Bourke > Attractions | History | Fred Hollows Grave Site | North Bourke Bridge â—¦
Located in the far western parts of New South Wales, 789 km north west of Sydney and 100 m above sea level on the Darling River, is Bourke. It is the centre of the wool, cotton and citrus region, as well as a popular tourist destination, and is also the place to visit as the ‘Gateway to the Real Outback’.
Bourke has a rich heritage, immortalised in both poetry and song. The renowned Henry Lawson lived for some years here, and his experiences moved him to state that ‘if you know Bourke, you know Australia’. Come and see for yourself what it is that appealed to so many of Australia’s great poets, and what it is that continue to bring visitors from all over the world to the ‘Back o’ Bourke’.
Although Charles Sturt passed through the district in 1828 he thought that the whole area was ‘unlikely to become the haunt of civilised man’. They had arrived in the area during a period of drought and he returned to Sydney with less then glowing reports of the area. It wasn’t until 1835 that Sir Thomas Mitchell returned to the area and constructed a fort about 13 km south of the town site.
Fort Bourke was short-lived, but it did establish the possibility of settlement in the area and over the next decade pastoralists moved into the area. It was marginal land and few people prospered, however the history of the district changed dramatically when, in 1859, Captain W R Randall sailed the Gemini up the Darling River from South Australia. Suddenly towns such as Bourke and Brewarrina along the river became vital transport nodes. Bourke remained the transport centre for the whole of south west Queensland and western NSW for decades, as it’s port was the only efficient way to transport wool to the coastal markets, and at its height in the late 1800s over 40,000 bales of wool were being shipped down the Darling annually. This river transportation continued until the last commercial riverboat in 1931.
In 1862 the township was surveyed and the first businesses, ‘Bourke Store’ and ‘Bourke’ Hotel were established. This boom time saw many large landholdings being taken up by optimistic graziers, but the unreliable rainfall, averaging between 150 mm one year to 800 mm the next, saw many of the optimists leave the area.
Source: Information has been sourced from a number of locations including:
Bourke Shire Council, Bourke Public Library, Tourism Centre and street signage.
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Footnote & References
- Bourke Shire Council, https://bourke.nsw.gov.au/
- Bourke Public Library, https://www.bourkelibrary.com.au/
- Bourke Visitor Information, https://www.visitbourke.com.au/