Walcha, New South Wales

Walcha (pronounced "wolka") is a town in Vernon County at the south-eastern edge of the Northern Tablelands, New South Wales, Australia.

It serves as the seat of Walcha Shire. The town is located 425 km by road from Sydney at the intersection of the Oxley Highway and Thunderbolts Way.

The district population is approximately 3,283 (2005), with 1,486 in the township (2001).

Walcha is known as the "Pasture Wonderland" as the dominant industry in the area is livestock grazing along with an expanding timber industry. Aerial agriculture dramatically increased the stock carrying capacity of the land when it was pioneered here in 1950. The district usually runs about 760,000 sheep (mostly Merinos) and around 85,500 stud and commercial beef cattle. Livestock produced in the Walcha district is some best in the country and local superfine wool has been acknowledged as some of the best in the world.

As the Main Northern Railway is located some distance away a separate village called Walcha Road serves as the railhead. This is served by the daily Countrylink Xplorer service between Sydney and Armidale. Other centres are the villages of Niangala, Nowendoc and  Woolbrook with settlements at Brackendale, Glen Morrison, Ingalba, Tia and Yarrowitch.

The clear mountain climate here has an average temperature range from -2.0 to 11.9 °C in winter (July) to 11.8 - 25.3 °C in summer (January). Average annual rainfall is about 808 mm and snow is not unusual.

History
The area is thought to have been occupied by the Ngayaywana and Dyangadi Aborigines prior to white settlement. In 1818, John Oxley became the first white person to discover the area and the falls which were later to be named Apsley Falls. Hamilton Collins Sempill was the first settler in the New England area when he took up the 'Wolka' run in 1832, establishing slab huts where 'Langford' now stands. Other early runs around the district were Bergen-op-Zoom (1834), Ohio (1836), Europambela (c.1836), Surveyor’s Creek (1836), Emu Creek (c.1837), Orandumbie (1837), Tiara (1837), and Winterbourne (1837). A severe depression during 1841 to 1843, and low demand for wool created hardship for many of these early settlers.

A ‘wool’ road to Port Macquarie (the Oxley Highway) was under construction in 1842 for the transportation of wool from New England to the coast. A postal service was established in 1851. Walcha was gazetted as a village site in 1852, when town allotments were sold, with annual sales following. At that time there was a blacksmith's, a store and a flour mill. A Catholic chapel was erected in 1854, a police station and the first Presbyterian church in 1857 and the Walcha National School in 1859.

In 1861 the population was recorded at 355 and the Anglican church was built in 1862 of stone taken from the demolished homestead, 'Villa Walcha', erected on the Wolka run in the 1840s. The old church has fine stained-glass windows which bear tribute to some of the town's pioneers. Numbers dropped in the 1860s but the town soon began to grow for two reasons: firstly, cedar-getters were active in the area's rainforests by about 1870. Gold was discovered near Walcha in the 1870s at Glen Morrison, Tia, The Cells and Nowendoc. Antimony, copper, graphite, manganese, silver and high quality slate was also mined in the district.

On 5 April 1878 Walcha was proclaimed a town, when it was gazetted, the boundaries defined and a courthouse was built. A rail link to Sydney and Uralla opened at Walcha Road in 1882. The town became a municipality in 1889. On 19 March 1890 the Walcha Pastoral & Agricultural Association was formed. This annual show has excellent exhibits of stock, produce, vegetables, flowers, wool and handicrafts. Walcha Cottage Hospital founded in 1890 and was situated on the southern hill in South street. The town became a municipality in 1889. The Shire of Apsley was constituted by proclamation on 7 March 1906. It is in the counties of Vernon, Hawes, and Inglis and comprises about 60 parishes. The area is 1,605,590 acres. The Shire of Walcha was constituted by the Union of the Municipality and the Shire of Apsley as from on 1 Jun 1955.

Attractions
Natural attractions abound in the area and include the Apsley Falls located about 20 kilometres east of Walcha just off the Oxley Highway. Their scenic grandeur has to be seen to be fully appreciated. The first drop of the Falls is about 85 metres in depth, and the second, about half a mile further on, drops around 65 metres to the bottom of the gorge. Walcha is the southern gateway to the Oxley Wild Rivers National Park and Werrikimbe National Park, which is registered with Central Eastern Rainforest Reserves (CERRA). Composing of mainly scenic gorge country, 900 km² of it, part of it is listed on the register of World Heritage sites in recognition of its importance to nature conservation.

There are many other tourist attractions including scenic 4WD trips, hiking, the State Forests, fishing, the unique Open Air Gallery, fossicking opportunities, Amaroo Museum & Cultural Centre, Pioneer Cottage museum and the local history archives. It also has four Churches representing the (Catholic, Anglican, and Presbyterian) denominations.

The Walcha Jockey Club, Walcha Rodeo, Walcha Show Society and the Campdraft Club hold large annual events that extend over several days each. The New England Merino Field days which display local studs, wool and sheep are held every two years. A biennial Timber Expo was established to showcase the local timber industry. There are numerous other sporting and general interest clubs in the town.