Wilcannia, New South Wales

The traditional Aboriginal population of the Paakantji people have been calling the area in and around Wilcannia home for some 40,000 years. Since white settlement, the town has been filled with interesting buildings constructed from locally quarried sandstone, including the Knox and Downs Store, Athanaeum Library and the Club Hotel (all dating from the late 19th Century). Wilcannia has a strong mining history, with both gold and opals discovered in the area.

The township reached its height in the 1880s when it boasted 13 hotels, a population of 3000, and a local newspaper - the Wilcannia Times. In 1879 the Red Lion brewery (it is no longer standing) was built at the northern end of Reid Street. Its great claim to fame was that it was the first brewery which the famous beer baron Edmund Resch built in Australia.

At this time Wilcannia became the third-largest port on the Darling River. In 1887, for example, 222 steamers stopped there. Known as 'Queen City of the West' there was a time when most of the wool from northwestern NSW passed through the port. The town was also at the centre of a number of coach routes which traversed Western NSW. Some of the coaches were built here.