Uralla - Culture and History

Uralla calls itself ŒThunderbolt Country¹ and the town's chief claims to fame are the grave of notorious bushranger Thunderbolt (Fred Ward) and Thunderbolt Rock outside the town, a large granite outcrop which has unfortunately been covered by graffiti in recent times.

The Anaiwan Aborigines occupied the area prior to the arrival of Europeans and it is from their language that the town's name derives. It is said to refer to a ceremonial meeting place and lookout, situated on the top of a hill - possibly a reference to the two hills at the town's north-western boundary.

The first white settler in the district was Edward Gostwyck Cory (see Paterson and Wangi Wangi). He sold his property in 1834 to William Dangar who passed it on to his brother Henry who surveyed much of the Hunter Valley and the Liverpool Plains in the 1820s and 1830s, acquiring vast amounts of land in the process.

In the 1840s a tiny settlement sprang from what began as a shepherd's out-station on the banks of Rocky Creek, at the southern boundary of the 'Saumarez' sheep station, established in 1834 by Henry Dumaresq (see entry on Armidale).

A townsite was reserved in 1849 where a branch track departed from the Great North Road heading north-west along the Bundarra River. At this intersection Samuel McCrossin established an inn, where the town's bowling greens are now located.

However, the town really began with the discovery of gold at Rocky River in 1851. A goldrush began the following year. The village was gazetted in 1855.

New and more substantial finds at Mt Jones in 1856 caused a renewal of activity which soon made the fields the largest in northern NSW with some 4000 or 5000 miners on-site. Sluicing operations began in 1857 and large numbers of Chinese arrived in 1858 to rework the original alluvial field. Chinese miners soon outnumbered Europeans, leading to petitions demanding restrictions upon immigration. They moved on to other fields when the surface gold was depleted in the 1870s. Tunnelling by larger enterprises commenced in the 1860s and continued until the early twentieth century.

The area also prospered from pastoral and agricultural pursuits. Wheat was a major focus and McCrossin established a large mill at Uralla in 1870. Still standing it now houses a museum.

By 1871 the population was 254. Although wheat returns diminished due to competition from South Australia in the 1870s Uralla prospered as a service centre to the wealthy farming community. Local newspaper, the Uralla Times, was established in 1873.

The town was declared a municipality in 1882 when the railway arrived. The population, increased to 819 by 1891, dropped to 681 by 1901 and jumped up to 1590 in 1911. After the First World War land was resumed at Kentucky, south of Uralla, for soldier settlement and orcharding began.