> OVERVIEW
> LOCATION
> WHERE IT ALL BEGAN
> GOLD
> COBB & CO
> LANDMARKS
> HISTORIC BUILDINGS
> MUSEUMS
> BATHURST REGIONAL ART GALLERY
> MOTOR RACING
> ROYAL BATHURST SHOW
> CHARLES STURT UNIVERSITY
> FOOD AND WINE
> EDGELLS
> BEN CHIFLEY


Overview
> Bathurst is approximately 200km west of Sydney.
> Bathurst is the oldest inland settlement in Australia.
> Bathurst is near Ophir where gold was first discovered and the first Gold Rush in Australia occurred.
> Education and manufacturing drive the Bathurst economy today as well as motor sport at the internationally famous Mount Panarama motor racing circuit.
> Bathurst has an historic city centre with many buildings remaining from the Gold Rush period of the mid to late 1800s.
> The region is renowned for its fine wines and local specialty foods.

Location
> Bathurst is situated on the western edge of the Great Dividing Range in the Macquarie River Plains, also known as the Bathurst Plains.
> The city straddles the Macquarie River, which feeds into the Murray Darling System, the largest river system in Australia.
> Mount Panorama is located 3 km from the CBD and is 877m above sea level, rising 215m above the Bathurst CBD.



Where it all began
> George William Evans, Government Surveyor, was the first European to sight the Bathurst Plains in 1813. A year later, in 1814, Governor Lachlan Macquarie approved an offer by William Cox to build a road from Emu Plains across the Blue Mountains to Bathurst.
> This first road across the Blue Mountains was begun on 18 July 1814 and completed on 14 January 1815. This monumental task was completed using a team of only 30 convict labourers supervised by 8 soldier guards.
Governor Macquarie travelled along the finished road from Sydney to Bathurst in April 1815.
> Bathurst was founded on the orders of Governor Lachlan Macquarie who selected the site on 7 May 1815, thus making Bathurst the oldest inland town in Australia.
> The name of Bathurst derives from the name of the then British Colonial Secretary, Lord Bathurst.
The settlement was intended to be the administrative centre for the Western Plains of New South Wales where orderly colonial settlement was planned.
> In the early years of settlement, Bathurst was the base for many of the early explorations of inland NSW including those led by John Oxley, Allan Cunningham and Thomas Mitchell.



Gold
> Flecks of gold were first discovered in the Fish River in February 1823, but it was in a Bathurst hotel on February 12 1851, that Edward Hargraves announced the discovery of payable gold at Ophir. Later in the 1850s and 1860s, gold was found at Sofala and Hill End. 
> The town of Bathurst began to boom becoming the first gold centre of Australia with nearby gold fields transporting their gold to Bathurst for shipment of Sydney. Not surprisingly, the mail and gold transport coaches became obvious targets for bushrangers thus creating an increasing problem of law enforcement for the authorities.

Cobb & Co
> Cobb & Co was a horse-drawn coaching transport business that originated in Victoria but re-located to Bathurst in 1862 to take advantage of the gold rush.
They provided gold escorts and mail and passenger services to the surrounding towns and rural settlements.
> Cobb & Co coaches were constructed in the coaching workshops located in Bathurst, and a restored Cobb & Co coach is located at the Bathurst Visitor Information Centre.



Landmarks
> Bathurst 's place in Australia's history is clearly evidenced by the large number of landmark monuments, buildings and parks throughout the city.
> Found in the centre of the city is a square known as Kings Parade. Originally a markets area from 1849 to 1906, it was re-designated as a public recreation ground and site for a Soldiers Memorial. Kings Parade now contains three memorials and an open space park and gardens.
> The Bathurst War Memorial Carillon is a 30.5m high tower structure located in the centre of Kings Parade. 
The Carillon is a memorial to the local soldiers who lost their lives in World War I and World War II. The bell tower contains 35 cast bronze bells that are rung daily at lunchtime. It also contains an eternal flame on the platform level of the structure.
> The Evans Memorial stands at the northern end of Kings Parade. Completed in 1920, the memorial commemorates the discovery in 1813 of the Bathurst Plains by George Evans, Assistant Surveyor of Lands.
> At the southern end of Kings Parade stands the Boer War Memorial which dates from 1910 when it was unveiled by Lord Kitchener.
> The home Ben Chifley, former Prime Minister of Australia is now a museum and is located in Busby Street, Bathurst.



