Walgett

The name “Walgett” comes from a Gamilaraay word meaning “meeting of two waters”. The town of Walgett is located near the junction of the Namoi and Barwon Rivers in north western New South Wales. Captain Charles Sturt was the first European to see the Barwon in February 1829 while exploring western New South Wales and seeking to solve the “mystery” of its river system. Sturt discovered the Darling River flowing south from its origins in Queensland. Above Brewarrina, the Darling is known as the Barwon River.

The spot where Walgett stands today was originally called “Wareena”(Warrana) an Aboriginal word for “rising ground near the meeting of the waters”. In 1847 and 1848 various land holdings were established around the area, including the Warrana Run held in 1848 by Henry Cox and the Walchate Run, reputedly owned by Henry Bailey. The Warrana Run became known as “Ulumbie” and was taken over by Daniel McFarlane and then by the Doyle family. During early settlement, the town was variously referred to as Wallgett, Walchate, Wingate, Warrena, Warrana and Walgett.

In July 1859 the township was surveyed by Arthur Dewhurst and in October a notification appeared in the Government Gazette stating that a site had been selected for a town to be called Walgett, at the junction of the Namoi and Barwon Rivers. The first sale of Walgett town allotments took place in December 1859. The streets of Walgett were named after British Prime Ministers, Fox, Peel and Pitt and after the surveyor, Arthur and Dewhurst. Namoi, Wee Waa and Euroka Streets were named after the settlements to which they were headed.

In 1860 two hotels were built, followed soon by two shops, a post office, police station and pound. They were followed by a blacksmith’s workshop and saddlery. The first bank in Walgett opened in 1876 and a school, hospital and courthouse were built.  Future Prime Minister Edmund Barton was the Crown Prosecutor at the first Court of Quarter Sessions in Walgett’s new courthouse in 1878.  Rapid settlement continued and the town of Walgett was officially proclaimed on the 20th March 1885.

Walgett became the centre of an increasingly prosperous pastoral district. The inland mail service converged at Walgett and the town became the central depot for overland livestock, local supplies and for the affairs of north western New
South Wales. Vast cattle stations developed in the district.

Gingi (Gingie) Station, taken from an Aboriginal word for a waterhole, was one of the largest in the State. In 1876, it occupied 250,000 acres and ran 95,000 sheep. Gingi also had the largest stockyard in Australia at the time, covering an area over six acres and equipped to process 10,000 head of cattle. Other large stations in the Walgett district included Ulumbie, Bungle Gully, Goangra, Yarroldool, Come-By-Chance, Eurie, Dungalear, Mercadool, Angledool and Euroka.

The mid 1870s began a period of boom and prosperity for Walgett. It was followed by significant increases in government and private investment in the district. During this period sheep took over from cattle as the predominant pastoral industry and stations like Dungalear, Gingi, Goangra and Euroka introduced sheep on a large scale.

Euroka Station is the site on which Frederick York Wolseley invented and engineered the first mechanical shearing machine. The machine-operated handpiece was first acknowledged in 1877, providing a more efficient and quicker way of shearing larget numbers of sheep, revolutionising the Australian wool industry. The first real demonstration of the Wolseley sheep shearing machine was held at Euroka Station in December 1886 where 1,500 sheep were shorn in the first mechanical shearing