 feet in depth, it was necessary to install pumps to remove over 800 gallons of water per hour. [10] [11] In July 1895, the shaft was "flooded out". In October 1895, the mine office and manager's residence were destroyed by fire. [12] A second shaft was sunk in 1897. [13]
Around February 1898, poor grades led to the end of mining and the decision to erect a cyanide plant to reprocess tailings. [14] From February 1899 to March 1900, tailings were reprocessed to extract residual gold. [15] That seems to have been the end of the operations. By 1901, machinery from the mine had been relocated to another mine at Mount Hope. [1] In 1909, the mine was briefly worked by tribute miners, until a winding engine accident occurred. [16] In 1938, the last use of the mine was as a water supply in time of drought. [17] As late as the 1940s, there was talk of mining resuming, but it came to nothing [18] [19]
An informal settlement sprang up near the mine, which had a population of 200 by the end of 1893. [20] [6] A village was not officially proclaimed until 22 October 1896. [21] Land was reserved for public and government buildings, [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] public recreation, [28] and as a common for residents' use. [29] These grandiose plans were never completed and Mount Allen was a short-lived settlement.
There was a school at Mount Allen—known as Double Peak, after a landform [30] that lay closer to the village site than the Mount Allen landform—from July 1895 to December 1900. [31] [27]
By April 1898, just after mining ceased, it was described as seeming "entirely abandoned, there being only a few habitations occupied." Building allotments in the village became worthless within a few years. [32] Some of the now lost streets of the former village were Cobar, Hope, Abbott, Carruthers, Copeland, Reid and Fulton streets. [33] The village had a market garden operated by ethic-Chinese. [34] The village effectively ceased to exist officially in 1939, when most of its land area was reallocated to the neighbouring pastoral holding, from which it had been excised originally. [35]
There is now nothing left of the settlement except its cemetery, which lies slightly to the north-west of the former village's site, [36] [2] [37] and the remnants of the gold mine. [38] The former village's site is no longer accessible to the general public.
Cobar is a town in central western New South Wales, Australia whose economy is based mainly upon base metals and gold mining. The town is 712 km (442 mi) by road northwest of the state capital, Sydney. It is at the crossroads of the Kidman Way and Barrier Highway. The town and the local government area, the Cobar Shire, are on the eastern edge of the outback. At the 2016 census, the town of Cobar had a population of 3,990. The Shire has a population of approximately 4,700 and an area of 44,065 square kilometres (17,014 sq mi).
Mongarlowe is a village in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia in Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council. In former times, it was also known, in various contexts, as Little River, Monga, and Sergeants Point. The name, Mongarlowe, also applies to the surrounding area, for postal and statistical purposes.
Mount Hope is a settlement in western New South Wales, Australia. It is situated on the Kidman Way, 95 kilometres north of Hillston and 160 km south of Cobar. A government township called 'Nombinnie' was surveyed in the mid-1880s but that name was rarely used.
Jembaicumbene is a locality in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia, located 8 km (5 miles) out along the Braidwood–Majors Creek Road. Once a thriving goldfield, it is now a peaceful valley on the way to Majors Creek. The mining village of the same name is now virtually a ghost town.
Albert is a town in the Central West region of New South Wales, Australia. The town is in the Lachlan Shire local government area, 481 kilometres (299 mi) west north west of the state capital, Sydney. At the 2016 census, Albert had a population of 81, though Albert once had a population of 900.
Leadville is a town in New South Wales, Australia. The town is located in the Warrumbungle Shire local government area, 376 kilometres (234 mi) north west of the state capital, Sydney. At the 2016 census, Leadville and the surrounding area had a population of 169.
Girilambone is a small village in western New South Wales, Australia. It is located north of Nyngan and 610 km north-west of Sydney. The name is also applied to the surrounding area, for postal and statistical purposes. At the 2016 census, the population of the village and its surrounding area was only 107, but it had fallen to just 86 in 2021. The village was originally associated with copper mining.
Burraga is located in the Central Tablelands of New South Wales, 47 kilometres south west of Oberon and about 67 kilometres (42 mi) south of Bathurst. It is within Oberon Shire. At the 2016 census, Burraga had a population of 91.
Currawang is a rural locality, located to the north of Lake George. in New South Wales, Australia. It lies on the intersection between three councils, with the majority straddling the boundary between the Queanbeyan–Palerang Regional Council and Goulburn-Mulwaree Council and a small portion of the locality in the Upper Lachlan Shire. It shares its name with the Currawang Parish of Argyle County, in which it is located. This was formerly known as the parish of Currowang. Both names derive from an Aboriginal word for the spearwood tree.
Colinton is a locality in the Snowy Monaro Region, New South Wales, Australia. At the 2016 census, it had a population of 127. There was once a village and railway station of the same name.
Shuttleton is an Australian ghost town located in the Parish of Hume, County of Mouramba, New South Wales. The former village site is 29 km west-south-west of Nymagee. The area in which it lies is treated as part of Nymagee for postal and statistical purposes.
Canbelego is a village in the Orana region of New South Wales, Australia. It is now virtually a ghost town but was once a much larger settlement associated with the Mount Boppy Gold Mine. The name also refers to the surrounding rural locality identified for postal and statistical purposes. At the 2021 census, the population of Canbelego, including its surrounding area, was 54, up from 39 in 2016, but the village itself had only four residents in early 2020. Between 1907 and 1917, the population was around 2,000.
Bobadah was a mining village, now a locality, in the Orana region of New South Wales, Australia. The village was also known as Carpina, its official name, although that name was rarely used. It is now a ghost town, with its community hall being its last remaining building. Its population in 2016, including the surrounding area, was 10. It was once a larger settlement associated with the nearby Overflow Mine.
Hermidale is a village in the Orana region of New South Wales, Australia. It is 600km north-west of Sydney and the two closest towns are Nyngan and Cobar. It lies on the Barrier Highway. At the 2021 Census, the population of Hermidale was 127.
Gilgunnia is a locality and ghost town in the Orana region of New South Wales, Australia, within the Parish of South Peak in Blaxland County and Cobar Shire. It was once a settlement associated with gold mining, but in 2016 its population was zero. The nearest settlements are Mount Hope and Nymagee.
Mount Drysdale is a ghost town in the Orana region of New South Wales, Australia. It was once a village associated with gold mining. It lies within the locality of Tindarey, named after the original pastoral holding from which the village site was excised.
Caloola is a locality in the Central West region of New South Wales. There once was a small village of the same name but it is a ghost town today. At the 2016 census, the locality had a population of 88.
Currowan is a locality in the Eurobodalla Shire, on the South Coast of New South Wales, Australia. At the 2016 census, it had a population of 53.
Illewong was a mining village, now a ghost town, in the Orana region of New South Wales, Australia. Prior to 1906, it was known as Bee Mountain. The area, in which Illewong once lay, is now part of Cobar, for postal and statistical purposes.
Wrightville was a mining village in the Orana region of New South Wales, Australia. Once it was a significant settlement, with its own municipal government, public school, convent school, post office, police station, four hotels, and railway connection. At its peak, around 1907, its population probably reached 2,000 people. Its site and that of the adjacent former village of Dapville are now an uninhabited part of Cobar.