Peak Hill, New South Wales: Travel guide and things to do

With a population of some 1400 people Peak Hill is the second-largest town in the Parkes shire, a diverse rural area of NSW's Central West focused principally on sheep, wheat and cattle. It is located 49 km north of Parkes and 69 km south-west of Dubbo on the Newell Highway and 267 m above sea-level.

In an area once inhabited by the Wiradjuri people, the first Europeans were the party of John Oxley who passed within a few kilometres of the future townsite in 1817. Thomas Mitchell explored the Bogan River in 1835. Two white men followed immediately in their wake and had set up a station a few kilometres north-west of today's townsite by the time the party were returning from the lower reaches of the river.

One of these men was William Lee who had his squatting license revoked following the massacre of Aborigines along the Bogan in the early 1840s (see entry on Nyngan). Certainly when Thomas Mitchell revisited the area in 1845 he was surprised by the almost complete absence of Aborigines as he had estimated a thousand to live along the river during his 1835 expedition. He also noted that most of the land adjacent the Bogan had been occupied by that time.

The town developed in 1889 when gold was discovered in the area and two open-cut goldmines were established. Peak Hill was incorporated as a municipality in 1894 and the railway arrived in 1914, although mining operations ceased in 1917.

As was often the case in goldmining towns, miners and others, drawn by the economic activity, had taken up land as free selectors and established agricultural enterprises. It was a sign of the town's survival and future that, in 1918, Peak Hill became the site of the first public wheat silo constructed in NSW.

An arts and crafts exhibition is held at the Peak Hill Leisure Centre on the June holiday weekend. The picnic races are held in May and the annual show in August.

Things to see

Tourist Information
The official tourist information agency in town is the Craft Shop on Caswell St, telephone (02) 6869 1981.

Gold Mine
Head east off the highway along Mingelo St to the carpark and a track leads to a viewing platform over the open-cut goldmine. It has been established on the site of the two original shafts which were hand-excavated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries - one to a depth of 100 m and a length of 200 m. There are a number of artefacts - old boilers, the remnants of old houses - on the walk up to the mine and they are all clearly signposted with quite extensive boards explaining their history and origins.

Nature Reserve
A 9-ha native fauna reserve has been created at the edge of town, on Warregal Rd. There is a picnic area.