Historic Buildings
The historic townscape of Bathurst features a number of examples of colonial and other historic architecture.
Historical buildings range from workers' cottages, slab huts, terraces houses and industrial and commercial buildings, to grand mansions and civic structures.
> The Bathurst Courthouse (c.1860) which was designed by colonial architect James Barnet, stands in a prominent position in the city.  It is neo-classical in style and features an octagonal Renaissance style dome, a Doric portico with pediment, stone facings and brick pilasters.  A colonnade of Doric pillars, a sage green roof, red and yellow bricks and the long lines of sash windows are all features of this outstanding building. 
Barnet also designed the Bathurst Goal (c.1886) with its impressive sandstone entrance featuring a lion 's head holding a key. 
This Victorian symbol of secure and certain retribution served as a warning to all who passed through those fearsome gates..



Museums
Bathurst has a collection of house museums that represent different periods of its history from first settlement to the 1970s.  The house museums include:
Old Government Cottage (1837 – 1860)
Abercrombie House (c.1870s) an historic mansion of 40 rooms;
Miss Traill's House (1945)
Chifley Home which retains the simple furnishings that demonstrate the lifestyle and image of Chifley as a “plain man”. 
> Bathurst is home to several museums including the Bathurst Historical Society Museum which is located in the left wing of the historic Courthouse. The museum includes in its collection a range of Aboriginal artefacts and large collections of documents and items relating to Bathurst's early history and Australia's early settlement.
The Australian Fossil and Mineral Museum houses the Somerville Collection of fossils and minerals and features Australia's only complete Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton. The Somerville collection also contains one of the largest collections of tourmaline in the Southern Hemisphere.




Motor Racing
> The Bathurst 1000
Bathurst is synonymous with motor sports being the site of the Mount Panorama motor racing circuit. Mount Panorama hosts the Bathurst 12 Hour Motor Race each February, the Bathurst Motor Festival every Easter and the Bathurst 1000 Motor Race each October.
The circuit is a public road when not closed for racing events and is a popular tourist attraction for visitors to the city. 
> The National Motor Racing Museum is located beside the circuit and was built there to encourage visitors to the circuit all year round.  It includes motorcycles and cars representing the racing history of Bathurst. Peter Brock, the famous racing car driver, was synonymous with Mount Panorama racing and a memorial sculpture dedicated to him is located in the museum grounds..

Royal Bathurst Show
The historic Royal Bathurst Show has been in operation since 1860 and is one of the largest Agricultural Shows in NSW.  The Bathurst Show has been held on the present site since 1878.  These days, attendances typically reach 20,000 people over a two-day period.



Charles Sturt University
Charles Sturt University has its primary campus at Bathurst and associated campuses in Wagga Wagga, Albury, Dubbo, Orange, Canberra and Goulburn.
The University is a major provider of regional tertiary education, as well as distance education both nationally and internationally.  The Bathurst campus offers courses in: Business; Communication; Computer Science; Nursing; Paramedical Studies; Policing; Advertising and Marketing; Early Childhood Education; Journalism, Psychology and Teaching.
The University is renowned for its reputation in teaching Journalism.

Food and Wine
The Central Tablelands region has a growing reputation as a producer of gourmet foods and fine wines and spirits.  There is a growing collection of good restaurants and cafes, many of which specialise in serving fresh local produce.

Edgells
This famous Australian brand name of frozen foods began in Bathurst. Robert Gordon Edgell arrived in Bathurst in 1902 and by 1906 he was growing pears, apples and asparagus.
He experimented with canning and preserving fruit and vegetables, opening a small cannery in 1926.

Ben Chifley
Bathurst was the home of the wartime Labor Prime Minister, Ben Chifley. Chifley, a former train driver, represented the area in the Federal Parliament and is buried in Bathurst.
The Labor Party celebrates his legacy each year with a function during which the Light on the Hill speech is delivered by a senior Labor figure.
The Light on the Hill speech was first delivered to the Australian Labor Party Conference by Ben Chifley in 1949.