Parkes - Culture and History

The first Europeans in the district were the exploratory party of John Oxley who passed by in 1817 on one of the first inland expeditions. The area was occupied by the Wiradjuri people who were encountered in 1835 when Thomas Mitchell's expedition camped just to the north of town. Mitchell wrote of their sincerity, intelligence, resourcefulness and unaffected nature. Squatters may have been in the area by this time but the first official license for the Parkes area was issued in 1839.

Reef gold was located a little to the north of the present townsite in 1862, after a major find at Forbes the previous year had sparked the Lachlan goldrush. A tent city of 10 000 emerged almost overnight. It was known as 'Currajong' after the large number of currajong trees in the vicinity. That field was worked for about 5 years then rapidly declined.

However, other major finds was made in the area in 1871 and a second rush was soon under way. One of the most substantial was made at Bushmans Hill, named after a Mr Bush who was one of the owners. A settlement, also known as Bushmans, developed around the mine which soon had 30 stamper batteries working 24 hours a day. From 1871 to 1873 about 1400 kg of gold was turned up. A hotel was quickly established (on the site now occupied by the Cambridge Hotel), followed by a court of petty sessions, another hotel, the first bank, a Methodist Church and a public school.

Then governor of NSW, Henry Parkes, visited what had become one of NSW's most profitable goldfields in 1873 and, at the end of the year, Bushmans was renamed Parkes (in 1887 the main street became known as Clarinda St in honour of his wife).

By the time Parkes was declared a municipality in 1883 the initial wave of gold fever had passed and free selectors had begun to take advantage of the Robertson Land Act, taking up smaller allotments of land and establishing the agriculture which has since become a mainstay of the town and area.

Wheat was first grown 3 km north of Parkes in 1865 and a local flour mill opened in 1871. Agricultural production expanded when the railway arrived in 1893 to the great economic benefit of the town - an effect enhanced when the line to Broken Hill was opened in 1927. When the standard-gauge rail system was completed in 1969 Parkes became the marshalling and dispersal terminal for eastern Australia.

In 1899 Bushmans reached its maximum depth of 370 m but mining ceased in 1914. An attempt to revive operations in the 1930s failed due to flooding.

In 1921 the first wheat silos were built at the railhead and the Mungincobie wheat terminal, covering 2 ha and holding 4 million bushels, was erected in 1952.

From 1959-1961 the CSIRO built the first big-dish antenna radio telescope in the Southern Hemisphere to the north of Parkes. One of the world's most powerful it has played a vital role in the detection of quasars and pulsars.

Of some historic interest is the fact poet Harry Morant, made famous by the 1980 film, Breaker Morant, worked as a stockman in the area shortly before enlisting for the Boer War, during which he was executed by the British authorities.