Coombing Park is a farming property situated in 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 ...

just off the

Mid-Western Highway Mid-Western Highway, sometimes Mid Western Highway, is a state highway located in the central western and northern Riverina regions of New South Wales, Australia. The highway services rural communities and links the Great Western, Mitchell, ...

about 5 km west of

Carcoar Carcoar is a small town in the Central West (New South Wales), Central West region of New South Wales, Australia, in Blayney Shire. In 2021, the town had a population of 271 people. It is situated just off the Mid-Western Highway 258 km west ...

, 260 km west of

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

and 54 km south-west of Bathurst. The property is of considerable note because of its relationship with convicts, bushrangers and the

Cobb & 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, ...

coaching company. The property was offered as an estate to its owner

Thomas Icely Thomas Icely (3 November 179713 February 1874) was an early colonial New South Wales landholder and stockbreeder. As a nominee Legislative Councillor from 1843, to 1853, and from 1855, until the establishment of responsible government in 1856, h ...

by the early

Government in 1826. It was one of the first estates created on the western side of the Blue Mountains that border the area of Sydney.

History

Thomas Icely enlisted (not of their own free-will) the help of 62

convict A convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison". Convicts are often also known as "prisoners" or "inmates" or by the slang term "con", while a common label for former convicts ...

s to build the original homestead and outbuildings between 1838 and 1842 and indeed the original shearing shed and stables are still standing from their construction date of 1848. The eastern boundary of the property borders the Mt Macquarie road which leads directly to the town Carcoar, which was specifically created in 1839 so as to service the Coombing Park estate and is situated about 1 kilometre away. The town required the presence of about 27 Mounted and Foot Police, specifically with the aim of controlling the frequent appearance of

bushrangers Bushrangers were armed robbers and outlaws who resided in the Australian bush between the 1780s and the early 20th century. The original use of the term dates back to the early years of the British colonisation of Australia, and applied to ...

in the area. One notorious bushranger directly related with the Coombing Park property was Mickey Bourke who shot and wounded an employee of Coombing Park whilst he was stealing a racehorse from the stables. Thomas Icely's original cottage was replaced by a large single storey but elegant brick villa that was designed and built by G.A. Mansfield in 1900. This was some 20 years after the property had been purchased in 1881 by the Cobb & Co coaching company and occupied by a partner of the Cobb & Co firm, a Mr William Franklin Whitney. Whitney's descendants still own and live on the property. It retains much Cobb & Co memorabilia. Thomas Icely had identified the presence of copper ore close to the homestead, as early as 1847. He had shafts—referred to as the Coombing Mine—sunk to mine the lode from 1848 to 1851. In 1875, this mine was reopened—by Lewis Lloyd and

Saul Samuel Sir Saul Samuel, 1st Baronet (2 November 182029 August 1900) was an Australian colonial merchant, member of parliament, pastoralist, and prominent Jew. Samuel achieved many breakthroughs for Jews in the colonial community of New South Wales in ...

—and, in 1876, a copper smelter was built close to it. A separate location on the property—about 2 km south-east of the homestead, close to the modern-day Fell Timber Road—was, from 1876 to 1878, the site of the Geraldine copper mine. There was a quarry on the property, which provided iron ore from around 1899, for use as flux at the

Cockle Creek Smelter Cockle Creek Smelter was a zinc and lead smelter located at the northern end of Lake Macquarie near Boolaroo in Newcastle, New South Wales. The smelter was built in by the Sulphide Corporation in 1896 and the first attempts to refine zinc using t ...

. Later and more significantly, it provided ore—around 500,000 tons—for the

Lithgow Blast Furnace The Lithgow Blast Furnace is a heritage-listed former blast furnace and now park and visitor attraction at Inch Street, Lithgow, New South Wales, Lithgow, City of Lithgow, New South Wales, Australia. It was built from 1906 to 1907 by William San ...

, from late April 1907 up to May 1923, when the lease expired and was not renewed. This second ore mining operation included a railway line, 1¼ miles in length, connecting the quarry to the

Blayney–Demondrille railway line The Blayney–Demondrille railway line is a railway line in New South Wales, Australia. The line is used mainly for grain haulage and is owned by the Transport Asset Holding Entity, a government department of Transport for NSW. However, in 200 ...

south of Carcoar. The iron ore quarry was located south of Coombing Creek and just west of modern-day Fell Timber Road. The formation of the former railway line remains discernible in aerial views.

Holistic management

The property is still a working farm. Once on the verge of ruin, with severe

land degradation Land degradation is a process where land becomes less healthy and productive due to a combination of Human impact on the environment, human activities or natural conditions. The causes for land degradation are numerous and complex. Human activitie ...

, the farm was turned around using

Allan Savory Clifford Allan Redin Savory (born 15 September 1935) is a Zimbabwean livestock farmer and former Rhodesian politician. He is the president and co-founder of the Savory Institute. He originated Holistic management (agriculture), holistic managem ...

's holistic management farming techniques, where the livestock are grouped together and herded to mimic the migrations in nature of herds of wild herbivores.

References

{{coord, 33, 38, S, 149, 07, E, display=title, scale:50000 Geography of New South Wales History of New South Wales Farms in Australia Mandurama, New South Wales