Tracing Dozens of Lost Villages in Australia
The Central West area of Australia's state of New South Wales is filled with the remains of the once-victorious settlements.
If you go there, you can still find the former post office building with its roof falling here and there. Or jejeran tombstone that is more a century hit by wind and rain.
But in other parts of the region, there are also small towns and villages that are no longer visible. Everything is lost in time.
A resident named Sam Guthrie, was born near Galleymont, a village that has now disappeared.
"I know there was a city there, but now it's gone," said the student of history at Australian National University.
He always wondered how a place that once inhabited hundreds of inhabitants now no longer exists.
The small church building built in 1873 and the cemetery is what remains in Byng Village.
by Micaela Hambrett
How to define a village
In Central West, at least 39 cities or villages are known to have been lost. But the actual amount is much higher.
The Geographical Names Board can not explain the exact number.
Although place names provide a path to the past, the new Geographical Names Board sets names from the late 1960s.
Therefore, according to them, determining which cities or villages have been lost requires a comparison of the Geographical Names Register with historic names.
The postcards of 1900 from the village of Ophir no longer exists.
Supplied: Orange and District Historical Society
History researcher Gay Hendrikson mentions there are 25 small towns and villages missing in the Central West area.
He examined the distribution of parishes, checked local administration and museum records, and compared the oral history of the region.
His report mentions villages known and missing.
"It depends on whether the settler village is a village or not, depending on how to define a village," he said.
Walking close
The Central West area was once considered a savage region of Australian colonies.
At that time the Blue Mountains were just passable, desperate visitors scattered in the Great Dividing Range, lured with land and gold.
Surveyors from London who set the boundaries of settlements often arrive at newly discovered locations and find them inhabited.
Willian Tom (left) who first discovered gold in Ophir Village, Central West, NSW, along with his colleague John Lister showed gold pieces.
Orange Historical Society
With such a pattern, according to Hendrikson, there are often practical reasons for determining the location of a village or small town.
"The average person can walk about 25 kilometers per day, just look at the distance between the cities," he said.
Related mining
These missing towns are generally associated with routes or access to mining.
Police stations, courthouses, post offices, schools, and banks will turn an area into a town or village.
But the depletion of mineral deposits or changes in transportation routes can change the fate of an immediate city.
"Whether or not a railway line determines whether a village turns into a city," Hendrickson said.
The once-glorious Cadia village of the 1890s, now lost without trace.
Orange and District Historical Society
Peter Douglas from the Orange City library said transport evolution contributed the most to the survival or disappearance of a village.
"The factor that kills most of this small town is that it improves all road and transport systems," he said.
"People who used to stop shopping in their village, no longer need a post office, no longer need school and gradually disappear," he added.
"When there is no vehicle to go to school, the distance is 10 kilometers away, but once a car, 10 or 20 kilometers is no longer a problem," Douglas explains.
That survived
The remains of some of the lost villages and towns are still visible today.
The former post office and stables in Cheeseman's Creek, for example, are still visible between Orange and Cudal Cities, as well as the Toogong cemetery.
In the village of Ophir, which was completely destroyed by time, only the remains of a mine were left. A number of places retained his name, though his village was long gone.
This can be seen in Murga, whose signposts still appear on the side of the road.
The signpost to Murga, a village that no longer exists.
Micaela Hambrett
Conservation director at National Trust Graham Quint explains the remains vary, depending on the original purpose.
"At the beginning of the gold rush we find tents and after they move, there is not much left but a pit," Quint said.
"There may be a former wooden store with a stone stove - and the one that survives is the stove," he added.
If the region relies on the wool industry, he says, there may still be many warehouses remaining.
City ghost sensation
The role of artists can not be ignored because of their contribution in folklore and romantic narratives about lost villages.
"This is just the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries," said Richard White, professor of history at the University of Sydney.
The former post office of Cheeseman's Village.
By Micaela Hambrett
The relics of the past, he said, are universal.
The Central West area and all the lost villages and towns in Australia are indeed in their peaceful glory and extinction.
"They tend to disappear due to economic factors," says Dr. White.
The tomb in the village of Byng.
Micaela Hambrett
The missing village in Central West
Bimbi, Browns Creek, Burdett, Burnt Yards, Byng, Cadia, Caleula, Cheeseman "s Creek, Cranbury, Cumble, Dension, Emu Swamp, Fitzgerald Mount, Flyer's Creek, Forest, Forest Reefs, Four Mile Creek, Fredrick" Valley, Glen Davis, Gregam's Town, Guyong, Hill End, Icely, Junction Reefs, Kerrs Creek, Kings Plains, Lewis Ponds, Manduramah, Moonilda, Mount McDonald, Mount Wygaton, Murga, Newes, Ophir, Shadforth, Spring Hill, Summer Hill, The Springs, Toogong, Wattle Flat and Yarrabin.
Published by Farid M. Ibrahim from ABC Australia article.
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