Carcoar is a small town in the Central West region of New South Wales, Australia, in Blayney Shire.

[4] Nearby towns are Blayney, Millthorpe, Mandurama, Neville, Lyndhurst and Barry It was once one of the most important government centres in Western New South Wales.

The town has been classified by the National Trust due to the number of intact 19th-century buildings, with a significant amount of cultural materials relating to 19th century Australian life.

[3] The first European to travel through the area was surveyor George Evans, who, heading south-west from Bathurst in 1815, sighted evidence of the Wiradjuri presence.

In 1836 Carcoar locality consisted of a wayside inn kept by George Stammers, a blacksmith’s shop and a small store.

By 1850 Carcoar was the second most populous town west of the mountains, second in size only to Bathurst, and became a banking and administrative centre for the area.

Carcoar's population growth in the mid-19th century also brought crime problems, with increased activity by local renegade convicts and bushrangers by the late 1830s.

However, Carcoar's crime problems largely subsided following the capture of bushranger Paddy Curran, the arrival of a magistrate, and the addition of more police.

He absconded to the Abercrombie Rangies, where his parents had previously lived, and began a series of highway robberies in the south and west of Bathurst.

Frank Gardiner served imprisonment six years for horse theft; upon his release, he broke his parole and took up cattle thieving.

Two local men from the Mount Macquarie area (now Neville), long-term friends Mickey Bourke and Johnny Vane attempted to steal a racehorse from Coombing.

On 13 July 1863, Ben Hall, with Johnny Gilbert and John O'Meally, held up the Carcoar Commercial Bank in broad daylight.

The three, this time joined by Johnny Vane and Mickey Bourke, then held up a jeweller's shop and the Sportsman's Arms Hotel in Bathurst in broad daylight in October 1863.

In Ben Hall's three years as their leader, the gang robbed two mail coaches, committed 21 hold-ups, and stole 23 racehorses.

[26] Held at the Carcoar Show Ground on the last Sunday in April this event highlights ecology and sustainability along with the relaxation and pleasure to be derived from gardening.

An annual agricultural show held on the last weekend of October with judged events ranging from flower arranging to stud cattle and heavy horse snigging and pulling competitions.

In recent years the town has been used as a location for numerous film and television productions including Jessica (starring Sam Neill), Let the Balloon Go, Brides of Christ, Tommy the Kid, Peter Allen: Not the Boy Next Door (2015), Backtrack (2015) and Ten Pound Poms (2023).