15 September 2012 - Cobar Caravan Park, NSW

We picked up our weekend fix of The Australian from the newsagent soon after 9 am, quite a marvel when you consider how far Cobar is from anywhere.

The Information Centre was open early as well and it is here the Heritage Centre is to be found. We were delighted to discover that this little museum is every bit as good as that in Bourke and about half the price. Here we learned how the early settlers survived their hard life in Cobar and the surrounding area, how the mining industry came to be, the injustices done to the local aboriginals, the wool industry and a wealth of related information.

Of the climate we learned the hottest day here in 2011 was on Australia Day when the thermometer hit 44.3 degrees. The highest recorded temperature was 48.2 degrees in February 1889 and the lowest, -2.5 degrees in August 1994. This morning’s temperature was 5 degrees and it didn’t get any warmer than 19 degrees all day.

The scarcity of water was well featured with some rather comical anecdotes or at least hilarious when one views these matters from the distance of time.

• ·         The Cobar Hotel promoted its accommodation by claiming that they endeavoured to launder the bed linen every seven weeks.
• ·         One photo shows a Mr Jeffrey, the newsagent, baker, and auctioneer, in 1882 guarding the only water in town with a revolver and selling it for six pence a bucket.
• ·         In the drought year of 1902 bore water was railed in from Warren and old photos show water carts being filled from the rail wagons.

Copper was discovered by accident as so often the case, by three well sinkers back in 1870. By 1912, the Great Cobar Copper Mine was operating at its peak with fourteen smelters, a 64 metre chimney stack and over 2,000 employees. The population of  Cobar hit 10,000.

Then immediately after the First World War, demand for copper fell and the Great Cobar mine closed. The town’s population dwindled to 1,000 and other small towns around the area that had sprung up during those boom times were either reduced to a handful of occupants or disappeared off the map altogether.

Here I picked up on a rather tragic observation; the fact that bullets used in the First World War by both sides contained copper mined in Cobar, and it was these same bullets that likely killed the many young men from here who lost their lives.

The Great Cobar Copper Mine had not been the only mine in operation; the Cornish, Scottish & Australian Mine (CSA) operated from the early 1870s then closed in 1920 when fire broke out underground. The fire burned for sixteen years which was probably not intended if in fact the fire had been deliberately lit, which is suggested in some of the literature. This mine did not reopen until 1965, continuing until 1998 when the economy brought it to a close once more. It has since reopened and as of now, it is fully operational. However these are uncertain times and mining’s fluctuations are very much in the news this year. Who is to say what the future is of this episode?

In 1934 the New Occidental Gold Mine opened just outside Cobar, not closing until the early 1950s. This too has been reopened operating successfully with more modern technology. Silver, lead and zinc have been mined at the Endeavour Mine since 1982 and gold is being mined at the Peak Gold Mines.

Needless to stay a fair value of ore has been transported out of the region leaving a fair few holes in the ground.

Another statistic I find really interesting, as I do, is the fact that the Shire of Cobar covers an area of 44,065 square kilometres and has a total population of 7,000. Given that 5,500 live in the “urban” area that means that the other 1,500 inhabit an area of still over 44,000 square kilometres. I imagine there are few of them that cry out,”Give me some space!”

New Cobar Open Cut Gold Mine

After leaving this excellent museum, we headed firstly for the Fort Bourke Lookout over the New Cobar Open Cut Gold mine where we looked down into the 430 metre deep pit which acts as the entrance for further mines tunnelled into the rock. From there we headed for the Old Reservoir which is promoted as a good free camp for the travelling public. This is just three kilometres from town and once was an important water source in good times prior to the water being piped in from afar. Currently it is more than half full and hosts much birdlife. We parked on the edge and ate our lunch watching the only other visitor operating his remote control car from his moving 4WD. We then continued up an incredibly rough track to Devils Rock, a small group of rocks considered by the local aboriginals to be a place of great evil. We did not linger however that had nothing to do with concerns that we might be overcome by some hoodoo.

We returned to the Information Centre, parked and set off on the Centenary of Federation Walking Track, an easy six kilometre trail around the edge of the Open Cut, past the Slag Dump, on through a wilderness area where we saw a knob tailed lizard, a beautiful Major Mitchell Cockatoo and hundreds of other winged songsters, around the New Tank Reservoir and back through the edge of town.We passed only one runner and one cyclist; we were otherwise alone.

At the Slag Heap, there was a note that a small portion of this had been recycled in the construction of the town’s roads. And given that much of this slag still contains gold, one could correctly say that Cobar’s streets are paved with gold.

Knob tailed lizard

On our return to camp after refuelling in readiness for tomorrow’s departure, we spent a couple of hours over at Melody and Doug’s caravan, meeting up with friends they had in turn made during their travels. As with most of these gatherings we came away more informed about the places they call home and more informed about the places we have yet to travel.

We do have television reception, along with enough internet access to pick up emails. This is a pleasant surprise as we had a nil expectation of such facilities as we crossed the far west of the state. We should therefore be able to catch the rugby test on television after all.