Condobolin

Condobolin is a town of 3,500 in the west of the Central West region of New South Wales, Australia, on the Lachlan River.

Location
Condobolin is very close to Mount Tilga, which is said to be the geographical centre of New South Wales.

Condobolin is located at the junction of Lachlan River and Goobang Creek. It is 463 km west of Australia's largest city, Sydney.

Close to Condobolin is the Overflow Station, the setting of the poem Clancy of the Overflow by Banjo Paterson. The poem is about a Queensland drover, a cattle handler responsible for herding large mobs of cattle long distances to market.

History
Prior to European settlement, the area was inhabited by the Wiradjuri people.

The name Condobolin is suggested by some to have evolved from the Aboriginal word Cundabullen – shallow crossing. The crossing was located a short distance below the junction of the Lachlan River and the Goobang Creek. Others suggest that the town's name from the Wiradjuri word for 'hop bush', or 'hop brush'.

The area was explored by John Oxley in 1817 and Thomas Mitchell in 1836. The 'Condoublin' run was established by 1844. There had been squatters in the district since Mitchell's 1836 exploration. Closer settlement of the area began in 1880 when the large runs were broken up into smaller holdings.

The town of Condobolin was proclaimed in 1859. The railway arrived in 1898, and the town's population boomed, assisted by finds in 1885 of copper north of the town and in 1896 of gold in the district, north-west of the town. A major copper and gold mine was in operation at Condobolin from 1898 until around 1910. Agriculture is still a major influence on the town, production having expanded with the damming of the Lachlan River in 1935 by the Wyangala Dam. Wheat, barley, canola, wool, sheep and cattle are produced in the district. In more recent years irrigation has brought horticulture and cotton to the Lachlan River area.

Transport
The town is served by the twice-weekly Indian Pacific train, as well as Countrylink's Broken Hill Outback Xplorer train. This train heads to Broken Hill on Mondays and Sydney on Tuesdays.

Notable people from Condobolin

 * Kevin Gilbert, poet, author, playwright, activist
 * Shannon Noll, the first runner up of Australian Idol