Binalong (Bine-a-long) is a village in the

Southern Tablelands The Southern Tablelands is a geographic area of New South Wales, Australia, located south-west of Sydney and west of the Great Dividing Range. The area is characterised by high, flat country which has generally been extensively cleared and ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, Australia, 37 km north-west of Yass in Yass Valley Shire. At the , Binalong and the surrounding area had a population of 543.

History

Original inhabitants

The

indigenous people Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

of the district were part of the

Ngunnawal people The Ngunnawal people, also spelt Ngunawal, are an Aboriginal people of southern New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory in Australia. Language Ngunnawal and Gundungurra are Australian Aboriginal languages from the Pama-Nyungan ...

. The first Europeans recorded as visiting the area were the exploratory party of

Hamilton Hume Hamilton Hume (19 June 1797 – 19 April 1873) was an early explorer of the present-day Australian states of New South Wales and Victoria. In 1824, along with William Hovell, Hume participated in an expedition that first took an overland rout ...

in 1821. The name of the town is believed to derive either from an Aboriginal word meaning "under the hills, surrounded by hills, or towards a high place" or from

Bennelong Woollarawarre Bennelong ( 1764 – 3 January 1813), also spelt Baneelon, was a senior man of the Eora, an Aboriginal Australian people of the Port Jackson area, at the time of the first British settlement in Australia in 1788. Bennelong ser ...

, the name of a noted Aboriginal Man.

European settlement

Binalong lay beyond the border of the

Nineteen Counties The Nineteen Counties were the limits of location in the colony of New South Wales, Australia. Settlers were permitted to take up land only within the counties due to the dangers in the wilderness. They were defined by the Governor of New Sout ...

which was the formal legal extent of European settlement in New South Wales. However,

squatters Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there ...

settled in the district prior to the formal establishment of squatting districts in 1839. From 1847 there was a court of petty sessions. The same year a local entrepreneur applied successfully to the Commissioner of Police for a grant to build an inn to provide accommodation and victuals for the visiting magistrate and police witnesses, and the Swan Inn was established close to the courthouse. The town was gazetted in 1850. In 1853,

Cobb and Co Cobb & Co was the name used by many successful sometimes quite independent Australian coaching businesses. The first was established in 1853 by American Freeman Cobb and his partners. The name Cobb & Co grew to great prominence in the late 19t ...

was established in Melbourne as a coaching company, and upon eventually expanding their operations into New South Wales, entered into an agreement with the Swan Inn to provide staging services for coaches, drivers and passengers travelling along the adjacent road to the goldfields at Lambing Flat or Young. The town flourished as a coaching stop. The Swan Inn became known as "The Cobb and Co".

Consolidation

The public school was established in 1861. The original railway station opened in 1875 and was replaced by the current structure on an island platform when the railway was deviated and duplicated in 1916. The 1916 signal box is now closed. The original station remains as a private house on the road to Yass. The Swan Inn closed following the building of the railway and the establishment of other hostelries closer to the railway station. It reopened in the mid-1980s as a restaurant and continues under the name The Black Swan. A motel was built on the adjoining block of land.

Notable residents

Michael Boddy Michael Boddy (8 March 193413 April 2014) was an English-Australian actor and writer. His best known works include co-writing the play ''The Legend of King O'Malley'' with Bob Ellis. Personal Boddy was born in the village of Baldersby, Yorkshire ...

, an English-Australian actor and writer, and spouse of Janet Dawson * Janet Dawson MBE, an Australian artist and spouse of Michael Boddy * The presence of gold meant also that there were bushrangers in the area. The grave of John Gilbert is near the town in the former police paddock. He was a member of the Gardiner-Hall gang and shot by police in 1865. * Gillian Mann, English/Australian artist * The family of the poet

Banjo Paterson Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson, (17 February 18645 February 1941) was an Australian bush poet, journalist and author. He wrote many ballads and poems about Australian life, focusing particularly on the rural and outback areas, including the ...

moved to the Binalong district in 1869 when he was five years old. He attended the primary school in Binalong but later went to boarding school in Sydney returning home in the holidays. The district features in a number of his poems, for example
''Pardon, the son of Reprieve''
. Paterson's father is buried in the local cemetery. *

John Nagel Ryan John Nagel Ryan (1816 – 12 January 1887) was an Irish-born Australian politician. He was born at Clonoulty in County Tipperary to pastoralist Edward Ryan and Ellen Nagel. He migrated to New South Wales around 1834, working for his father, ...

inherited his father's states, comprising 30,000 acres in the Boorowa-Binalong district. In 1883 he was appointed to the New South Wales Legislative Council * Bruce Smeaton, an Australian composer

Gallery: around Binalong

BinalongNSWStore.JPG, General store New Binalong station.jpg, New Binalong Railway Station, now closed, on 1916 alignment StPatrickskatoliskakyrka Binalong.jpg, St Patrick's Catholic Church Binalong Motor Museum.jpg, Binalong Motor Museum

References

External links

Banjo Paterson's account of the place where he spent his childhood

Binalong Public School
{{authority control Towns in New South Wales Southern Tablelands Yass Valley Council