Byrock is a small village in north western

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, Australia in

Bourke Shire Bourke Shire is a local government area in the Orana region of New South Wales, Australia. The Shire is located adjacent to the Darling River, which is known as the Barwon River upstream from Bourke; and located adjacent to the Mitchell Highwa ...

. In 2016, Byrock had a population of 50 people. It is named after a rock hole, called ''Bai'' by the Nyammba tribe. This became the Bye Rockhole, then Bye Rock, then Byrock. Byrock is on the

Mitchell Highway Mitchell Highway is an outback state highway located in the central and south western regions of Queensland and the northern and central western regions of New South Wales in Australia. The southern part of Mitchell Highway forms part of t ...

roughly halfway between Bourke to the north-west and

Nyngan Nyngan () is a town in the centre of New South Wales, Australia, in the Bogan Shire local government area within the Orana Region of central New South Wales. At the 2016 census, Nyngan had a population of 1,988 people. Nyngan is situated on th ...

to the south-east.

Railways

Byrock was founded to serve the

Cobb and Co Cobb & Co was the name used by several independent Australian coach businesses. The first company to use 'Cobb & Co' was established in 1853 by American Freeman Cobb and his partners. The name grew to great prominence in the late 19th century ...

stagecoaches. The railway reached Byrock from Nyngan in 1874, with an extension to Bourke opening on 3 September 1885. On 6 July 1900, Byrock became a

railway junction A junction, in the context of rail transport, is a place at which two or more rail routes converge or diverge. The physical connection between the tracks of the two routes (assuming they are of the same gauge) is provided by turnouts (US: switc ...

when the new branch line Byrock to

Brewarrina Brewarrina (pronounced ''bree-warren-ah''; locally known as "Bre") is a town in north-west New South Wales, Australia on the banks of the Barwon River in Brewarrina Shire. It is east of Bourke and west of Walgett on the Kamilaroi Highway, a ...

opened. The branch line to Brewarrina closed in 1974 after the line was damaged by flooding, the mainline from Nyngan to Bourke through Byrock was closed in May 1989, after flooding caused major track damage. Passenger train services ceased in 1975.

Services

The Mulga Creek Hotel with a caravan and camping ground.

Water

Byrock relies on rainfall for its non potable water supply that is channeled into a large ground tank, settled and then pumped to the historical railway tank. Water is then gravity fed to dwellings. When the ground tank runs dry, emergency water cartage from Bourke is provided by road tanker, as was the case around 2006. Byrock has one Council maintained bore.

Cemetery

The Byrock Cemetery is the resting place for pioneers who died between 1882 and 1933. The average age at death of those buried in this cemetery is 20 years.

Public transport

NSW TrainLink NSW TrainLink is a regional train and coach operator in Australia, providing services throughout New South Wales and into Australian Capital Territory, the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria (state), Victoria, Queensland and South Australia ...

operate a bus service between

Dubbo Dubbo (; ) is a city in the Orana (New South Wales), Orana Region of New South Wales, Australia. It is the largest population centre in the Orana region, with a population of 43,516 at June 2021. The city is located at the intersection of the ...

and Bourke, via

, four days a week.

Airstrip

Byrock has a gravel airstrip 1067 metres long with no facilities. It is located next to the town on the western side of the

Newspaper

The Western Herald

community newspaper Community journalism is locally-oriented, professional news coverage that typically focuses on city neighborhoods, individual suburbs or small towns, rather than metropolitan, state, national or world news. If it covers wider topics, community ...

is delivered free to Byrock from Bourke every Thursday.The Media Workshop Bourke Western Herald
(accessed 28 September 2010)

School

In 2006, the school was placed on review because of insufficient enrolments and has since been formally closed. By September 2009, the site of the former Byrock Public School was put up for sale by the NSW Department of Education.

Gallery

Image:Byrock-butcher.JPG, Butcher shop, Byrock Image:Byrock-water-tower.JPG, Water tower, Byrock

References

External links

{{authority control Bourke Shire Towns in New South Wales Main Western railway line, New South Wales