History of infrastructure development in Bathurst

Before the exploration of the inland started they had no idea what they would find but what they did discover was fertile and well watered land ideal for grazing of animals and producing agricultural products.

From that point the region was identified as ideal farming land and the Governor ordered a road to be built across the mountain range to the new settlement of Bathurst.

In 1814 the Governor Lachlan Macquarie of the colony of NSW approved the construction of a 163 kilometre long road from the existing limit of habitation of Sydney (near Penrith) to the newly discovered locality of Bathurst.

So as not to disrupt the working party, orders were given to the public and posted in conspicuous places, against visiting or crossing the Nepean without a pass signed by the Governor.

[1] The road commenced at Emu Ford and proceeded to Wentworth Falls, here he had built a hut to house supplies, the road proceeded generally along the existing highway route following the top of the mountain ridges, a second provision hut was built at a site later known as Weatherboard Inn, now Wentworth Falls.

At the present town of Mount Victoria the original road proceeded north west diverging from the existing westerly route.

Bullock teams hauling goods had to tie large logs to the back of their wagons to retard the speed of descent.

[4] It was traversed on 18 January 1836 by the young naturalist Charles Darwin, who wrote of it in The Voyage of the Beagle: "To effect this pass, an enormous quantity of stone has been cut through; the design, and its manner of execution, would have been worthy of any line of road in England – even that of Holyhead.

The formation of the new Mountain Road towards Bathurst proceeds rapidly; the distance saved thereby, and the avoidance of several tedious acclivities, render it a very important improvement in the means of communication with the Capital.As the towns of Lithgow and Wallerawang grew in importance with coal mining and as the railways were now located there, traffic increased to these towns, the route via Rydal was also quite steep in parts.

[12] A contemporary report in 1848 states that the mail contractor proposed to commence a non-stop service from Sydney to Bathurst taking approximately 24 hours to complete the one way journey.

[14] Combined with modern motor vehicles and a much improved road design the present day journey time is approximately 3 hours.

A mail and passenger train leaves Sydney at a quarter-past five in the evening, reaches Wallerawang at half-past eleven o'clock at night, and Bathurst at thirty-three minutes to two in the morning.

[38] In 1890 a major expansion of the railway facilities were approved, these included a second passenger platform with underground pedestrian subway, two mainlines, extra shunting tracks, and a new Signal Box.

On Wednesday last Mr. Ma'gill, contractor for reticulating the town for water supply, essayed a new departure by experimenting in deep trenching by steam power, and the success of the trial made justifies the assumption that another nail has been driven into the coffins of Meesrs.

In 1908 proposals were put forward for the commencement of a sewerage system to pipe effluent to a treatment plant on the low land near the River.

It was not until 1934 that an extension of the system using gas powered pumping equipment and rising mains was built to serve the low levels of the town along Havannah and Charlotte Streets.

After much discussion and investigation a decision was made to construct a new dam on the Campbell River approximately 15 kilometres to the south of Bathurst.

The nearby town of Young had installed a new electric power system for street lighting in 1889 but by 1891 had decided to remove the equipment and revert to Gas due to the high cost of running the plant.

The supply will come from the big electric generating station foreshadowed some months ago which it is proposed to install at the State coal mine and which will be of such dimensions that the current will be available for towns farther west, including Bathurst and Orange.

Early in 1922 they communicated with the Kandos Cement Works to investigate the possibility of obtaining a power supply via a transmission line from that town, 50 miles away.

[67] The Railway power scheme mentioned earlier was intended to generate at one central location (Lithgow) and distribute at high voltage to towns including Bathurst, 60 kilometres to the west and much further took some to materialise.

By 1923 they could wait no longer, in 1923/24 Bathurst constructed a local power house and an electricity distribution network using poles and overhead wiring.

In 1926 tenders are called for electric lighting in the Bathurst Post Office[71] and in 1937 electric lighting and power was installed in the Bathurst Technical College[72] In mid-1930 a major step forward occurred when the Railway power supply scheme, long promised, was brought into use, bringing lower costs and higher reliability.

A new 66,000 volt transmission line was completed connecting the new railway owned and operated power station at Lithgow with the town of Bathurst, a distance of approximately 60 kilometres.

The council will endeavor to place the men in other departments.In the twenty years since the Bathurst electric lighting network was built it had been upgraded three times to cater for demand.

As early as 1935 there were plans in place to interconnect the independent power systems that existed in the Sydney area, the south, west and north of the state.

Through the courtesy of the telegraph station-master (Mr. Chapple) the writer witnessed the wonderful feat of conversing by means of the telephone with people at Sofala, a distance by wire of 30 miles; and so successful was the result that not only were the vocal and instrumental music rendered by request clearly distinguished at either end, but questions were promptly answered as for instance, "What is your telegraph time?

In the early 1890s the local business chamber of commerce commenced lobbying the Post & Telegraph Department to establish a telephone switchboard in Bathurst.

The connection will, doubtless, be appreciated by those citizens who may have important business to transact with residents of Sydney, although they will have to pay for tho privilege, and long talks will be out of the question under the charges made.

[108] This new cable formed a part of a new inland route from Sydney to Bathurst, Deniliquin, Bendigo to Melbourne brought into service in 1953.